I got out of the car and starting filling the gas tank. I then looked out across the parking lot to the busy road and to the cars driving by. I heard the noise of engines, felt the bite of a chill breeze, and I couldn’t see any plant life.
Yet I saw beauty. I heard beauty. I felt beauty. The colors, shapes, textures. They all occurred to me as beautiful.
I experienced perfect peace and harmony. There was nothing misplaced, wrong, or off about the scene, about the world, about other people, or about myself. Everything was perfect. Even in the motion and the sounds around me, there was a stillness, a clarity, and a perfection.
That moment was perfect.
And then I saw it, moving in from the sides of my vision. I saw the filter of my judgment. The “this place is ugly” judgment, the “we’re wrecking the planet” judgment, and the “what an unhealthy place to live” judgment. And like raindrops falling upon the windshield, they blurred my vision of the scene a bit.
If not for my critical thinking, I would perhaps see it everything as perfect a bit more easily, a bit more clearly.
The unseen truth is that everything is already perfect. If not for my critical and judgmental thinking, it is indeed all perfect all the time. That moment was perfect, and this moment is perfect too.
“Whenever you are suffering, your suffering is contained in a single thought: ‘I don’t like this.’” - Rupert Spira
Everything about my past is perfect. Everything in my present is perfect. My future will be perfect. I am perfect.
This is true for you too, dear reader. You are perfect.
Yet perhaps you’ll shrug this off. Perhaps you’ll think it’s woo woo, naive, or incorrect. After all, nobody’s perfect, right?
And through the lens of critical thought, I’d agree! How could we progress if we think things are already perfect? Isn’t it condoning injustice, inequality, inequity, and iniquity if we buy into the notion that all is already perfect?
Except…it is perfect. I am perfect. You are perfect. We’ve simply bought into someone else’s notion that we’re not. We’ve bought into someone else’s thinking that experiencing perfection would make us lazy, that it would make us arrogant, that it would stop progress, that it would condone the unethical, that we’d never want to change if we thought we were perfect.
Here’s what experiencing myself and others as perfect does to me: it fills me with love, gratitude, and inspiration. It inspires me to care more. It inspires me to give more. And it untethers me from conventional thinking that only shows me conventional pathways.
I’m going to be unconventional. If unconditional love is what I’m committed to, then I’m going to start there. I will love this moment as it is, in all its colors, sounds, and expressions. And I will love me too, just as I am. I will love you too, just as you are.
Someone made up that nobody is perfect. I'm making up that everybody is perfect.
So what do I do about my critical thinking that sometimes clouds my vision? I love my critical thinking too. It's also perfect - I’m grateful for it! It has one job that it does relentlessly: keep me safe. It’s looking out for me and my well-being, assessing and evaluating, describing and labeling.
I thank it for sharing, and I refocus on my commitments.
Critical thinking is a helpful tool that every school aims to train its students in. Let’s not think that it’s the only thinking tool we’re capable of. What might society look like if students were trained to see beauty and perfection in what’s right in front of them? To find evidence for the perfection in others? To look forward, imagine worlds never before envisioned, and create beautiful, enjoyable, and satisfying paths to get there?
Relax your body and relax your mind. See the perfection in yourself, my friend. See your perfection, and then give that $#!t away.
Than you so much for reading. ❤️
P.S. If you'd like to see beyond your critical thinking to a whole new world of possibility and creativity, let's talk.
