also known as: perfectly imperfect
provisional
The map is not the territory.
No model is a perfect match for reality.
Things that are imperfectly perfect:
- science
- any (human) systems? (conventional)
- communities
- communications
- interpersonal relationships
You’re perfect just the way you are, and you could use a little improvement.
For a long time I wrestled with this quote, until I recognized one day that in my struggling with it, I was focusing on one side of the phrase so intently that it no longer included the other half. When I was able to hold both in mind simultaneously to a greater extent, then the experience was more relaxing, and surprisingly there was less of a dissonant experience. Somehow, beyond reason, these things can both be true. We see this in the way that our nature is expressed both as a fully awakened Buddha that we do not recognize, and as seed of potential. These are two views, but they are also united in a paradoxical way.
In deity yoga, we are practicing our perfection in the view, and in our conduct we are accumulating merit, purifying our karmic imprints and actualizing that perfection. This resonates with the Vajrayana instruction to keep our view vast as the sky, and our conduct as fine as barley flour. In the vast view, we are perfect as we are, and to improve, our ethics must be precise in our daily activities.