Zen: A koan on perfection

@innertalks

I more just try to write something with a message, and sometimes it might not be presented perfectly, as others see perfection to be, but it is presented in my own unique way too. I do check things like grammar, but if the correct grammar doesn't suit my writing, I will stick to my ungrammatical line too, at times. The meaning is usually still clear.

Yes, I would generally agree with that. Our heart must be put first in our lives, and our mind more just used as a tool to use along the way. Its questions can be useful at times, as long as we do not get stuck in, or held up too much by those questions. Being attached to receiving instant answers to all of our mind's questions in our minds though, is not a recipe for living peacefully, at most times, though. The answers exist in our heart, and in our connection to God, and that inner knowing, brings us a feeling of contented peacefulness, felt as our being deeply loved by God, too.

@DocAndersen Yes, an interesting word, "must" The Christian Bible uses the word "must" a few times too: Acts, chapter 4, verse 12. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The word, "must" seems to imply that there is no real freedom of choice about that, as in, "we must do that, as nothing else will work."

@innertalks must be the operative phrase - can, should, does get put first are the limiters!

Yes, that song, has some thoughtful words in it about perfection. The idea of perfection keeps us hanging on, and yet on a perfect day, we think we are someone else. We need to accept our own perfection sometimes, within it all. There are levels of perfection, leading to greater perfections, too, though. At any one point, if we try to see God's hand of perfection in it, our mindset might change, and we might see more perfectly, how things all seamlessly fit into God's perfect plan, in some way for us all then too.

@innertalks When all is lost, that is how I think..I look to God and I realize it is His perfection indeed.

@RebeccasFarm Yes, when things seem at their worst, somehow, God has worked even this into his plans too, I would have to say too.

And yet, if we go back to a poem, written years ago, and if we try to perfect it now, it sometimes comes out even worse. Perhaps, it was perfect at its own time and place too, in its own way. Perfection can be relative, in that sense, depending on our own position on the continuing perfection scale, or ladder. Perfection is a process, where each step can be a perfect step too, but still lead us on to a greater overall perfection, as well, I think. What was perfect at a time before, remains perfect even now, in its own way, as it can't sometimes be more perfected to fit into now, in a more perfect way than it was then....before...if you can get your head around that type of logic of mine...lol...

@innertalks Yet, it is difficult to call anything we create "perfect," at least for me.

@JamesHxstatic Yes, perfection is a hard word to match our efforts up to, but if I am reasonably happy with my efforts, and if it sort of gives me a warm feeling about it, that's good enough for me. My grandpa used to quote this poem to us kids too: Slowly moves the march of ages. Slowly grows the forest king. Slowly to perfection cometh, every great and glorious thing. Then when he used to build a fence, he always wanted the post to be perfectly vertical, and he measured it with a spirit level. When my Dad put a post in slightly off vertical, my grandpa said to him. "Near enough is not good enough, it must be perfectly straight." So, my Dad would spend another ten minutes getting the post perfectly vertical. He would say then to his dad, "How's that?" Now that it was perfectly straight, his father would then reply, "Well, that's now near enough." Only perfect was near enough for him! He was a perfectionist in all that he did, and so my Dad had a hard time growing up with a father who always wanted such perfection.

Yes, a lot of varied religions, including the American Indians ideas, tell us that we have two parts of ourselves, a good and a bad part, a divine part, and an animalistic part, a soul, and a mind, a spiritual part, and a human part. There is always a conflict going on between these two parts. The inner guide connected to our creator, always perfectly guides us, whereas the other part, our mind usually leads us astray, further away from love, and the truth, as it wants its own ways instead. The Jews say that this infighting can actually serve us. They say that when two opposing forces/fighters meet in battle, the actual fighting gives each fighter a certain amount of extra courage and strength, which they might not have been able to release, and toi utilise otherwise. The Jewish religion even goes as far as saying that we have two souls, our divine soul, and an animating/materialistic/human soul too. I do not really agree with the idea of us having two souls. I would more say that we have only one higher self, or soul, and that the other soul that they talk about as our human "soul", is more just our nature, mind, brain, feelings, thoughts, and all that is not our soul, but covers us with its coverings. Our soul is the deepest point of us; the rest all mere coverings. Our soul is one, not two. In reality, we are our soul, and the rest is attachments. We are a living spiritual being with a human covering attached to us, with its, body, mind, and emotions too. This is why we should always consult the driver of our car first, our soul, rather than let the engine take us just anywhere by itself, when we might have a crash landing, or two, then too.

@Shiva49 The new leader is "promising" the moon now too, wanting to "claim" it for America, and to colonise it, as soon as they can do so. Yes, the fight between good and evil, God allows to continue, for his own reasons. I feel that the Devil is being used as a sort of behind the scenes teacher, testing the mettle of us, to see if he can bend us to his ways, or not. The Devil would not be allowed to keep existing if he wasn't being useful to God, in some way.

@innertalks It could well be we are torn between God and the Devil, so to speak. We know what to do but we dally with the latter as we get bowled over by his enticements. It looks a faster return than going through the rigmarole of obeying religious fiats that are less titillating! The present state of the world is a telltale of our decadent ways. We pay lip service to upright ways and look for every opportunity to steal a march over others by fair means or foul. Some are so addicted to their obnoxious ways that they cast a pall of gloom over entire humanity. One leader is enough to lead us astray even in modern times with people falling under his macho image promising the moon. It looks to me we need a shot in the arm in terms of punching higher as united we stand, divided we fall is never far off the mark and stares at us at every turn when we stray from the right path. .