The first question:

Osho,
The other day you talked about belief-systems. One of my belief-systems was that I am imperfect – that I have to strive for perfection. Doing the SLS (successful living seminar) I got the feeling that I am perfect as I am right now – with all my anger, grief, love, hate, sadness, boredom, defenses, sex. I think you once said that we are gods but that we just don’t recognize it. Please explain the completeness of our beings.

This shows how deep a belief-system goes, how it becomes part of your unconscious. Now even the idea of perfection persists. First you were trying to become perfect, now you believe you are perfect – but you don’t drop the idea of perfection.

First you were trying to become more complete, you had the feeling of incompleteness; still you cling to the old distinction. Now this seems to be cheaper and easier to believe – that you are already complete, you need not go anywhere. But you have to be complete, you have to be perfect. What is wrong in being incomplete? And what is wrong in being imperfect?

Your SLS missed; you could not get anything out of it. You remain the same, you have not changed anything; your belief system remains intact. And sooner or later you will be again in difficulty. Because you will be angry, you will be bored, you will be sad – it is impossible to think that your anger is perfect, that your sadness is perfect, that your boredom is perfect, it is impossible. Sooner or later, again the old snake will start uncoiling itself; again you will start trying.

When you are sad, will you not try to be not sad? When you are miserable, will you not try to come out of it? Will you really accept it totally? When you are in a ditch of darkness, won’t you start striving again for light? Again it will come back; you have simply postponed it. You contain everything you contained before, you have simply changed the label on the container. But the content remains the same.

That’s not my message. My message is: To be incomplete is beautiful. In fact, to be incomplete is a basic requirement of being alive. The day you are perfect, you are dead. Perfection is death, imperfection is life. Imperfection should not be condemned, but taken as an openness. Imperfection means open – still growing, still moving, still living. Imperfection means you still have a future, imperfection means you still have hope, imperfection means tomorrow will be exciting. That’s what imperfection means.