KNOWLEDGE OF ONE INDIVISIBLE EXISTENCE

 
In order to have a comprehensive idea of what is implied in perfection, it is necessary to classify it into two categories. There is spiritual Perfection, which consists in the inner Realization of a transcendent state of consciousness beyond duality. There is also perfection as expressed and seen in the domain of duality.

All related existence, which is a part of the manifold world of manifestation, admits of degrees. And when one is concerned with perfection as seen in this manifested world, one finds that like other things subject to duality it also admits of degrees. Bad and good, weakness and strength, vice and virtue, are all opposites within duality. In fact, all these aspects are expressions of the one Reality in different degrees.

Thus, evil is not utterly evil but goodness in its lowest degree; weakness is not mere incapacity but strength in its lowest degree; and vice is not pure vice but virtue at its lowest. In other words, evil is the minimum of good; weakness is the minimum of strength; and vice is the minimum of virtue. All the aspects of duality have a minimum and a maximum and all intervening degrees; perfection is no exception to this.

The whole range of humanity is included within the two extremes of perfection and imperfection; and both perfection and imperfection are essentially matters of comparison, contrast, and relative existence. Perfection in the domain of duality is only relative perfection. It is only when one compares it with imperfection that it appears to one as perfection....

The different types of excellence that are characteristic of duality are all within the scope of the intellect. For such excellence can be easily envisaged by the extension (in imagination) of something good that is found in the limited experience of everyday life.

The Perfection that belongs to the spiritually realized souls is not in the domain of duality, and as such is entirely beyond the scope of the intellect. It has no parallel in the domain of duality. When a person becomes spiritually perfect, he knows that nothing exists but God, and that what seems to exist in the domain of duality and is capable of being grasped by the intellect is only illusion.

For the spiritually perfect, God is the only Reality. Science, art, music, weakness, strength, good, and evil are all nothing to him but dreams. His perfection consists in the knowledge of one indivisible Existence.