Welcome to That’s Philosophical, a newsletter that tries to be zen. Once a week, I send you inspirational ideas to take a break in a messy world.
You can read the web version here.
You’ve probably heard this word before. Zen is so popular, it’s now synonymous with mindfulness and calmness. But what this school of Buddhism is actually about?
Well, you already heard most of the teachings if you read That’s Philosophical for a while. But I wanted to talk about one unusual principle that is really relevant to me
Everything is perfect as it is
Why do we think that things are imperfect? Probably because we start to think of how they should’ve looked like.
We often create perceptions of how things should be and then feel upset because our expectations don’t meet reality.
That’s why Zen has the principle of seeing everything perfect as it is. Acceptance is a powerful tool that can remove so much suffering. We explored acceptance in this issue:
Another human nature working against us
Humans are constantly on the lookout for imperfections. We want to keep going and it’s against our nature to be stagnant. But this can get into our way.
Occasionally I find myself restless when I look at my to-do lists or goals. This is a place that just tells me that I am not enough. That I still need to read that book or start that hobby to be better. To-do lists kill me sometimes. I feel like I am a teacher who is constantly looking at the mistakes on students’ papers. Rarely perfect, something is always wrong.
What if instead, I took another approach. What if now is exactly what I need to be doing and it’s exactly where I am meant to be. Everything is perfect already and I should keep going. But not to continuously improve. To just live.
A constant growth mindset leaves me with a feeling of constant imperfection. Works great to make progress. But are you actually enjoying life being chased by a shadow that tells you to do better?
“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”
- Buddha
Perfection
We like to put off things. We even put off our happiness. You might not even be alive when “later” comes. You don’t have to be always growing.
That’s why I don’t like that one philosophy where a person is pushing a giant rock up the hill. If he stops, the rock will come down and the guy won’t be able to hold the weight.
There is so much pressure in life already, why make people guilty for not improving daily? I don’t think this is natural for us. We have to take breaks here and there.
I don’t think life is improved by something external. I think it is improved by just changing the perspective.
Does having better cognitive abilities, having more hobbies, knowing more languages make one’s life more worthy? Isn’t it decided by the person instead? Aren’t they the same even after learning 10 languages? They are still the same person, even though they improved at something.
What if we try to be more grateful and realize the perfection of our existence instead?
You don’t have to do more to make life better. Try to make life better by implementing the right mindset. And then move on to do stuff.
Final Thoughts
Life’s worthiness is not determined by external factors. At the end of the day, you will be asking this from yourself.
Changing the perspective is all that is needed to make life better. Realizing life’s perfection might help you live a more fulfilled life with less worry about becoming better.
Expectations are thieves of joy. Stop expecting and start accepting.
Reality - Expectations= Happiness
This article is partly a reminder for me. I hope you don’t think that I am a person who got everything together and just cruises through life smoothly. Most of this blog is my thoughts on how I should be thinking to improve my mental health and mindfulness. Writing this will hopefully help me with my bad problem of not feeling enough or not worthy of a break.
Chill.
“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.”
― Ray Bradbury
Thank you guys for being here! See you next week :)
Let me know if you enjoyed this week’s edition!
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Love it
Thank you for such an important reminder, read it right in time. Your way of thinking is beautiful, keep sharing