THE PERFECTION OF IMPERFECTIONS

YOU ARE.....A PERFECTION OF IMPERFECTIONS

Broadcast 13^th November, 2011

This is Just a Moment: I'm Barrie Barkla. This morning we're going to spend some time being with the possible Perfection of our Imperfections.......

[Help Me – Casey Donovan (A) – 4:10]

Casey Donovan – Is there any way to set my mind free? 

Well – yes, there are many, and here's one that works for me. It involves being willing to loosen up a bit on my preconceived ideas of what “perfection” ought to look, sound, feel and smell like. It involves my being willing to get off the idea of “perfection” as being the opposite of “imperfection”. In much the same way as I see the natural world working, I see Perfection rather as a context, a state of being that allows imperfections to co-exist in a way that works. Look at nature around you – it's full of imperfections. Yet some of them create the most beautiful experiences on earth! Scars on the landscape like the Grand Canyon, or Uluru. If God doesn't bother to clean up imperfections after him, what gives us licence to think we know better???

[La Raya]

When you're troubled or stuck........

For just a moment.........

Try another way of looking at it.........

[Fade....]

There's a widespread dis-ease abroad, arising from an infectious assumption that we should be better than we are. I'm not saying that's wrong, but something about it causes enough needless emotional, physical and mental discomfort, unrest and suffering for me to seriously question whether “I should be better than I am” is either useful, healthy or even right? Has it made for better people? I don't see much evidence of that. Does it bend a lot of people out of shape trying to live up to someone’s impossible ideal? I see plenty of evidence of that. The quickest way to condemn someone to hell is to convince them that there's something wrong or evil with them, something vital missing from their makeup.

“I should be better than I am”? How do you get to be so sure? Whose voice do you hear when you replay that in your mind. Mum’s? Dad’s? One of your teacher’s? Whoever it was, it was someone who was, and still is, very important to you, otherwise you would have paid it no mind. Whoever it was, though, by what authority had they the right to lay that burden on you?

Let me relieve a little of the pressure for you here. The main stress-point in that sentence lies in the word “should”. How would it be if, just for a moment, we take out the word “should”, and substitute the word “could”. Try it now. I could be better than I am. Say it out loud to yourself now. Say it again. Does that feel a little easier? Does it feel a little less bruising? Does it feel a little more possible? Does it give you some ownership of the desire to improve? I mean, somehow, somewhere, we can all find a way to do something a little better next time.

Can’t we?

Something's Missing In My Life – Marcia Hines (A)]

V/O: [12 secs]

We've all had “shoulding” and “oughting” done to us, and we all in turn do it to other people, either directly by accusation, or indirectly by implication.

Don’t we?

[@ -3:56 = Fade]

This artificially induced imperative to be better than I am arises from an assumption, a ground being, a consciousness of Lack in what I am now. Where did that come from? I look into the eyes of “helpless” babies and see no hard evidence of them feeling inadequate: hunger and colic pains aside, they mostly seem quite content to just be. 

Whence arose the thought Unless I shape up, I’m not gonna make it.? Well, here are a couple of questions to stand in for a while..... This idea that “I Lack” – You’re not good enough! -- where did I ever get that from? Directly and indirectly, who laid that one on me, and how? Who else fed it along the way? 

What if it isn't true? What if “I’m somehow deficient” never was true?

There are no single answers to those questions. Stand in them for at least 21 days, and take what you get.

Certainly we can all be better than we are. And that is a truth. In fact we came here to make things better for our selves and for each other – it’s called Evolution. Most of us WANT to be better than we are – but perhaps it's in the quality of the “wanting” that we get stuck. 

“Needing to be better” comes from an assumptive state of Dissatisfaction and Lack – I’m not sufficient and enough just as I am. We’re taught by instruction and example that by assuming there’s something missing, we’ll get what’s supposed to be missing. Well, that just has not worked for me. I might have garnered odd moments of slight improvement, but sooner or later I’ve relapsed to my former state. My memories of dieting come immediately to mind. And I think the old farmboy in me knows why – if I sow seeds of lack and dissatisfaction, I’m going – come harvest time – to reap … yep…. Lack and dissatisfaction. Trying to grow seeds of Improvement in a soil of unhappiness and impoverishment – is not going to work. It'd be like trying to blow dust and cobwebs away with a suction machine; you finish up with a faceful of crap.

I’m going out on a limb here to propose that we cannot transform what we are, until we first embrace the fullness of what we are right now – in gratitude. I got this far suckling on an impoverishing mental and emotional menu of “there’s something wrong with me”. Wow! Think of what might be possible if I change my diet!!

