Inner Work

For the week of: August 11, 2003

Perfection and Imperfection

When you look objectively at yourself, you inevitably see numerous shortcomings and imperfections, some minor, some significant. The same holds true as you look at others, friend or foe, family or stranger. Nor does any particular animal or plant reach absolute perfection. The uncertainties and hazards of life reveal the inherent, structural imperfections of the world.

Despite all this, hope remains in us that somehow, somewhere, an uncompromised perfection exists, something we can count on absolutely. But if I cannot look to myself for this, or to the best people I know, or to anything in this world, what then?

There is a source within and beyond our ordinary world, a place of no half-measures. On our side, something always lacks. On the other side, fullness prevails. We discover a degree of freedom when we stop demanding perfection on this side: striving for perfection, yes, but expecting or demanding it, no. Instead, we seek perfection in the only place it can truly exist, in the Divine realm. Here we strive for perfection, emulating the Divine, while there we find it.

For this week, look at your attitudes toward perfection and imperfection.

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