Perfection: a few musings
I'm reading Lila by Robert Pirsig (of Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance). I haven't yet fathomed the ideas on quality presented in the book, but the concept of dynamic & static got me thinking. At this stage, Im not sure whether Im talking of quality or perfection. But for my & your sake, lets consider the concept of perfection, where we strive to achieve the best possible in any given task / field/ etc.
The biggest defeating hindrance is the very idea of achieving perfection. Since the world around us is a dynamic entity, we cannot aim to achieve a static state. Hence, perfection should be a dynamic state. In other words, one should live perfectly in all walks of life / tasks / fields, etc. One should literally breathe perfection! That is the only way to achieve it...
Lets take a simple example. I bit my tongue the other day, and was badly in pain for 2 days. But after that the pain subsided. However, there was a nagging feeling sometimes, and I decided to go to the doctor. He told me that the wound had worsened, as I had not taken any medication. When I told him the reason for not coming - the pain receding, he told me that the body adapts to anything. If one part pains repeatedly, the nerve will send the same signals faithfully, but the brain will learn to suppress them from the conscious mind. Hence, one feels the nagging only when idle.
In the same manner, the world & we are continuously adapting to the ongoing events, leading to change in situation at any given moment of time. Hence, the definition of perfection is also changing with every moment. The change could be either in the course or higher or lower levels of achievement. But of all things: it can never be static!
So, when we decide to be perfect, we are actually assigning ourselves to a lifelong task. For this very reason if we try to extract happiness from one act, we lose it over some time as the world has changed and the situation has changed. Our past achievement does not hold any value in the new order of things!
So, if the reason for perfection is to be happy: our rishi-munis were right in professing detachment, the only way to stay away from the dynamics of the world, and set one's own order of things. If the reason is achievement, you are doomed to a life of struggle!!! Its not so bad! Some people enjoy struggle!!!!
Whenever I finish a post to my satisfaction, Muffazza's words come ringing at the back of my head: what is the essence of this post? Is there a conclusion?
So my two cents worth: perfection is about trying the best of one's ability at every step of life, either that or nothing!
I'm sure Jun's gonna butcher this one!!!!!!
