The Unitive Self: The Paradox of Perfection

The Paradox of Perfection

Daniel Clark

Printed in the United States of America, January 2023

ISBN: 9798371485502

CONTENTS

Prologue v

Notes to the Self 1

You are the Self 10

It’s All the Self 11

Spiritual Notes 15

Epilogue 20

About the Author 23

PROLOGUE

In December 2022 I published a small book titled “The Dream and the Dreamer” in the preface to which I described how in 2013:

"I was surprised to find myself awakening in the early hours of the morning in a state of Knowing. On such occasions, there are no boundaries to Being, and the resulting insights and words representing them are not simply intellectual ideas. Their Truth has been directly experienced, giving the sense of complete certainty Ralph Waldo Emerson describes in his famous essay, The Oversoul, as well as the imperative that they be written down. I have since shared sixty of them with others in a book titled “Notes to the Self”….(and) have continued to write down such insights to help me return to the Truth of our Wholeness and also to share with others…."

Many of the statements have been collected in “Experiences with Truth” (2022), a single volume containing four previous titles, “Notes to the Self” (2013), “You are the Self” (2014), “It’s all the Self” (2018), and “A Spiritual Journal” (2018).

“The Dream and the Dreamer” focused on a frequently recurring theme from the notes that seems particularly fundamental to me, and was addressed in bold portions of the spiritual notes created on sixteen separate days from 2018 to 2022, and in “Notes to the Self” and “It’s All the Self”.

The present publication deals with another fundamental theme addressed in the following bold portions of “Notes to the Self,” “It’s All the Self,” and “You are the Self,” as well as in some of the spiritual notes.

Daniel Clark, December 2022

THE PARADOX OF PERFECTION

“When we know how perfect everything is, we will tilt our heads back and laugh at the sky --Longchenpa, 1308-1364

From NOTES TO THE SELF, 2013

A Philosophy of the Self

I am what am, without exception. I am the Subject—eternal, perfect, formless, empty, infinite, whole, at rest, capable of containing all that is seen. I am also the objective world of time, space and form, without exception—changing, full of imperfection in its apparent parts, yet also whole. The Subject and its motion as the objective world are dual aspects of a single Being, which is the Self.

While at rest as the Subject, I move as the objective world according to my nature—which is the Tao—creating and dissolving form and the illusions of separate identities.

The movement of the Tao brings perception of form through the creation of distinct perspectives with a sense of separate identity that obscures the Self.

Movement also creates the illusion of intentional activity, while in reality all motion, including our thoughts, is the natural play of the Tao, the active side of the Self….

IMPERFECTION

Imperfection is essential to drama, to adventure, and to Self-knowledge.

It is the nature of the Perfect, the True, the One to set in motion a world of diversity, ignorance, and imperfection, to provide drama, delight, and Self-awareness. Without contrast, Self-awareness is impossible. Imperfection is essential to Self-knowledge. It is also essential to the perception of form, which provides our colorful, aesthetic, and eventful experience of the world. Unpredictability and uncertainty in the world are key to our interest in it. Pain of conflict and sense of separation from the whole of life motivate us to struggle toward the Perfect, which we continue to sense, and therefore to achieve Self-Awareness.

PERFECTION

Perfection is whole, eternal, flawless, still, present here and now.

The Perfect is unchanging and complete, pure and at rest. It is closer than hands, feet, or thought. It lacks only imperfection, which the world gives us. Perfection is always accessible. All it requires is attention to the formless Seer. It is always Here, our Being and Awareness, without which nothing else could appear and be known. Know Perfection, and know peace and Wholeness. Rest in Perfection when you tire of the flaws of the world. Knowing the Perfect will add to their joys. The world is the dream of the Perfect, an adventure into its opposite, and into Self-knowledge.

OWNING

Own the Present, all of it; it’s your Self.

