All too often, we get stuck in the belief that things are good or bad, right or wrong. Today, around the world, this split is no doubt a source of real division and harm. This is why each day we need to put into practice “The Wisdom of No Mistakes”. In Zen calligraphy, it is the brush stroke of the empty circle, known as the enso. It is not meant to be perfect or complete. This suggests letting the brush stroke be natural. However, many of us aim for a perfect circle and criticize ourselves when it is uneven. If not careful, we can go over and over how it is imperfect and should have been better. Rather than becoming preoccupied with “getting it right”, what if we see that there are no mistakes, that everything is like a river flowing by?
The Wisdom of No Mistakes asks us to live fully and openly, staying in the flow itself. The composer John Cage once said, “A ‘mistake’ is beside the point, for once anything happens, it authentically is.” Each passing brush stroke of our lives is unique, never before arisen. To live authentically is to live whole-heartedly with the way things are. When we relinquish the insistence to get things right, we can fly freely through the universe. So, don’t expect you yourself or those around you to be perfect. Use the energy of the world to your advantage. When you abandon judgement about right and wrong and let things be, the world will lift you up and take you. Can you remain open to the circle of life just as it is today?
-Tias Little
