The Wisdom Of Imperfection

Perfection is a core cause of great unhappiness in our age. The pursuit of perfection is responsible in many ways for burnout, chronic dissatisfaction, anxiety, and in some cases, addiction to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain of the struggle to make life perfect. And when we live our lives feeling we are never enough, we set unrealistic standards that cause us to struggle toward something that always seems just out of reach.

In our modern-day society, we are often notified by television, movies, family, friends, and the media that we don’t have the perfect skin, the perfect hair, the perfect body, the perfect teeth, the perfect job, the perfect friends, the perfect presentation to the world that will make us finally seen with appreciation and approval from the outside world we so deeply crave. So, in general, if one is lured by the need to be admired and approved by our egos and others, the chase is on for perfection—which is seen to be the perfect happiness. Millions of dollars are spent creating a perfect face, a perfect body, perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect house, perfect friends, perfect personality, and so on.

This world we live in is imperfect and impermanent, and when we embrace the beauty and precious expression we each give to this world, our place in it as we are becomes perfection in its imperfection. This is when we can truly begin to enjoy life, relax into it all and appreciate who and what we are, just as we are.

It is easier to carry an empty cup
Than one that is filled to the brim.
The sharper the knife
The easier it is to dull.
The more wealth you possess
The harder it is to protect.
—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

The perfectly clean and neat house can become dusty and cluttered. The dream car we always wanted can be dented by other drivers. Our perfect relationships can meet troubled times. If we are tiptoeing around life to preserve any perceived perfection, we will exhaust ourselves. Nothing is permanent and yet it all unfolds in perfection. Imperfection is our true nature because life is always changing and moving, shifting from one experience to another. Perfection would mean “this is it”—no more change, no evolving expression, no movement toward the new and different. Better not to reach an end of a road called perfection. Instead be open to expansion and growth in all things. There is wisdom in opening the doors to exploring all of life as it comes to us and embracing the beauty of each moment just as it is. Perfection is fake compared to the pure reality of an open and loving heart for all beings and all things as they are, including ourselves. Escape from the never-ending chase for an ideal life. Appreciate existence as it is.

“There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in”
—Leonard Cohen