Own all of the Present, not just part of it. Our mistake is to want to pick and choose. Know and accept all of it as the Self, your Self. Accept it, recognize it as a whole; it is perfect, you are perfect. Take it apart, judge it from the standpoint of any of its separate pieces, and the world is one of lack and want. Come to know both the inner and outer as your Self. Own all of it, welcome it. You are the maker and the supreme observer of it all. Honor and enjoy your creative domain.

The world is composed of the Am, and nothing else.

Am is the substance of the world, and of Awareness. Its movement, through vibration, creates and sustains all forms, patterns, and points of attention, including our thoughts, organisms, focused Awareness, and sense of Being. All thoughts are the dividing up of the Am, the temporal, temporary structuring of the one Substance, which remains whole. The world is the play of the Am. You are forever whole—eternal, unassailable, playful, perplexing, perfect. You are the Am, the No-Thing, and the every-thing, all that is, was, and will be. Know your Self in movement, and in the still Awareness of the Subject.

HOME

Home is always with you; you can’t leave it behind.

Home can seem far away from us in the turmoil of our lives, but it’s always Here, no matter what our surroundings or activities. You can’t leave home. You’re rooted to the spot. What you can do is to forget your roots and your connectedness to the perfect Source and Knower of all that’s taking place. The adventure of life will take us places full of drama, pleasure, and pain, sometimes thinking that we’re lost. We aren’t. Home is inside us and we are in it. Only our attention wanders, according to our Nature. When tired of travelling, come home.

BECOMING

Becoming is the game of playing at what you’re not.

Being is what you are; becoming is the adventure of trying to be and to perfect what you are not. Being is complete, perfect, lacking nothing, single. Becoming is the game of multiple players seeking to perfect themselves as separate beings in time and space, in order to realize the Good. As the players gradually come to understand, the problem is that the separate parts of life are inherently imperfect and unstable in themselves, and that all our striving falls continually short of the Good, which is already Here, and is to be found effortlessly in the universal Essence of each player.

PATTERNS

Life moves in patterns that are born, mature, and die.

The Source moves in patterns that develop in creative response to our felt needs. Patterns are born and develop to meet needs, and decline as needs and circumstances change. This flow of patterns within our eternal Awareness provides drama and interest, as ourchanging movements contrast with the Perfection and stillness of the eternal Subject in which they appear. The fascination of patterns is so strong that we tend to identify with them, eclipsing our own Self-Awareness as Host of all that is born and dies. Identifying with patterns rather than their Source subjects us to ups, downs and death. Choose Life.

NOW

To be Now is being completely present, open, aware, accepting.

Being completely in the Present, Now, is to be aware and open to your felt needs, accepting them and allowing the flow of the Tao to meet them. Living Now is to be free of preconceptions of what is valuable, to honor your focus of attention as the perfect Tao, to be the Tao or flow of the Eternal. We often experience needs as flaws in the Present, rather than as part of the perfect flow of the Whole. Accepting the flow as your essential Being, as fundamental as your eternal, still Awareness, is the key to Wholeness in the ever-present Now.

BODY

Honor your body’s needs as part of the perfect Flow.

The Perfection of the whole of Life includes your body and its needs. Let the Tao flow freely through your body. The healing power of your attention will help cleanse the blockages that are obstructing its flow, though blockages are also a natural part of the Way of Life, and are essential to its adventure and drama. All things have their time, including the needs of the body, which serves us as the focal lens of Awareness. The Tao takes its own course, and its Way through the body needs to be respected as essential to the Wholeness of Life.

TAO

My Being is What Am; my doing is the Tao.

My Being is whole, What Am, all that is, at peace, and perfect. My doing is the Tao, also whole and perfect. Honor the Motion of the Tao. Respect its rightness in every detail. It is not a mistake; in Truth there are no mistakes. Doing is only a mistake from the limited point of view of our individual values and experience as apparently separate beings in space and time. In Truth, rather than appearance, all doing is the motion of the single Flow of the Tao—and an inherent part of the Whole. Honor the Whole in all its doing.

COMPLETENESS

Our Essence is complete, lacking nothing, at peace and immortal.

