The Perfect Life
This piece is part of the Loose Blogger’s Consortium series that appears on Fridays. And, these are a blast. This topic really was a stumper, Ramana Rajgopaul!
You can find the other members’ names – and they will be tackling this same subject – on the left.
As I write this, there are approximately 6,980,353,928 answers to the question, “What is a perfect life?” Everyone is born with different circumstances, different abilities and different challenges. We try to approach the question through so many of our disciplines, to give guidance that all can follow even though each fulfills unique values in life. So, let’s look at three sources.
———————————————————————–
Matthew 5:48 – Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – From Christ’s Sermon on the Mount
The above picture is Bloch’s painting of The Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is the core teaching of Christ’s ministry. Even for those quite opposed to religion, it is worth reading, as it would seem to be the most succinct guideline to “perfection” from Christ’s pronouncements. It might also make you wonder how we derived the Christian religion as practiced after you have read it. It is in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5, 6 and 7.
It is the realization of how far short that we fall that most Christians take as our lot in life and that only through the salvation of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that we can gain entry to what would be called a perfect life. However, this seems to me to, in part, be an avoidance of a direct commandment from Christ to His followers.
———————————————————————–
Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu – chapter 16
The following is a translation by Jane English with Gia-Fu Feng.
Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.
I’ve always liked the Tao Te Ching.
———————————————————————–
The Perfect Height
The best, however, I save for last, insight that came from a very unexpected source. When my uncle, my father’s brother lost over Germany in World War II – my namesake – was in high school, he was asked by an older woman how tall he was. When he answered, “Six feet tall,” she had to correct him. “Oh no, dear.” she said, “Only our Lord Jesus was exactly six feet tall.”
From this, we can see that we have ONE truly objective measure of perfection in life – you must be precisely six feet in height. I assume this is true for women also. It is also clear that anyone currently taller than six feet, unless they were momentarily perfect, discretely jumped from five feet eleven+++ inches to six feet zero+++ inches skipping over the perfect height. Alternately, you must assume not only that they were temporarily perfect, they were actually Jesus momentarily, which seems unlikely. However, God does work in mysterious ways.
Somehow, I find this last definition of perfection to be the best I have ever heard.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
