Be perfect
Is there such a thing as the perfect Asana? Is there a perfect wave? And I.. can I ever be perfect?
After being obsessed for almost a lifetime with the idea of not being perfect in anything and therefore being wrong in everything, because it is too far from all the models that I had self-imposed, I began to understand that perfection is pure utopia, that it doesn't exist and it's a trap in which we fall unconsciously, allowing the system to manipulate us with its models and turning us into a bunch of soldiers obsessed and frustrated by this destructive and alienating tension.
Chasing a model of perfection leads us to define ourselves by negation ("I am not as good or as beautiful as her who's perfect") and distracts us from understanding who we really are. Likewise, I told myself that even in yoga, perfection is a false myth because there is no such a thing as the perfect asana, just like for surfers there is no perfect wave since there will always be a better one.
However, thanks to Aristotle, I got all mixed up, I went into confusion and now I am prepared to say that the perfect asana indeed exixts and that I and all of you can, and indeed indeed MUST BE PERFECT.
Already the Romans would have given me a clue if I had studied a little more in high school, because the past participle perfectus means "accomplished, completed".
Aristotle messed me up and solved everything at the same time because he offers 2 significant definitions of "perfect":
perfect is what is so good that it cannot be surpassed
perfect is whatever has achieved its purpose
So is it possible to choose? We can shake off a perfection that by definition is not attainable and instead recognize as perfect "what is accomplished, what is appropriate for its own purpose".
It therefore means that an Asana is perfect when it achieves its purpose, when it stimulates certain areas of the body as well as sensations, when it is carried out effortlessly in a moment of total presence and not when it is identical to that performed by a great Indian master in the photos of his book. The Asana is perfect when we use a functional approach, coming out of a purely aesthetic, conforming and reductive level.
It also means that the moment we learn to be ourselves, when we achieve our goal by accomplishing ourselves (we could say Dharma), then we become perfect human beings. A perfect human being is not one who achieves glory or who excels over others by becoming a model; a perfect human being is the one who discovers and understands her/his role in society by becoming the best version of her/himself. Finally, a perfect world is the one in which people acknowledge the importance of their uniqueness, their beauty in authenticity by carrying out the task that suits them best and thinking in a radical, free and courageous way.
So, venturing, I dare to change the phrase: from NO ONE IS PERFECT INTO EVERYONE IS PERFECT.
Elisa F.