To be complete is to lack nothing. Our Essence is unchanging, regardless of the time and viewer. It is whole, immortal, within. What is without is changing, incomplete, and appears different at every viewing and to every viewer. What is within, our Essence, is universal. Looking at only a portion of time and space, we see what is inherently incomplete, and are moved to seek its completion. Looking in at our Essence, the Subject, we find completeness, Wholeness, and rest. Experiencing completeness renews us for our adventure into the world of seeking. Know the completeness and Perfection of your Essence.

MIND

Mind is a Substance, the universal Substance of all Being.

Mind is the single Being, the stuff and Substance of all that is. Mind is the bottom line, the Fundament and Source, that which sustains all phenomena. Mind is infinite, creative, the one Self in all. Though eternal, Mind creates and assumes all the changing forms we experience. Mind is always present, is Presence itself, palpable, and perfect. Mind in Motion gives us the multiple points of attention we experience, from whose partial perspectives we see imperfection. Mind can be felt as the ever-present root and Essence of our Being. Know Mind as your eternal Presence, what you always are.

FLOW

Life is Flow; stopping it is the cause of pain.

Honor the lowF of what is; it is perfect, whole. Trying to stop the Flow will result in pain, which will contribute to your realization of this Truth. Contrast is inherent in the Flow, without which our Awareness would have no content. All things have their time. Let the Flow come, and let it go. Trying to maintain things beyond their time is attachment to form, and rejection of the Flow. Attachment to Flow instead of forms is non-attachment to things, but attachment to the No-Thing. Don’t become attached to Flow either. Let it go, and to bring what it will.

PAIN

Pain signals the blockage of Flow, and demands our attention.

Pain focuses attention where its Power is needed. Ignoring pain threatens the well-being of our system. Overlooking pain suggests dysfunctional attachment to concepts blocking the present Flow. Pain is a natural phenomenon worthy of respect, and deserves our attention. To fear pain and consider it alien to us tells our psyche we are objects that can be acted upon by other objects, causing more stress. If we go deeply into pain without fear, it will disappear. The stress of pain comes from holding it at a distance, rather than integrating it into our Perfection as a functional movement of the Tao.

PERSONAL NOTES

….The first unitive experience I had was in the fall of 1966 while sitting in a chair in the Berkeley apartment I shared with a roommate from law school. My eyes were closed, and the scene before me was a tree-lined river like the Mississippi, with a riverboat passing by. All of a sudden the river, the trees and the boat were one, completely single. The effect and the significance of this were immediate and could only be appreciated by experiencing it. Back in Walla Walla that Christmas, I had a second experience when a phrase from a Beatles song, “turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream” ran through my head. Doing this, I immediately experienced the complete Perfection of all things. The experience was both whole and profound, encompassing everything just as it was, including what is normally taken as great misfortune. A third experience occurred a couple of months later. Taking a short break while studying for a law exam, I experienced myself flowing into the Divine Ground. It was as if my life had been a huge iceberg, with only a small tip extending above the waves into consciousness. While normally conscious only of the tip, and experiencing that as my individual life and whole being, I now experienced the greater Self that was below the waves and joined to the Ground of all Being.

The sense of Wholeness and groundedness produced by this third experience was so profound that I considered abandoning law school immediately and doing whatever was required to cultivate that knowing. Instead, practicality got the best of me, and I decided to complete my semester exams and my law studies.

From YOU ARE THE SELF, 2014

TIME AND TRUTH

All things have their time. Now is a time for Truth rather than illusion. It is time for increasing knowledge of the Self rather than continuing to play the game of conflict. The drama of Motion and form needs to emerge from the desert of separation to flow into the universal sea. It’s time for us to awaken to the recognition and realization of the Self.

We normally know only part of what we are. We know only our becoming, we overlook our Being. Focusing on our becoming, we know only the imperfection of the temporal; we overlook the Perfection of the eternal Self, our ever-present Awareness, the Host and Knower of all form.

