Better than Sin

The dojo kun, or training hall motto that we recite at the end of each workout in shotokan starts with these words from our school-teacher Okinawan founder, Gichin Funakoshi: "Seek perfection of character." What does this mean?

I prefer to interpret it as striving to get better and that that is good enough for now.

The noun perfection and the adjective perfect have at least two connotations. Perfect in the sense of not possible of further improvement, without any flaws or defects, and perfect in the sense of complete, or fitting, or unmitigatedly conforming to some ideal, as in perfect gentleman. It is this second meaning to which I think we are referring in the dojo kun.

Pursuit of perfection in the former sense is the devil's call. It is tempting a person to commit the sin of pride. Be perfect so you can be worthy of Christ. It is sneaky and dangerous. During Lent, I am thinking about what a huge undertaking it is to "seek perfection of character," especially in my case. But the good Jesuits taught me that the first sin, the sin of the angels against God, was all about pride. You mean you're going to lower yourself and enter history to save humans, asked Lucifer of God in disgust. Adam and Eve, our first parents, thought they knew better than God what was and what was not authorized.

Then, our sins. How trivial they are compared to the sin of the angels and our first parents, observed St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises. And how awful. Dante taught me in l'inferno to hate the sin not the sinner, as when Virgil discusses the pitiful sight of Paolo and Francesca whirling around in hell. Sin keeps Christ nailed to the cross. How unjust. How unfair is sin.

But then there's grace, the free gift from our loving Father in Heaven. And what grace means to me is that striving is pleasing to God. The "arriving" is up to God; the "striving" is my freely given response to God's love. And in this sense, seeking the perfection of character means keeping open to trying, even though I stumble, even though I fall, I get up and keep heading in the direction I know is right. I keep trying to be true to my nature. Keep trying to do a correct reverse punch. Or, a (nearly perfect) gyaku zuki. And to live virtuously.

Because getting better is good enough for His children. And so it is good enough for me.