Taking the Side of Perfection

“…And only now can I say, after the experience I had on the side of the river where I was alone in the dead of night with the primordial sound of nature all around, contemplating, when I had a complete turnabout and revelation concerning how I had been living my life- I now wanted some way of putting that feeling of absolute peace and serenity and harmonious solitude into my own day-to-day.  It seems to me entirely reasonable to suspect- maybe meaning something or maybe not- that the swell of being comes to a head from time to time, without knowing or reason or a flash to suspect, that no reflection or vivid memory can recount that divine sense of living, of being alive, when the universe dissolves in the palm your hand and becomes you- we put our heads down and carry along just waiting for the next crazy adventure to consume us.”

-Extracted from One Subtle Tempest

There is one facet of experience that can never be taught, never be given to an individual- and that is the feeling one becomes acquainted with when the I of the self fades away, when the vacuous space between one soul and another becomes a current that runs through the body, and when the mindset instantly shifts from the perception of division to a sense of perfect unity and harmony.  It is at this juncture when we must decide for ourselves whether or not to live from this space and seek it out as our life’s work, or to let it fade away, perhaps taking what we need in the process.  But graveyards are full of middling swordsmen, and this sort of light and love only fills those who choose carry it with every step along their path.

We all have a dharma.  A tree has a dharma; a fish has a dharma, a deer, even the fly that buzzes in your house and the small plankton swimming in the sea.  We can only know what our nature is, and carry it out in the best way we know how.  For a very long period of time I used to be angry about the battle I have had with Lyme disease, and other chronic health concerns and their lasting aftereffects.  I wasn’t angry about anything I did in particular.  In fact, many things were perhaps completely out of my control.  But I was just angry- angry at my situation, the past, what could have been different.  But, my point is that if this sort of aimless rage goes untreated, it turns itself onto every other situation in your life, resembling resentment and discontent.  But just like we cannot blame the people in our lives that put us down, I cannot blame the tick for carrying out it’s dharma- that is, to survive and attach to a host.  It was doing what it knew how, carrying out it’s dharma.  You see, we all live together in this harmonious dance.  We all live from the same source, the same one fountain of divine love and perfection.  We must see everything- the traffic on our way to work, the rain that doesn’t cease for a week, the leaves falling from a tree- as perfect.  When we remove our thoughts and beliefs about our life, and try to think what that would mean in a year, two, a hundred, or even five-hundred thousand years- the small trivial worries begin to fade and a shift happens.  We become a fly on the wall.  We learn to live and enjoy living in this dance.  Because wherever we are, whatever has happened, is surely perfect.

So if you question this post, ask yourself a something.  If you have the choice to see you life as perfect or flawed- and could not be sure about the truth of either state- why not choose the side of your favor and decide for yourself that it is certain and live from that place?