While noticing the content of your Awareness, notice also what contains that content. While knowing objects, also become aware of the Subject. In addition to being aware of your imperfection in comparison to what you strive to be, know the Perfection of what you already, always are.

From IT’S ALL THE SELF, 2018

“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal One. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Oversoul, 1841

WHO WE ARE

There are no boundaries or limits to your Being. Your Presence is the stuff of the universe. There is no Other. All that happens in the world is within you and is part of you. You are the single Self.

The Self has no form. It is Awareness and Motion—the essence of all things.

I am liberated—free from definition. I am the unmanifest and the manifest. I am the eternal Now from which flow Time and Space. I am Whole and in Motion.

I am pure Being without boundaries. I am what Am.

I am the miraculous One who creates the apparent many.

I am the Stillness, the Unmoved Mover.

Truth is not in the changing shape of what is seen, but in What Sees.

Our separateness, our isolation, is only an illusion. Allow yourself to be the perfect Whole.

Our true identity is formless and single. Our illusory identity has form and is one among many.

I am not an object; I have no dimensions. We are the eternal Value.

What part of you doesn’t change? It is your ever-present Awareness, your Self, the universal Self of all.

THE WAY OF THE WORLD

All of life consists of modifications to the Presence, the Eternal, the infinite, formless Being, the Perfect One, the Here and Now, the Unconditioned, the only Substance, the Undefined, the Source, Self, Subject, Mind, the I Am, Awareness, the Host, the Matrix, Reality, God, the Divine, the Ground, the Fundament, That Which Endures.

We create the world by dividing the Self into apparent parts, providing the drama of the many, the aesthetics of form, and the essential tension and conflicts of Life.

The world of imperfection in time and space plays out against a background of Perfection.

There is no failure or frustration of Will, only postponement of its actualization.

The world is built on Here. Here is the Foundation, the Ground. The world is only an extension of Here, the single Flow of a single Mind, Consciousness, Self.

The Way always leads through Here.

When you explore the world to its depths, you’ll end up where you started.

Rest in the single Subject; move in the one Tao.

AESTHETICS

I am what am, whole, perfect. In our Wholeness, we lack only relationship, which we achieve through Motion. The world is our art, our canvas, our drama, as a result of which we lose our Self in space and time. Life gives us the aesthetic—the appreciation of angle, form, perspective, the means to create Other. When lost in creation and mortality, we seek freedom from Other, from limitation and death, and find it in the reality of our Wholeness, in our eternal, formless Presence.

Awareness is fundamental to the Self, to what we are, as is energy, the capacity for Motion. We are continuous Being. Other is what comes and goes, the creation of our Motion, the movement of our Mind.

NOW

Now is without judgment, whole, undivided. The judging mind is divided and unstable, and will pass away. The Self-Aware Mind is stable, whole, and eternal.

Individuals are temporary waves on the Ocean of the Eternal. The Eternal is still and complete, whole and at rest, fully Here and Now.

Perfection is Here in the Stillness and Wholeness of the Now.

The Eternal resides Here, and has no width, no breadth, no dimensions. It is the always Present.

From SPIRITUAL NOTES, 2018-2022

January 3, 2021

Stillness is Perfection, while movement is the Divine adventure with the imperfect.

January 15, 2021

Our nature moves spontaneously, creating knots we have to unravel in order to return to the Truth of Wholeness.

Here, at the Source, is Wholeness and Perfection, the Knower and Mover. There, in Motion, is adventure and challenge. Which do we want? The Self is both.

January 21, 2021

This is the Play of the Perfect Mind. Remember who's playing.

January 27, 2021

We flow according to our Perfect Nature. Welcome the Flow as your Self.

When fully awake, we move and know without dissent.

January 29, 2022

God, the No-Thing, is your eternal Presence.

There are two sides to your Being, the eternal and the temporal, the Infinite and the finite, the Perfect and the imperfect, Stillness and Motion, the Unlimited and the limited, the One and the many. Our attention alternates between them.

