By David Boddy

How would you feel if I told you that everything is perfect? Would I be a liar? Would you call me misleading? Or would you take the time and the frame of mind to reflect on what’s just been said?
Lend me your time and I’ll tell you how the phrase ‘everything is perfect’ has brought great peace into my life and the lives of many others. 

It seems, at first, a puzzling philosophy: ‘Everything is perfect.’ — A bold statement indeed.
And how can things really be perfect when there is so much suffering that occurs? Suffering that is occurring right now...
We ourselves cannot always be happy. It’s a struggle to remain perfectly content most of the time, but perfection does not arise only once all of the creases are ironed out. 

Last time you touched something hot — something too hot to touch, how did you react? I’m sure the pain, shock or worry was enough for you to quickly snap your hand away. Here, we have an example of three ‘negative’ impulsions (pain, shock and worry) that were perfectly in place for you to keep the skin from burning off your hands. Granted, the experience was not pleasurable — but next time you’ll remember the oven gloves. 

I don’t wish to belittle the power of suffering. We’re all united by what makes us human — by what it means to be alive. I simply mean to highlight how ‘perfection’ does not need to align with your emotional state or well-being but can simply exist on a timeline, as cause and effect. 

Like with the example above, you felt pain so you moved your hand away. See how one thing leads to the next and understand that wherever we are going, it is what we see, hear, and feel now that will lead us into being there.

I’m laying this out as practically as possible… In truth, it is hard to apply this teaching. It is designed to catch one off guard; to spark resistance and bring about introspection. By the yogi who initiated the phrase, no words were used to further cast light on the teaching. His yogic life alone ignited his words with profanity.

It’s not to say “shut up and get on with your life because ‘everything is perfect” and there’s no need to give up on whatever you're working on because in actual fact — that’s all perfect too… No — I’m configuring the words of someone who, by many, was regarded as a saint. A yogi and mystic who just like any mystic, left people with something to think about. Who, as a great guru, has left ripples of peace, joy, and hope that still stretch across humanity today. 

Neem Karoli Baba, known as Maharaj-Ji, lived a very simple life. You can visit to this day the rock that he would sit upon for a great deal of his time. Draped in a blanket and with no shoes on his feet, people would travel from miles around to spend time in his presence, hoping to capture his insight and find peace in his way. But he was a man of very few words. He had no time for long explanations and detailed dialogue. Rather, his playful mannerisms and frightful contentment had people bewildered by him. 

One man in particular who found himself in awe of such a humble soul was Harvard University professor Richard Albert, now more commonly known as Ram Dass. With his scholared background, he was at first of course very sceptical of a so-called ‘yogi’. But he had not long known him before becoming devoted to his every word — thought there were only a few. So much so, Ram Dass wrote the book ‘Be Here Now’ with the permission of Maharaj-Ji, and there were more books to follow. ‘Be Here Now’ became one of the best selling ‘spiritual’ books of all time and is widely regarded by many as ‘must read’ for seekers alike. 

On the topic of ‘everything is perfect,’ Ram Dass put it himself that the point is “just to be with it all”. Positive, negative, pain or joy — when we look at our experience of life we can see that nothing is excluded and it seems we’re simply here to “be with it all”. Nothing is out of place and every change in events is just another fact of our reality. 

I suppose that all of this sounds very much like ‘everything happens for a reason,’ and it is. In many ways, it's just like that. Only, for everything to be ‘perfect,’ we are required to make peace with whatever that reason may be. This is why the teaching: ‘everything is perfect’ is as much of practice as it is a lesson. It challenges us to come to peace with our suffering. Understanding that we are growing, changing and ever new, but importantly, we must learn to be restful even when we don’t enjoy our current experiences. 

With peace of mind, our awareness can take us deeper into the experience of being. We act and react from within the most balanced point in perspective. Thus, our decision-making and action-taking process works in the favour of most peace.

Once, for me, ‘everything is perfect’ was used as a mantra. For those who don’t know, a mantra is a word or phrase that is used on repeat to aid in concentration — in general, or upon the particular phrase in use. Besides my own mindfulness and meditation practice, I would apply this philosophy to my life, prospects, relationships, and career. 

Life then became a question of what suits best. In each moment, pick your options and do what you think best “follow your heart” you may say. Give up the waiting game — for relationships to happen, for your promotion, and for you to look as you do in your dreams. Ask yourself this: “If everything really were ’perfect,’ what would I ask for?” 

I don’t suppose it’d be anything at all other than maybe “more perfection?” 

This is how powerful the concept is… Perfection implies an element of completion — of complete contentment. And it is just a mindset.

Sure you can probably think of something that would bring you pleasure and you may think this will take you closer to perfection, but what when this fades and leaves you wanting more? 

When the phrase became a philosophy and the philosophy became a practice, eventually the practice worked its way into my functioning mind and I no longer had to remind myself that ‘everything was perfect.’ 

If I felt happy my reaction would be “well of course,” and if I were sad it would be “this too is okay.” Slowly, my state of being and the way I would and could react to the stimulus was being leveled out. 

I was in the driver's seat, with my hands on the wheel, feet on the pedals, and with a clean windscreen. Everything was perfect not because of where I was driving, what car I was driving or who was in the passenger seat, but simply because I was there — in the seat, in control. To drive myself into beauty and out of pain. 

Back to a very real note and to bring this teaching form a personal to an earthly understanding: There is enough to go around. 

Just as we are each learning to better ourselves, we have amongst us the power, knowledge, technology and insight, to forge a world that works for us all. Of course though, we are held back. We are held back by the minds, desires, prejudices and ill manner of many — themselves fueled by greed. And just as we will continue to make mistakes until the desire to improve is storing enough, we, as a people, are learning, growing and changing with the times. Perhaps if we all understood that our journey to perfection begins right here and now, then we would act now as we would if everything were perfect.

David is a lifestyle writer for La Tonique.