The Idea of Perfect Order

Here is a solution to the confusion of a perfect order:

Perfect Order means there is an underlying Order-Structure-Geometry which holds possibilities for creative exploration and evolution. This is an underlying Structure that perfectly sustains possibilities and allows for freedom, trials and mistakes, while also guiding and being a field for learning. This should be given some pondering.

First, one should note that Perfect Order does not mean that everything in life is absolutely perfect. The phenomenal details of life, the exact details of life events, are not necessarily perfect. In fact, most things and events are far from perfect. Events and living things may be in a process towards perfection, but they are not always perfect (in any meaningful use of that term). For the idea of perfection to be meaningful, there should not be easy examples of alternative events that are better, so if one can easily imagine a possible alternative event that is clearly better than the one called perfect, then the attribution of perfection would have to be false.

The True Perfect Order allows for imperfections, mistakes, trials and learning curves. It allows for creative exploration, and this may involve wrong turns. The wrong turns could be considered as part of a learning process (perfect in its functional essence), but they would still have to be considered as wrong turns, not perfect paths. The True Underlying Order provides a perfect Field for learning.

The True Perfect Order, though allowing mistakes and imperfections, also actively guides living beings. It is Perfect Intelligence that Guides. But guidance should not imply compulsion or absolute determination; it is not the same meaning. Intelligence guides but does not force. The Divine Intelligence reveals a lesson in any situation and presents an opportunity for improvement; yet this Divine Intelligence does not compel humans to see the lesson or listen to the opportunity. Instead of dictatorial enforcement, the Divine Intelligence acts like a field surrounding each moment, which offers guidance but does not compel its receptivity and acceptance.

Divine Causation means the Divine is active and evocative. Yet actual manifestation of the Divine depends on the medium or instrument. Each medium or instrument may be anywhere from highly efficient to highly inefficient. Just as some things work better than others; so too, some people work for the Divine better than others. This is one more reason why truth should avoid claiming that all is perfect or all is God’s Will, because such statements imply that there is no distinctions between better or worse in anything.

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One wants to know that there is some purpose in everything, some reason. But the solution to this is to realize a general purpose or reason.

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In Reality, there is an underlying, primary, fundamental perfection; but not necessarily external and surface perfection. There is intrinsic structural perfection and order; but not necessarily explicit phenomenal order and perfection. Such distinctions are important to understand. There is an underlying, primary, structural level of Reality, that is, how life and processes work at the fundamental level. There is perfection and order at this level, at the most primary functioning of the universe. Yet at the actual phenomena level of activity and events, there is very often disorder and imperfection. For at this manifesting level of reality, things may be in process of becoming more perfect, but they are usually far from it. At the manifesting level, the universe is in process to a greater perfection. Though ‘perfection’ is really an abstract infinite ideal that things approach but never finally arrive at, since there is no final resting point called perfection. So the outer manifesting Reality is Not perfect already, but instead it is approaching or evolving towards greater perfection; and each person can ponder on what that might be.

Yet we can still speak truly about perfection in Reality, if we confine our meaning to the underlying, intrinsic, fundamental, structure, order and process. This level has often been called the Divine Order or Divine Structure. It does not mean, though, that every event and manifestation is part of this Perfect Order. This is where a confusion in logic and language occurs. The Divine Order is a primary, underlying structure; often understood as a structure of geometry, archetypes, or divine attributes. The outer manifesting level of Reality reflects its underlying Divine Order, but only to some degree. In fact, a great purpose of the Divine Order is to be both the Nurturing Field and Influencing Pattern for an evolving perfection in manifestation. So it is not true that everything and everyone is presently and continuously perfect already. But it is true that everything and everyone is sustained by, nurtured by, and influenced by the underlying structural perfection of an intrinsic Divine Order – which is gradually manifesting itself over time and in a long process of perfecting.

An underlying, primary structural process can be perfect in its functioning; without its secondary events being perfect. For example, a business could have a perfect structure, yet the employees might still make mistakes. An educational system may be perfect in its structure, yet students will probably not always be perfect in their performance. A teacher can be perfectly teaching, yet students may still mess up on tests. The hardware of a computer may be functioning perfect, yet its outward functioning may be quite imperfect due to software problems. So the Overall Structure and Process, or the underlying fundamental Structure/Process, is perfect in its functioning and purpose; but not each and every event of that Process. To understand this one has to see how manifesting events are distinguishable from their underlying order/structure, and that the underlying order can be perfect while the manifesting events may not.

So at the level of manifestation, which is what we see and interact with in this world, there is a process of perfecting, but this does not mean the same as thinking that everything at any one moment is already perfect. If there is a process of perfecting, or moving towards greater perfection, then this implies that perfection has yet to be achieved, and thus there is no sense in saying that everything is perfect.

Now it could be argued, though, that every event in the process of perfecting is itself perfectly necessary. In this sense, for example, people could be gradually moving towards a more perfect way of being and so not being perfect in that sense; yet it could be argued that each step of the imperfect person traveling along the way to perfection is itself a perfect step – like if the person necessarily needed that step, then it could be called a perfect step or perfect moment. But this argument, this thinking, is incorrect. It would imply that every use of heroine, even overdoses, were necessarily perfect, or that this moment in the person’s life was necessarily or perfectly needed. It would imply that all acts of genocide or cruelty to others were actually necessary or perfectly needed in the learning processes of both the perpetrators and victims. Does someone perfectly need to abuse others or themselves? Or does someone perfectly need to be abused or cheated or killed? So this particular argument, used to preserve a cherished psychological hope or religious faith that everything is already perfect, is quite a stretch away from reason.

Another example of distinction between Primary and Secondary Structures is in Systems Theory, where an Overall Governing Structure maintains a consistency of functioning (let’s call this perfection) by restricting the functioning of any parts that would produce unacceptable inconsistency or deviance from a range of acceptable order. The Overall Governing Power does not micromanage every part within its system, and nor does it restrict the freedom of every part to insure a fixed exact outcome. Instead, the Governance allows semi-autonomous freedom within the system, with no need to compel each behavior to any fixed planned outcome, and with subsequent indeterminism and uncertainty about any single behavior; yet the Overall Outcome of this system is insured to remain within bounds, ….

(added..) to remain within a sustainable range of success. The Overall System then remains in some relative range of acceptable success, but this does not necessarily mean that each element or part of that System is always functioning successfully. In fact, some parts may even fail; but such possibilities are allowed as long as they do not impede the Overall System success. Thus, not all parts within a successful sustainable System are necessarily well functioning; and it would be even a worse mistake to think that all of the parts must be functionally necessary or perfect just because the larger System is functionally successful.

So there is indeterminate freedom and uncertain accidental outcomes within the system (and thus, possibilities of imperfection, accidents and mistakes); Yet the Overall System can maintain an acceptable consistency and range of perfection, because there as a governance at the Overall level of Order but not any strict governance at the lesser specific levels of activity. The lesser is free, at least to some extent, as long as it does not overreach the boundaries of acceptable implications. Some believe that ecological and bodily systems function in such a Systems manner.