“Each of you is perfect the way you are … and you can use a little improvement.” ― Shunryu Suzuki
This seemingly self-contradictory Zen quote summarizes how we should live life. While it could be interpreted in many ways, here is my take on it.
Each of us is a product of our history — in what family we were born, our genetic code, our social environment (school, college, etc.), and our past actions. None of that can be changed.
And what can’t be changed (or improved), is perfect. Isn’t that the definition of perfect — something that can’t be improved?
But unlike our history, we can control our future. So there is no excuse to not change things we don’t like. You feel you are not good at public speaking, writing, or programming? Go learn it.
You don’t like your personality traits? You feel angry or envious too often? That also you can change. Meditation, in fact, is a great tool to rewire our habits and traits.
In short, we can become better in any number of ways. So we don’t have the excuse to say, “This is how I am and I need to change nothing.”
No wonder, Suzuki said that there is room for improvement 🙂
This was my interpretation. Do you have another way to think about this?
– Rajan