While we’re wallowing in a condition of denial, thanklessness and unappreciativeness, life isn’t going to reveal much joy. That doesn’t mean that joy does not exist; it means that we can’t see it for the pall we’ve pulled over our parade, and we’ll swear blind it’s not there. In our mind, those around us who appear joyful are either “lucky” or “faking it”.

Out of a context of acknowledgement and gratitude, things get better – naturally.

Do our shortcomings disappear? No, they don’t. Instead of denying or hiding them, though we set about embracing them, integrating them into the fabric of our life tapestry. In the process of doing that, shortcomings transform into qualities that serve us.

Do difficult things stop happening? No, they don’t. But instead of getting bitter and twisted about “misfortunes”; we can relish the chance to dig deeper and make more improvements.

[All the Things You Are – Martin Taylor & Steve Howe]

While ever we continue to put a separation of shortcomings between what we think we are and what we'd rather be, we're creating and widening a gap of empty “Am-Not”-ness which gets filled with all manner of unhealthy crap.

Consider this possibility – just as a possibility – You do not yet know just how great you are. If you did, you wouldn't be losing sleep over the Crap Gap --- that chasm between who you think you are (limited), and who someone once told you that you should be (impossible). How the hell is anyone supposed to find fulfillment and happiness twanging around between the Limited and the Impossible?

You are Light. You are Thought. You are Feeling. You are Worthy, for you are God, finding out what it's like to be You.

And so is everyone and everything else. The Creator, manifesting as………….

When you are thinking “There should be more to this; how do I get there?” you are perpetuating the habit-thought of Insufficiency and Lack. Now, most times you don't think “I’m insufficient”; the thought is thinking you, without consulting you. And you never even challenge it – Is this thought really true?.  You just go along for the ride, and it's a bumpy one, isn't it? Everywhere we go, we habitually go looking for “Missing”, and somehow we always find it. We go looking for Disappointment, and we're never disappointed. We always find what we're looking for. Somehow.

Who was it said “Seek and ye shall find”? What he didn’t tell us was that we tell ourselves we’re seeking, say, happiness, but there’s an overriding programme buried out of sight that has us on automatic pilot for something else. And that’s what we get. We have to learn how to disengage our automatic pilot.

In the meantime, in this here and now, Nothing is ever missing. Not ever. Thinking about “missing” or “lack” or “loss” can only happen when we slip out of here/now into the dead past or the imagined future. But since that’s where most people live most of their lives…………….

[More – Ferrante & Teicher – ]

And there is more – always.

Unless you decree to the contrary. Either way, you get to ne right.

We attain “more” of what we want through our perception and experience of Abundance Now. This principle holds for positive, negative and everything in between. From gratefulness for what-is, more healthy-growth nurishment flows naturally to us. From a shut-down position of inevitable loss, we get miserly scraps of leftovers or more of what we don’t want.

I can't rationally explain how that works; all I know is that it DOES work. Everything we need for the next moment, we already have – right now. Nothing to “get” that we don't already have; nothing and no-one to be “worked on”. Nothing to “work out”. We always have the resources to take the next step.

If there are skills you need, or anything external is missing, they’re available. Get off your pottie and do what’s called for to access it. The next step is there to be taken because it’s time for it. [If you’re absolutely certain that’s not true, one of two possibilities exist – you haven’t done your homework, or you’re mistaken about what your next-step is.]

If you’re unsure about what you should be doing next, look right in front of your nose. Any need you see, anything that can be done to improve something, large or small, you’re “it”. Get cracking.

In case of indecision about whether you have what it takes, consider this --- If there is anything that you are not, then you would not be who you are. And you are who you are, aren't you? You just haven't got to fully know yourself yet...... not by a long way. There is a lot more to you yet to be unearthed. Get to know yourself better and embrace everything you find with empathy and gratitude. Right now you are everything you need to be – just so for this moment. Don't worry about the next moment – live as fully as you can in this one now. The next moment will take care of itself, just like this moment did after whatever preceded it. Perfection is realised when you merge yourself willingly with the flow of life.

Paraphrasing something my mate, Colin Hayes often said, “Swim a river in the direction it’s going – it’s easier.”

Your old ideas of perfection were just that – fanciful ideas-about. And most of them weren't even your own ideas – you bought them off someone else. That's OK – they got you this far, but no further.

Know this –

Perfection does not have a mould.

You will never reach someone else's idea of Perfection; you're not supposed to.

For you ARE perfection.

Be grateful for the God-given freedom to be all that you ARE.

Perfection is a process, not a fixed state. Perfection is the moment-to-moment balancing of all that you are, and aligning with all things.

Once you have gathered enough grateful perfection

Perfection gathers you in, in gratitude.

[ I Love You Just the Way You Are – Billy Joel – 3:20]

[This has been Just a Moment; I'm Barrie Barkla. Thank you for listening....]