Perfection and Imperfection
We live in a world that insists on perfection and harshly judges imperfection. Yet, as Rudolf Steiner explains in this lecture, imperfection is a seed for greater perfection.
“The greatest blessing for a subsequent period is the fruitful imperfection, the fruitful, justifiable imperfection of an earlier period. What has been perfected in an earlier epoch is there to be enjoyed. Imperfection, however, imperfection originating in great men whose influences have remained for posterity, helps to promote creative activity in the following period. Hence, there is obviously tremendous wisdom in the fact that imperfections remain in the neighborhood of the earth, inscribed in the records of the Akasha Chronicle between earth and moon. […] Only those imperfections that are inscribed because they were due to necessity and not to result of laziness can work in the way that has been described.” Rudolf Steiner, Life Between Death and Rebirth, Lecture 13 Man’s Journey through the Cosmic Spheres after Death, March 12, 1913
How does one honestly know the difference whether it was due to necessity or laziness?
This is something we each need to determine. Perhaps if we hold the idea within us as we go about our day it will become obvious.