498. Perfection and Frugality

"Perfection is not when there is no more to add but when there is no more to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery.

Less is always better than more. On the spiritual path, we need to shed our attachments to material things and to the mental and emotional burdens we seem to constantly pick up.

"It is vain to do with more what can be done with less." -William of Ockham.

285. Mastery and the Rough Zone

Everyone applies their knowledge daily and so should you. We don't always have enough knowledge, practice or skill to be perfect. We will often encounter rough patches. Only by getting into these rough zones and getting out again do we learn and grow and thereby achieve mastery. Embrace, therefore, the rough patches. This is more than simply "taking the rough with the smooth". It is pro-actively and consciously taking on the challenges and learning, always learning from them.

In this regard, a good discipline is to commit to practicing at least one difficut thing each day.

When you find yourself in a rough situation you must do 3 things. First find out how you got there and learn how to never make that mistake again. Second, figure out how to get out of the situation and what you need to do. Then do it !

151. Voltaire on Perfectionism

If everything is not perfect, everything is tolerable. - Voltaire, The World As It Is.

What Voltaire is saying is that while we must endure some imperfections, we should tolerate them and strive for perfection. Let us not be upset because things are not quite as we would like them to be.

45. Seeing Beneath the Surface

Always look for the Peace, Love, Harmony and Perfection that is always present everywhere. Seek it out rather than the hostility ugliness and hatefulness that is often more apparent but is always transient. You do this by looking beneath the surface of things to see into the essence. See the unity of all beings rather than their differences.