Episode 43 The Perfection of This Moment: A Meditative Journey into Wholeness

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

This Is the Very Moment We’ve Been Seeking

The discovery of spiritual enlightenment, however it comes to us, ultimately reveals that this moment we’re in right now, with all of its apparent imperfections, is the moment we’ve been looking for. It is already whole, full, and sacred—shot through with love—and perfect from end to end. That’s what any spiritual awakening ultimately reveals.

So because this is a direct awakening practice, what if we just went ahead and in meditation took the position that the moment that’s occurring is a perfect one? Then we see what happens.

These are all experiments. We’re seeing what happens to our psyche, to our mind, to our experience when we stop insisting that the moment is imperfect and missing something.

It’s still a very simple idea, and a simple gesture, I’m inviting you into. It’s not complicated. But people do always get a little freaked out at the idea of perfection, and here’s why.

A Common Misunderstanding of Perfection

David wrote in saying he doesn't like the idea of perfection and presented a question and a case about it—I think where the confusion lies is that our minds almost immediately go to the manifest world we live in. The human world, with all of its horrendous imperfections.

We just look around and say, “Oh my God, look what’s happening on our planet today.” We could list hundreds of atrocious things going on on any given day—thousands, millions. There are a lot of us here. And we say, “Craig, are you saying that’s perfect? That’s good? And we should be happy about that? You said unconditional happiness—so we’re supposed to be happy that all these atrocious things are happening in the world?”

That’s a little bit of what I get. And David, I’m kind of caricaturing the general stance that I know all our minds tend to take when we think about something like perfection. So I’m not teasing you; I’ve just been up against this for decades. I’m trying to respond to it globally. The thing is, I’m not really saying that, and that’s not the practice.

Understanding Perfection in the Context of Meditation

I want to clarify that what we’re doing here is meditation. This is meditation practice. And the invitation in meditation is to take the position that this moment of practice is not missing anything—it’s a very precise, practice-oriented approach. It’s very deep. It’s very radical. It has layers and layers and layers.

If you keep chipping away, you’ll find a deeper layer—some part of you that still wasn’t satisfied with what was happening, that’s still rejecting some aspect of your experience. And then you’ll let that go—you’ll embrace that. And then later, you might discover yet another one. Or maybe even a year from now, you’ll suddenly realize, “Oh, the whole time, I’ve still been believing that if I feel some anxiety, that means something’s wrong. I have to embrace that too.”

Letting Go of Preferences in Meditation

Part of what makes it challenging to embrace this moment as it is—to perceive this moment as already whole and complete—is that we have ideas about how it should be.

We come to meditation with opinions about what it’s supposed to feel like. We have preferences for certain experiences over others. And then we let those preferences and preconceptions rule the meditation. We sit in judgment of our experience, trying to steer and control it to be more like what we want.

I invite us all to simply have no preference for one experience over another. Let go of any preconception or opinion about what should be happening in your meditation.

Embracing Everything that Arises Without Judgment

Having no preference means it doesn’t matter what your experience is from one moment to the next. You’re not attached to any particular state or outcome. So you can simply allow your experience to flow through you, naturally, in whatever way it does—without judging it, without trying to change it. This process unfolds in layers. But the focus is on our practice. And it’s on the content of your practice—meaning, it’s on the thoughts in your mind, the emotions that are arising, the physical sensations that are occurring. That’s what we’re really focused on.

And here’s the thing: when we radically awaken, it does change our perspective on the whole world in some pretty radical ways. But I’m not trying to give you a belief system to try to live into.

Awakening Is Not a Belief System

So again, all I really want to do and say at this moment is: if you ever find yourself trying to conceptually argue with the idea behind the practice—like, “What do you mean it’s perfect?” or “You’re saying we should let go of control, but what happens then? My whole life is going to fall apart”—if you find that happening, I just want to say: apply this to meditation.

This is not a thesis. It’s not a belief system you need to try to live in accordance with.

I’m pointing to something. And sometimes I do say, “Hey, when we awaken, we discover this,” or “When we awaken, we discover that.” But I’m not telling you that so you’ll believe it. I’m saying: try these experiments in your own experience. You might notice these things happening. And if you do, that’s a sign that awakening is occurring—because you’re beginning to come to these radical insights about reality.

Guided Meditation: Embracing This Moment

But we need to be right where we are in our practice. This is what’s happening right now. I’m inviting you to take a certain stance in relation to what’s happening—and to make room for this radical perfection to reveal itself, right here in this moment. And it’s so liberating.

I invite you to let all of that resonate in your own heart, in your own practice now, as we allow ourselves to settle into our meditation posture—formally taking a moment to leave behind the cares and concerns of our lives.

This Moment Is Whole and Complete

I want to invite you to become aware of this moment as it's arising for you—this moment of being alive, this moment of experience. Become aware of how it feels to be in your body right now. Become aware of the quality of your awareness or consciousness right now. Does it feel thick and slow and foggy? Or does it feel bright, clear, awake, somewhere in between—or something else entirely? Just notice the quality of your own presence, your own consciousness, and your own felt experience of being here.

And whatever your experience is right now, I want to invite you to embrace it completely. Embrace the entirety of this moment just as it is, with no need for it to be any different than this.

Allow yourself to take the position inwardly that this moment, in just the way it's occurring right now—this moment of meditation—is a perfect moment. Which means it’s missing nothing. It’s lacking nothing. Nothing needs to be added to it to make it better. Nothing needs to be removed from it. This moment, right now, is whole and complete. And there is nothing wrong with this moment of meditation.

Now, our experience never stays the same from one minute to the next. Our feelings keep changing, sensations keep changing, thoughts come and go. Even the inner states of meditation are ever-shifting. So as your experience changes from one moment to the next, the practice is to continue embracing each new moment of experience wholeheartedly.

We often approach meditation with an idea of how it should feel when we’re in it. We're looking for an ideal feeling state—either something we've imagined, or something we've experienced previously in meditation that we liked and felt like we were on the right track with. So we go looking for a certain experience. And in that, we set ourselves up to relate to each moment as not whole and complete—not perfect—because it doesn’t fit our template for what meditation should be.

So to do this practice, we have to let go of any idea—any preconceived idea—of what it’s supposed to be like, what it’s supposed to feel like. And instead, embrace what it is right now, even if it doesn’t match our idealized state at all.

Celebrating the Perfection of the Moment

I’ve been inviting you to embrace the perfection of this moment—to take the position that this moment of meditation is perfect, whole, and complete just as it is. You don’t need to feel any differently. Your mind doesn’t need to be any different. It’s all just fine.

I want to invite you to see if you can take it one step further, and move into a stance of celebrating the perfection of this moment. And by celebrating it, I mean: allow yourself to notice the relief that comes when we realize that this moment—just as it is—is enough. That nothing about our experience right now needs to change. That who we are, just as we are, is enough for this moment.

If it’s true that this moment is a perfect moment of meditation—missing nothing—isn’t that cause for celebration? For happiness? We’ve finally arrived at the place we’ve been trying to get to.

What form the celebration takes isn’t important. We don’t need to throw a big party. I’m just inviting you to feel the release, the relief, and the delight—and really step into that, if that’s available to you.

You can let go of that now, and just relax back into simply embracing this moment as it is.

Allow yourself now to gently let go of the meditation.