On Perfection
Perfection is a reflection of our inner landscape. Our vision of beauty is created within by our moods and emotions. When our mood is bad, our vision is clouded with bad thoughts. What we see outwardly is only ourselves. To find perfection we re-acknowledge our Divinity.
Affirmation: I am Divine
In the Recognition and Unification steps in treatment, we recognize that there is only One and this One is also being me. To find out more about treatment, or affirmative prayer, see my earlier post, Oneness- God is, I am.
Shivoham
Recognize that all things are God with the mantra, Shivoham. This means “I am Shiva”. Shiva is the pure unbounded all-pervading consciousness (the transcendental self, the Absolute). I think of it as “This too is God.“
I like this easy call and repeat mantra sung by Yogi Hari which pairs So Ham (I am that) with Shivo Ham.
The Cracked Pot
This simple story from ancient China helps us recognize the truth of Shivoham and accept our own perfection.
What is your cracked pot?
This is your perceived flaw or difference from others. Pick a big one and reflect on what special beauty it has brought to your life.
I was born with a cleft lip, so my mouth was always different, imperfect, and my face scarred from the surgery I had at 3 months old. As a child I was teased for my ugliness. I used to sit and look at my lip in the mirror for hours, wishing my lips were fuller, that my mouth would close, that my tooth wouldn’t always show. Now I am 46. My scar has faded and my thoughts never dwell on it. If I remember that I have it, usually only when talking to someone else who does, there is no longer emotion around it. My husband says its one of the features he loves about me. It has taught me that everything fades and that our inner beauty is what makes us beautiful. As we say in my native South, “beauty is as beauty does.” This is what I teach my children.
Exquisite person searching for a pearl at the bottom of a tidepool
I thank Sifu Mark Angel for teaching me this story and exercise from Qigong. It reminds us to drop into the present moment and release our fear and anxiety.
There was once a very old man, a father of many generations. He walked along the beach deep in worry, for he was poor and his family large. At the end of his long life, he feared how would they eat, how would they live? He felt sorrow for all the lost expectations he had for his life. When behold, before him in a tidepool he saw a large, perfect pearl. In that instant, his mind released all of the worry and anguish and fear. This pearl! This would save his family and they could live like royalty! He bent over and reached into the water, clawing at the pearl, hands coming together, “sh, sh, sh, sh, sh,” was the sound of the water splashing. Yet he grasped nothing and realizing then, that the pearl was a reflection of the full, luminous, incandescent moon, the old man reached up to the sky, knowing in that moment that it was the moon itself that had richly rewarded him by removing his worries and reminding him of the riches of the the present moment. He gratefully pulled down the moon from the sky with an “Haaaa” sound, pulling it deep into his body with an “Hooooo” sound. Acceptance and wisdom soothed his spirit. He felt at peace.
Follow along the movements that go with this story her in this YouTube video from Alchemical Courtyard:
If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
Lao Tzu
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present.
Integration with spinning
Another idea for movement to integrate the teaching of perfection, and to realign with your inner Divinity is spinning. This was an idea from the kids. Spinning is re-centering. It is joyful and fun. And of course among the Sufi Whirling Dervishes, it is a form of meditation. When done properly, a person can spin for quite a long time.
How to Spin like a Whirling Dervish
- Stand straight, with your spine as the axis
- Turn counterclockwise, towards the heart, with you left foot grounded and your right activating the turning action, pivoting on your left foot.
- Put your right arm out straight in front of your face, palm facing in and gaze softly unfocused at your hand while turning. Put your left hand on your heart, solar plexus or belly.
- When you stop spinning, take a few moments to readjust before moving again.
If you feel comfortable you may adjust you hands so that the right hand is held higher towards the heavens and the left hand held toward the Earth, to receive divine energy and transfer it through the body and into the Earth. In revolution your worldly concerns empty, and you become like the center of a wheel.
Om Namah Shivaya
Finish this lesson by laying on the ground in corpse pose. Close your eyes and speak the mantra “Om Namah Shivaya” which means “I bow to the Inner Self.”
Forget your perfect offering
This song and mantra, Forget your Perfect Offering, performed by Lisa Littlebird’s community chorus compliments this lesson “perfectly.”
Forget your perfect offering
Ring the bell that you can ring
There’s a crack in everything
That’s how
The light
Gets in
That’s how the light gets in
(REPEAT)
My Book Recommendation
Pair this lesson with the wonderful book Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein. A cat named Wabi Sabi goes on a search for the meaning of his name. I admit, I love this book way more than my kids do. I love how smartly it is written with haiku and the beauty of the images. It’s one of my favorite kids books for adults.
Thirty spokes on a cartwheel
Tao Te Ching, verse 11
Go towards the hub that is the center
– but look, there is nothing at the center
and that is precisely why it works!
If you mold a cup you have to make a hollow:
it is the emptiness within it that makes it useful.
In a house or room it is the empty spaces
– the doors, the windows — that make them usable.
They all use what they are made of
to do what they do,
but without their nothingness they would be nothing.
Image credits
Pitcher in alcove- Dimitris Vetsikas
Cracked pot ATDrawsInk
Dervishes Hans Braxmeier