The Divine can only experience space and time through individuation resulting from its Motion.

To be aware of anything, God always needs a perspective in time and space. You are that perspective.

February 8, 2021

I flow according to my Perfect Nature.

When fully awake, I move and know without dissent.

Welcome the Flow. It’s your Self.

February 21, 2021

Know all movement as your Self, and welcome it as your perfect Nature.

March 16, 2021

Nothing is unnecessary; it’s all vital to the drama of the Whole, to the Perfection of the Here and Now, the eternal “I”.

March 18, 2021

We are the perfect No-Thing, with its natural Motion.

March 21, 2021

To know the Perfection of Life, we have to add the perspective of the Whole to our experience of the limited.

March 25, 2021

You are always This, without exception. We are What Am.

Wisdom is the realization of the eternal Perfection of the Present.

March 26, 2021

Our temporal imperfection is part of our eternal Perfection.

May 1, 2021

The Tao is the Flow of Motion, our perfect Will. Respect your Divine Self as the Here and Now.

May 16, 2021

Every movement is a perfect gesture of the Whole.

There is nothing that is not your Divine Self.

May 24, 2021

Perfection is not in what is known, but in the Knower.

June 11, 2021

We are the perfect Emptiness, which is also the Fullness that contains all things and lacks nothing.

June 25, 2021

The Present is the Divine recreation of the Perfect Mind.

The Author of the Play is the eternal Way of our Nature. Honor the Divine Author.

July 17, 2021

Trust the Present. It's your Self, and its timing is always perfect.

EPIlogue

Perhaps the Paradox of perfection is best expressed in the note of July 1, 2022:

To know anything also requires knowing what it is not, for contrast. To know the Whole, that which is Everything, the Single Knower, requires experiencing that which is separate, that which You are not, the Great Paradox.

Or in this note:

December 7, 2021

I am This, the Creative, the Dynamic Here and Now, the Unlimited, the Paradox, the Perfect.

I have infinite depth and resources.

Imperfection is necessary for Perfection.

We are the Creative, constantly bringing up the new from the depths of our Being.

There is only one I, it's Here, and it's infinite. This is its Motion.

Or in our ever-flowing experience of Now, expressed in the following note:

August 9, 2021

The Divine Paradox is that the one, infinite, miraculous Being, Consciousness, Mind, can know itself only through the medium of an individual creature in time and space. We are that Being, forever destined to both universality and individuality.

We are indeed the Paradoxical Play of Perfection.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel Clark was born and raised in Walla Walla, Washington, where he retired from law practice in 2010. He has also written “A Privileged Life: Memoirs of an Activist” (2013); “Come Dancing: A Collection of Contras, Circles, Squares, & More,” (2014); “Historic Sites and Markers of Walla Walla County,” (2019), “Experiences with Truth,” (2019), containing “Notes to the Self,” (2014), “You are the Self,” (2014), “It’s All the Self” (2018), and “A Spiritual Journal,” (2018)); “Public Places & Private Interests: Protecting Historic Cemeteries & Other Projects,” (2020), “What Sayest Thou: A History of the Walla Walla Friends Meeting” (2021); “Hanford Nuclear Reservation: Civil Disobedience in the 1980s” (2021); “Peace Brigades International: Roots and Early Years” (2021), “Criminal Justice Reform: Walla Walla’s STAR Project & Other Stories (2021), “Diversity and Unity in the Walla Walla Valley” (2022), and “The Dream and the Dreamer” (2022).

In addition, he has co-authored “Words: Dan & Barbara’s Deathless Prose, and a Few Poems” (2014), co-edited “A Prospect Point Reunion Book” (2014), and edited “A Garrison School Reunion Book” (2015) and “Walla Walla 2020 & Beyond” (2020). He can be contacted by writing to PO Box 1222, Walla Walla, Washington, USA, 99362, or to clarkdn@charter.net. His websites are danielclark.zoomshare.com and unitiveself.blogspot.com.

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