Perfection is a cracked pot

Image by Karen Arnold from Pixabay

On Perfection

Perfection is a reflection of our inner landscape. Our vision of beauty is created within by our moods and emotions. When our mood is bad, our vision is clouded with bad thoughts.  What we see outwardly is only ourselves.  To find perfection we re-acknowledge our Divinity.

Begin with the affirmation: "I am Divine"

In the Recognition and Unification steps in treatment, we recognize that there is only One and this One is also being me. To find out more about treatment, or affirmative prayer, see my earlier post, Oneness- God is, I am.

Shivohum

Recognize that all things are God with the mantra, Shivohum. This means “I am Shiva”. Shiva is the pure unbounded all-pervading consciousness (the transcendental self, the Absolute). I think of it as "This too is God."

The Cracked Pot

(This version borrowed from TCM World)

This simple story from ancient China helps us recognize the truth of Shivohum and accept our own perfection.

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots. Each pot hung on the ends of a pole, which she carried across her shoulders. Every day, she used this device to carry water to her home.

One of the pots was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. The other had a deep crack in it and leaked. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this situation occurred daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the woman one day by the stream, saying, “I am ashamed of myself because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The old woman smiled and replied, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side? I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walked back home you watered them and made them grow. For two years, I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table and give to my friends and neighbors. Without you being just the way you are, there would not have been this special beauty to grace our homes and lives.”

Sometimes, it’s the “cracks,” or what we perceive as imperfections, in this reality that create something unexpected and beautiful. These “cracks” allow something to change and ultimately make the whole much richer and more interesting. Every thing and every being has its own unique purpose and destiny to fulfill. This is one of the great beauties of the Tao.

What is your cracked pot?

This is your perceived flaw or difference from others. Pick a big one and reflect on what special beauty it has brought to your life.

I was born with a cleft lip, so my mouth was always different, imperfect, and my face scarred from the surgery I had at 3 months old. As a child I was teased for my ugliness. I used to sit and look at my lip in the mirror for hours, wishing my lips were fuller, that my mouth would close, that my tooth wouldn't always show. Now I am 46. My scar has faded and my thoughts never dwell on it. If I remember that I have it, usually only when talking to someone else who does, there is no longer emotion around it. My husband says its one of the features he loves about me. It has taught me that everything fades and that our inner beauty is what makes us beautiful. As we say in my native South, "beauty is as beauty does." This is what I teach my children.

Exquisite person searching for a pearl at the bottom of a tidepool

I thank Sifu Mark Angel for teaching me this story and exercise from Qigong.  It reminds us to drop into the present moment and release our fear and anxiety.

There was once a very old man, a father of many generations. He walked along the beach deep in worry, for he was poor and his family large.   At the end of his long life, he feared how would they eat, how would they live?  He felt sorrow for all the lost expectations he had for his life. When behold, before him in a tidepool he saw a large, perfect pearl.  In that instant, his mind released all of the worry and anguish and fear.  This pearl!  This would save his family and they could live like royalty!  He bent over and reached into the water, clawing at the pearl, hands coming together, "sh, sh, sh, sh, sh," was the sound of the water splashing.  Yet he grasped nothing and realizing then, that the pearl was a reflection of the full, luminous, incandescent moon, the old man reached up to the sky, knowing in that moment that it was the moon itself that had richly rewarded him by removing his worries and reminding him of the riches of the the present moment.  He gratefully pulled down the moon from the sky with an "Haaaa" sound, pulling it deep into his body with an "Hooooo" sound.  Acceptance and wisdom soothed his spirit.  He felt at peace.  

Follow along the movements that go with this story her in this YouTube video from Alchemical Courtyard:

Integration with spinning

Another idea for movement to integrate the teaching of perfection, and to realign with your inner Divinity is spinning.  This was an idea from the kids.  Spinning is re-centering.  It is joyful and fun. And of course among the Sufi Whirling Dervishes, it is a form of meditation. When done properly, a person can spin for quite a long time.

How to Spin like a Whirling Dervish

1. Stand straight, with your spine as the axis
2. Turn counterclockwise, towards the heart, with you left foot grounded and your right activating the turning action, pivoting on your left foot.
3. Put your right arm out straight in front of your face, palm facing in and gaze softly unfocused at your hand while turning.  Put your left hand on your heart, solar plexus or belly.
4.  When you stop spinning, take a few moments to readjust before moving again.

If you feel comfortable you may adjust you hands so that the right hand is held higher towards the heavens and the left hand held toward the Earth, to receive divine energy and transfer it through the body and into the Earth.  In revolution your worldly concerns empty,  and you become like the center of a wheel.

Om Namah Shivaya

Finish this lesson by laying on the ground in corpse pose. Close your eyes and speak the mantra "Om Namah Shivaya" which means "I bow to the Inner Self."

Perfection.

My Book Recommendation

Wabi Sabi 

by Mark Reibstein (Author), Ed Young (Illustrator)

Wabi Sabi, a little cat in Kyoto, Japan, had never thought much about her name until friends visiting from another land asked her owner what it meant.

At last, the master
Says, "That's hard to explain." And
That is all she says.

This unsatisfying answer sets Wabi Sabi on a journey to uncover the meaning of her name, and on the way discovers what wabi sabi is: a Japanese philosophy of seeing beauty in simplicity, the ordinary, and the imperfect.

Using spare text and haiku, Mark Reibstein weaves an extraordinary story about finding real beauty in unexpected places. Caldecott Medal-winning artist Ed Young complements the lyrical text with breathtaking collages. Together, they illustrate the unique world view that is wabi sabi.

A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book for 2008!

I simply love this book.

💓Karen