You're Not Perfect

The Quintessential Judge

You’re not perfect — it whispers. Like a competent lawyer would state an undeniable fact before the judge in court.

The silent voice mocks me as I look at myself in the mirror.

As lie in bed at night looking through the window.

As I see people walking across the street. The Better People.

I encircle this path around the pedestal on which stands the Better Person, and I walk around it with an eroding sense of disgust. Disgust for myself. From time to time I glance at the magnanimous figure, intuitively pacing around it in a circle of dry sand. It’s steady, strong, and bold, it shines perfection. If my neck gets tired or I feel too overwhelmed, I look down at my shoes that I probe across the sand. But even then the sublime beauty of the statue pierces through the side of my head, even when I am not looking, it judges.

And a realization hits: I will never be like The Better Person.

The Metaphysics of Perfection

The only person that you should ultimately compare yourself with is yourself. I understand that line of reasoning. But a rational understanding of things has never been enough to execute a shift in consciousness. Without the intuitive trigger the feeling of inferiority and even shame still persists.

Based on the dualistic concept of reality, I get the feeling that both rationality and intuition should be equally important here. Let’s suppose we have an electrical circuit in place. Without electricity, it’s basically useless, and electricity on its own is just energy floating in space. With the electrical circuit, we can understand the principles and the logic of the arrangement. With electricity we can feel the power of the energy, even get killed by it. But on their own, both are basically useless and non-applicable. We get these two together, and they can provide us with a tool that is usable, something that could not be conceived without the cooperation of both parties.

Now, the question still remains, how does this relate to our being and how do we make this work in practice? And could that actually be what defines perfection, when the unity of two opposites is reached?

The Loop

When I seem to have a grasp on some understanding of what is perfect and what our relationship to it should be, I either sense that something still doesn’t fit or I realize that there’s a bunch of things that I don’t have answers to at all. It seems that as relevant as it is, it’s a very evasive topic for the mind. But I doubt that its relevance will fade with time since we are all imperfect beings who are constantly faced with the ruthless judge throughout our lives. It does make us strive for a better version of ourselves, to focus on our skills, and pursue a goal. But it can also make us depressed and anxious, following us like a shadow, haunting our thoughts with ridiculous comparisons, and always appearing before us when we look into the mirror.

However, there is a sense of comfort in the lack of understanding of this topic, because it’s tightly related with the Yin and the Yang, the ancient concept of Chinese philosophy. Obviously, it’s one of the most popular symbols in the world, but to explain it in a nutshell, it would go like this:

A concept suggesting that opposites can be complementary to each other, despite their contrary nature. And in consequence of their unity, they can emerge as a complete and one whole, encompassing both of the opposites.

And why it gives me comfort is that ancient things as such remain in the world throughout history for a reason, and perhaps that reason is the Truth.

Nevertheless, the symbol ties in perfectly with what I wish to comprehend and explain here, both to myself and to You. But each time it slips out of my hands back into the waters. Perhaps it’s not meant to be understood by the rational mind. It might just be enough to understand that we are limited in our rational mind to comprehend the mystery of life, that life is not only rational (not only Yang) and that creates space for us to perceive the Whole. Through our intuition, this time, actually coming closer to understanding the Black, the White, the Middle, and the Whole. And that might be the actual root of perfection.

Rising Above the Noise

If we would go back to our electric circuit example, we could apply it in this scenario as well. We have our rational understanding of perfection, and we have our perceptual or intuitive sense of perfection.

Now, I don’t think we understand how we could perceive the concept of perfection through our intuition since we try to understand that understanding with the rational mind.

To get a grasp on what is perfection, perhaps we need to make both elements of the circuit work: the components of the circuit and the electricity. As mentioned before, if we get these two working together, we can come to that middle ground, the third reality, the Whole, and actually experience perfection within that context.

And so to comprehend what is the Perfect, the Ideal, the Divine, we may need to reach for a perfect balance of our rational and intuitive nature.

And this can be applied to all areas of life… Relationships, health, work, routine, personal growth, you name it. There is one thing that is hardly negotiable though, and that is our genetics.

Rational Babble

Perhaps we are reaching for an understanding which is ultimately a rational conception and nothing more, and instead, we ought to change our approach to the whole topic of perfection and start from ground zero.

This litany, that I laid out just now comes close to what I despise and would really like to avoid doing myself: mental masturbation. Surfing around a topic that I don’t understand and bumping into a dead-end with my own words.

Although in this case, I do feel that I’m circumambulating around something that I have a slight grasp on, not only a rational one but an intuitive one as well. And when you feel that, it gets exciting.

Hello fellow beautiful mole, throbbed down the pipeline! My name is Elliott, and I’m just reporting the latest news from up above the underground. Here in the catacombs, we issue a good dose of intellectual masturbation.

The Electric Pipeline is providing a perspective on the psychological human state and its dynamics, where the world’s heading, and what can the (wo)man in the mirror do about it. Thanks for reading and see you around!