When our book Rituals for Transformation was first published, we had an online discussion group where users could chat about their experiences with the 108 lessons it contains. Some of the lessons were easier for people to “digest” than others, and one that proved a hurdle for many was number 43: Everything is perfect.

Here’s an excerpt from the accompanying text:

You emerged from perfection. The only difference between you and your Source is that your perception is limited. You’re accustomed to seeing life through a keyhole, and you tend to judge the whole based on your microscopic viewpoint. Your human mind may be incapable of grasping the Totality, but your consciousness is certainly capable of perceiving the Oneness That You Are – and its perfection.

When people stumble on this idea, they usually go one of two ways with it.

The first, and most common, is that the dualistic mind rejects it because it directly conflicts with how we operate. Being immersed in dualism, we’re constantly comparing and judging, seeing differences and separation everywhere – e.g., this candidate / feeling / place / food / religion / way of life is good and that one is bad. If some things are bad or wrong, how could everything be perfect?

Based on this way of thinking, everything can only be perfect when it’s all exactly the way our mind believes is right. Until there’s no dying (except people we don’t know or like), no explosive diarrhea, and no injustice, reality is imperfect, says the mind, and it’s naïve to think otherwise.

The other problematic response is “spiritual bypass” – that is, adopting a spiritual truth that one isn’t actually living and experiencing, as a means of avoiding the difficult feelings and hard work that are a necessary part of psycho-spiritual maturation. Someone using “everything is perfect” as a bypass mechanism might, for example, stay in an abusive relationship or ignore the impacts of their lifestyle on the environment, because, after all, everything is perfect.

So, what exactly was our intention with this lesson?

The idea here (and in all the lessons) is to provoke a shift in awareness.

When you are presented with the idea that everything is perfect and some part of you protests, where is that argument coming from? Is that the real you or is that a product of the system of mental analysis that you created?

Can you bring yourself into right here and right now? Take a long, deep breath, and on the exhale, let go of everything. Tune in to your senses. Feel the pull of gravity on your body. Feel your torso expand and contract with each breath. Feel the air on your skin. Become aware of the sounds and scents around you. Don’t latch onto any particular thought or sensation, and release the urge to define or judge what you perceive. Try instead to simply be, letting the internal and external equalize and merge.

As your mind becomes quiet and your awareness expands, notice that you don’t cease to exist in the absence of thoughts and personality. Can you dwell in this presence for now? Can you feel the incredible familiarity of this presence – it has always been here, all your life, unaffected by your circumstances.

Can you be open to the possibility that this consciousness itself, which is so vast when compared to your mind, is what you really are? Notice that, without your mind’s story about life, this presence is here, now, and at peace.

As you reside for a moment in this beingness, which contains and is beyond everything that fills your world, can you consider that, without the mind’s chatter, there is nothing wrong? Can you inhabit that freedom which looks upon the world with unconditional love and equanimity, and which recognizes that everything is perfect?

You see, we’re not asking the ego to agree that everything is perfect. It won’t. It can’t. We’re calling to your Highest Self, asking it to shine its light through the clouds of your usual mental program. Even a moment of recognition is enough to spark a lasting change.

What comes up for you when you encounter the idea that “everything is perfect”? What happens when you ask to see differently – to see through the eyes of Spirit?

Love,

Peter

P.S. If explorations like this feel good, check out Rituals for Transformation!