Perfectly Imperfect
Only four of us were at meditation yesterday, but there was power in the room.
We sat for an hour and got clear. The bell rang, we gave thanks to silence and
one another, shut off the lights, took down the ‘Please do not disturb sign’ and went on our separate ways home.
By then, it was growing dark, and high above the silhouettes of giant oaks sat Venus, brilliant and alone in the western sky.
Pausing in the shadows, holding my bike, I was stopped by the beauty of the evening. Watching and wondering with no agenda whatsoever, a spontaneous thought/feeling came up, and I whispered to Venus, ‘You are perfect.’
Immediately, like a ricochet, came the words:
‘I am perfect.
You are perfect.
Everything, no matter what, is perfect.’
The funny thing is, at the time, it was ‘Oh, of course,’ and I got on my bike and rode home. But, in the middle of the night, I lay awake in the dark with those words going round and round, like a mantra. Mostly, what got me was the word, ‘Perfect.’ Everything is perfect? Hold on a minute…big questions about that concept. On the other hand, something in me knew, beyond words, that this is an absolute truth. That nameless something kept tugging at me for clarity.
The quandary was still on my mind when, the next morning, while making coffee, I dropped my favorite cup, which shattered on the kitchen floor. Gazing down at the pattern of broken pieces, the concept of perfection was recognized, not by a ‘me’, but by awareness, for what it was; a concept. The broken cup on the floor and the feelings that arose at its loss were all seen as made of air, and I realized I had my answer.
Yes, you are perfect. Everything is perfect. Even the imperfect is perfect when seen through the eyes of our natural state, in the abeyance of the habit of self-concern.
In the words of Zen Master Bankei Yotaku (Japan 1622-1693):
‘An enlightened awareness is within each one of us right at this moment. This enlightened awareness is truly unborn and marvelously illuminating, and it perfectly manages everything.
Conclusively realize that what is unborn and illuminating is truly awakened and, without effort, rest naturally as the Unborn Mind.
Resting in this way, you are a living Buddha.
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Pain is pain. That is reality. Suffering, however, requires the concept of ‘me and my pain.’ Underneath and beyond it all is awareness of pure being, or if you like, perfection. The Buddha said, ‘The sole purpose of awakening is the relief of human suffering.’
It’s not that the scenes of the families walking in Gaza, or Ukraine, or Sudan or you name it over the course of human history, are not gut-wrenching, but ultimately, the most compassionate act we accomplish is to come to the end of the illusion of a single, separate self and realize, beyond all doubt, that the world is in us, not us in the world.
Mike. Then suffering is a concept? My take on the faces of the families walking into Gaza is my concept? Jan