My belief: Everything is perfect because it could not be other than it is.The intricate web of causes and conditions (everything done, said, thought, or felt by beings, along with what we perceive as nature) is always in balance.
If we isolate one thing—like the genocide going on in Gaza—calling that perfect seems ludicrous. But understanding all the individual bits of karma that led to it and keep it going is beyond human understanding. It’s the same for why your uncle got cancer or your cat died.
In the Acintita Sutta, the Buddha said that trying to work out those details would surely drive someone to madness.
We can rage against genocide, but rage only adds rage to the network of causes and conditions, when what’s needed for balance is compassion and loving kindness. Accepting that leads us to equanimity. That’s why the world is perfect.
Quotes like, “When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky” are often misattributed to Buddha but are not found in the traditional scriptures. Authentic teachings about everything being perfect as it is come through the Zen and Dzogchen traditions, which emphasize the inherent completeness and perfection of our true nature and reality itself, while acknowledging that our conventional experience includes suffering that calls for compassion and skillful action.
Here are some other ways the perfection of everything has been expressed:
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (Zen Master):
Each of you is perfect the way you are... and you can use a little improvement.
And:
The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
Longchenpa (Dzogchen Master):
…(U)nity is perfect, duality is perfect, plurality is perfect…
And:
The space of natural perfection cannot be consumed nor voided; the status of natural perfection is neither high nor low; the praxis of natural perfection is neither developed nor neglected.
The Third Zen Patriarch:
The Way is perfect like vast space
Where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Lao Tzu:
When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Alan Watts:
Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.
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