In the first place, to achieve the perfect life, we must clarify what we understand by perfect. Perfection can seem elusive at best and impossible at worst in a world where everything we make is ultimately destined for the recycle bin. Even the most carefully crafted items are prone to breaking, and with them our nerves. However, there are moments when we catch a glimpse of perfection. In fact, perfection is all around us. Look at a brilliant landscape, a large tree, or a humble forest animal. Go smaller and consider how chemicals, individual atoms or cells of light behave – always with perfect results? And a newborn, human, flora or fauna, never fails to excite cries of “perfect!”. All of these things and millions of others provide clues to what perfection means and prove that it is possible.

When we look around us, we see countless examples of lives lived perfectly, from the smallest cell to the largest mountain ranges (my definition of life includes everything natural). So what is it about a tree that makes it perfect, or the endless work of an ant, or the magic of a spider’s web, or the majesty of snow-capped hills? And why, while a million daffodils can achieve perfection in their brief but gloriously golden lives, do men and women strive for it every day?

A scientist who spends his days in the laboratory will know the pleasure of working with chemicals that never fail. He mixes one chemical with another and a predictable response will occur. Perhaps even the scientist working with these chemicals could take this fact for granted, that chemicals can be trusted to behave in a certain way, come what may. A space physicist building the next rocket to the moon will know that as long as certain fundamental laws are obeyed, they will succeed. If they fail, it is due to human error, not a failure of physical laws. Mathematical equations always lead to the same conclusions. It is a great consolation for humanity to know that what we call science is constant, always operating according to pre-established laws. This knowledge has led to the untold improvements in medicine, communication, agriculture, and travel that we see around us every day.

But while our scientific efforts are based on perfect laws, the results are often less than perfect; device manufacturing is frequently faulty; the same can be said of medications and medical procedures; the same with the new agricultural techniques; etc. So if we rely solely on science to perfect our lives, we’ll be waiting a long time. And what do we find in other spheres of activity? Perhaps philosophy has the answer or religion or art? Does culture have the ability to make us perfect by itself? Maybe for a while. But philosophy can lead to nihilism. Religion to intolerance. Art and culture to degeneration. All of these things are cheating if we ignore one thing, something that is both the simplest aspect of our lives and also the most complex: the basic code of life.

I call the basic code the one that writes and governs all the laws that produce everything we see and experience in the natural world. It is in us as much as it is in a rodent, a grass, a mountain, or the planet as a whole. It is found within us, in our bodies, in our organs, in our genomes, and all around us. The air we breathe, the sunlight we see, the weather we feel. The reason why all animals seem to lead a perfect life is because they are instinctively in tune with the code. This leads me to wonder why, if a lion left alone in its natural environment is capable of living a perfect life, why not men and women?

The answer lies in a faculty that is present in humans but is not present in other animals nor in any element belonging to nature; the faculty of rebellion. While all other things blessed with life silently obey its intrinsic code, humans have been busy for thousands of years learning how to rebel against it. Only humanity has the ability to cross out and counter the code that governed their creation in the belief that they could improve their lot by doing so. No chimpanzee got up in the morning and decided they needed wheels. No giraffe thought that his life could be improved by lighting a fire. No elephant decided for himself that by applying paint to a cave wall he could produce something meaningful and inspiring. Men and women did all these things and more, but while for the most part these developments benefited our species, they also brought with them another concept absent from the rest of nature, the concept of failure.

Failure is not “things don’t go the way you want”; failure is feel bad about “things don’t go the way you want”. It is an emotion like any other and one that must be managed. And with age and experience, this feeling builds up, like a teetering tower ready to collapse at any moment. When people say “forget the past” they mean “forget the failures of the past.”

This would not be a problem in itself except for the fact that we now live in a culture that demands perfection in all aspects and at all levels. The higher we set our goals, the more likely we are to fail, and the more we succeed, the higher we set our goals. It is a vice-clamp of expectation. The effect of failure influences everything we do. If we use philosophy, art, or religion as antidotes to failure, then we misuse and abuse those things. The answer is not to stop achieving, to stop creating, to stop having new ideas, quite the opposite. We can achieve more and better if we learn to manage failure.

The key to escaping the vicious cycle of achievement and failure is to understand that failure is not something to be hated but embraced; failure is an important part of experimentation. The person who fails the most is the one who has done the most. That being the case, it should be encouraged. But have we now reached a juncture in our social evolution that demands so much success and so abhorrent failure, not just in the making of new devices, but in the way we behave with each other and even in the way we what do we introduce? to the world, that we have made it impossible for any member of the human species to find satisfaction?

What is, then, a wounded state of perfection? A lion that has just feasted on a zebra knows this; a camel filling up with water in an oasis in the desert understands; a tree that grows to an impossible degree of complexity that is infinitely beautiful feels it. Perfection is obedience to the code of life. As a species we have forgotten this. And if we pay homage first to science, over due homage to the code of life on which science rests, if we let financial considerations take precedence over the whispers of the natural code, then we get unstuck. Three centuries of enlightenment have led us to forget one important thing: that we are already perfect, that we are born perfect, and that we do not need science to make us more.

So, to achieve a perfect life perfectly lived, we must first remember and honor the origin of our existence, and do it every day, whether in the name of God, Gnosis, or Gaia. The name we give it is optional. Living according to his laws is not.

Isn’t this what Matthew meant when he said, “You, then, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (5.48). This is perfection not as something that never fails, but as part of an eternal plan that will inevitably succeed no matter what.