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Little by little everything is happening. Little by little you are advancing. Little by little you are growing. Little by little your passion is evolving. Little by little success is unfolding. Yes, little by little all that you desire is happening — being created. The wise men of China spoke about “changing as slowly and quietly as the seasons.” It’s Summer now, but Fall is also here. Next month it’ll be Fall, but there will also be Winter there. When it’s Winter come December, Spring will be there. And when it’s finally Spring again, there will be Fall. Each season, little by little, incorporates the next and the former. It’s all really one season, constantly flowing from one pattern to another. And so are you.
Yes, you too are “happening.” Take a look outside, perhaps at an apple tree, and there may not be any apples on the tree. But, the tree hasn’t stopped ‘apple-ing.’ The tree is mustering up its energy and laying down deeper roots — a critical effort that is needed to produce apples come Springtime. So though you don’t see any apples on the tree, the tree isn’t on vacation — it’s still apple-ing. The apples really are still there, because what the tree is — it’s mere existence — implies the apple! You see?
I used to have this really nice, perfect, shiny metal water bottle. I purchased it before I went to California a few years ago. It was absolutely perfect, not a scratch. But then over time, it began to wear, became less shiny, and one day I even closed the truck door on it by accident, leaving quite a large indent on the side of it.
I remember feeling a bit annoyed when I damaged the bottle like that. But as the weeks passed, I began to see this, now imperfect and distorted, bottle as a perfect thing. Each time I drank from it, I remembered all the fun adventures I had gone on with it in the forest. Drinking from it around a roaring bonfire. I would sometime smile at the sight of the big dent and laugh over how I smashed it with the door. All those little and big moments that wore out the bottle weren’t making it uglier and more imperfect as time went by — they were making it more and more complete. More perfect!
Perfection is imperfection. Imperfection is perfection. They are really one in the same. There can’t be one without the other. So to look at the dinged up bottle now and call it ugly is really a misunderstanding. Just as to look at a new bottle and call it perfect and beautiful, this is also a misunderstanding. Though, of course, we do call them these things — and that’s fine. But we should call them “perfect” or “imperfect” always with perfect awareness.
Isn’t knowledge great? It’s so fun to learn new things. Read books. Watch videos. Receive blog and newsletter updates. Study Masters and Gurus. And all that sort of stuff. But as much as it’s fun and exciting to learn new things, there’s also an equal danger accompanied by everything one learns. Danger of sticking to it.
Gaining knowledge is powerful only when it’s forgotten. Or better, when it’s let go of. When you learn something, don’t hold on to it. Don’t say “yes, now I have the answers” or “yes, now I’m smart.” When you do that, you place yourself as the slave to knowledge. You say that knowledge is this thing much greater than me. It’s something that’s making me powerful. So we get caught up in the twisted logic of: well, if knowledge is power and knowledge comes from books, then I’m just going to read as many books as I can and in time, I’ll be so smart and powerful.
In order to truly live life, you must connect to it. You must connect to life. Which is to say, you must connect to yourself. The divinity that lies in each of us. Your entire life is a succession of meditations. Some choose to meditate only on the financials of life; others on the inner aspects of life. Find the harmony of your meditations and take time out each day of your life to honor who you are. To do things that bring you real joy and fulfillment. Get away, even if it’s for only 20 minutes per day, from all those things that constantly bombard your attention, i.e., facebook, blogs, cellphone, etc… and just go within yourself. And this may be done with traditional sitting mediation or even with something like gardening — that’s up to you.
Mastery towards something is the polishing of who you are. I remember the scene of “The Last Samurai” as Tom Cruise speaks about the Japanese people waking up each day and devoting their lives to the perfection of each one’s art, skill, or trade. That scene always struck a cord with me.
There’s a subtle difference, quite imperceptible at times, between devoting yourself to something — which is to say, working towards mastery — and going through the motions of doing something over and over and over again without any marked improvement, sense of reward, and true fulfillment.
Perhaps it’s all too easy to fall into a certain way of living to the point of it becoming normal and best, fleetingly pleasurable at times. But as a constant succession of sparks lends but a bit of light, it’ll never become a burning, open flame. And a devotion and mastery towards something is that little bit of wind that ignites those sparks into an everlasting flame.
If your entire life was straightened out, then you’d lose the amazing little imperfections and idiosyncrasies and ups and downs that makeup the beautiful pattern of your life — of you! Go with the flow of life. Let it lead you. Don’t smash it into perfection and squeeze the life force out if it.
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