The Truth You’ve Been Missing: You’re Already Perfect

Let’s talk about a concept so simple, so obvious, that most people miss it entirely: right understanding. 

The Buddhists speak of this, and if you grasp its true meaning, it can change everything. 

The first and most important piece of right understanding is this: You are already perfect. 

You are already one with God, enlightened, complete, and whole. 

You never left, you never fell, and you never lost your way. 

The problem is not that you’ve gone anywhere—it’s that you don’t realize where you are.

Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine you’re living a good life—you’ve got a home, a family, a job, the beautiful outdoors to enjoy. 

Then one day, you turn on the TV. 

Maybe it’s something exciting, or maybe it’s something disturbing, but either way, it grabs you. It pulls you in, and before you know it, you’re sitting on the couch, glued to the screen, completely absorbed. 

And in that moment, your entire world shrinks. 

You don’t have a family, a job, or a home anymore—not really. All that exists is the drama on the screen. You’re lost in it. You’ve forgotten everything else.

But here’s the thing—none of that other stuff disappeared. Your family is still there, your home is still standing, and the outdoors is still waiting for you. 

It’s just that you’re not paying attention to any of it. You’re so captivated by the TV show that your entire reality has been reduced to what’s happening on that screen.

This, my friends, is exactly what’s happening to you every day, every moment of your life. You are not just watching the TV—you’ve become the TV. You’ve forgotten that you’re sitting on the couch, in the house, with the whole world around you. Your consciousness—the very essence of who you are—has been hijacked by the mental TV show of your thoughts, your emotions, and the sensory input coming from the world around you.

Let’s get something straight: you are the awareness behind it all. 

You are not your thoughts, not your emotions, not the things you see and hear. You are the one who is aware of these things. But just like when you get lost in a TV show, you’ve gotten lost in the drama of your mind. 

You’ve forgotten that you’re the watcher, not the watched.

So, what is right understanding? 

It’s the realization that you are not the content of your mind—you are the consciousness that observes it. Think about it: how many thoughts could you be having at any given moment? Hundreds of millions, right? But you’re only aware of a few. How many things are happening in the universe right now? An unfathomable number. But you’re only conscious of what’s in front of you. Your consciousness is vast, yet you limit it to a tiny fraction of what it could be by focusing so intensely on the small, personal drama of your mind.

When you’re glued to that mental TV, you lose sight of everything else. Your consciousness, which is infinite and boundless, becomes trapped in a little box, fixated on whatever happens to be playing at that moment. You identify with it completely, forgetting that there’s a whole world out there, a whole self within, that is much greater than any thought or feeling.

Here’s the truth: you are already sitting on the couch, in the house, with the entire universe around you. 

You just don’t realize it because you’re too busy watching TV! 

You’re lost in the show. But the moment you decide to turn your attention away from the screen, even for a second, you begin to see the truth of your situation.

You don’t need to change who you are—you need to wake up to who you’ve always been. You are already enlightened. You are already one with God. You are already complete. The problem is that you’ve forgotten this because you’ve become so absorbed in the mental TV show that you think that’s all there is.

Imagine this: You’re watching a movie. It’s gripping. You’re so into it that you’ve forgotten you’re sitting in a theater with strangers all around you. You’re not even aware of the seat you’re in or the popcorn in your lap. You’re in the movie, living it as if it’s real. That’s exactly what’s happening to you in life. Your consciousness is so absorbed in your thoughts and emotions that you’ve forgotten who you are. You’ve forgotten that you’re the one sitting on the couch, not the characters on the screen.

So the Buddhists talk about right understanding, and this is what they mean: understanding that you are the awareness behind everything you experience. The TV, the thoughts, the feelings—they are not you. They are just objects of your consciousness. You are the subject, the observer, the witness. This is the most important realization you can have because it changes everything. It frees you.

When you understand this, really understand it, you realize that the nature of your being is divine. You were created in the image of God, which means you are consciousness itself. Consciousness is the light that illuminates everything it touches. Without it, nothing would have meaning, nothing would exist in any real sense. The entire universe could be there, but if no one was conscious of it, it would be as if it didn’t exist.

Consciousness is what gives life to everything, and that consciousness is you. It’s the most beautiful, powerful thing in the universe because it’s what brings everything else to life. And yet, you’ve allowed it to be trapped in a tiny little box of thoughts and emotions.

Let’s put this in perspective. Imagine you’re watching a show about a character who’s going through a tough time. 

You feel for them, maybe even cry for them. But it’s not real—it’s just a show. 

The real drama is happening in your mind as you watch it. Now, consider your own life. You’re doing the same thing! 

You’re watching the show of your thoughts and emotions, getting completely wrapped up in them, forgetting that it’s just a show. 

The real you is sitting behind it all, watching, detached, unaffected.

So, what do you do with this understanding? How do you live with this truth? First, you need to stop identifying so strongly with the mental TV show in between your ears. 

Yes, you have thoughts and emotions, and yes, you experience the world through your senses. 

But that’s not who you are. You are the consciousness that is aware of these things. This is what spirituality is really about—not controlling the mind, not controlling the world, but understanding that you are the one who observes it all.

Here’s a challenge for you: spend some time this week noticing your thoughts and emotions without getting involved in them. Just watch them as you would a TV show. Don’t try to change them, don’t try to stop them—just notice them. See how your mind operates, how it creates all this drama. And then remind yourself that you are not the drama. You are the one watching it.

And here’s the beautiful part: when you start doing this, you begin to see the futility of getting lost in your thoughts and emotions. 

You start to realize that you don’t need to control anything—you just need to watch your mind, and life as it unfolds around you. 

And as you do, you’ll find that the drama loses its power over you.

 The thoughts will still come, the emotions will still rise, but you won’t be so affected by them. 

“The birds will still sing, your folks will still fight, the leaves will still fall, the trees will still die…” - Noah Kahan.

You’ll see them for what they are—just passing objects in your field of awareness. The real you, your soul, has been there forever.

This is what it means to be free.

It doesn’t mean that you stop thinking or feeling—it means that you stop being so attached to your thoughts and feelings. You stop letting them define you. You stop letting them limit you. You realize that you are so much more than the mental TV show that’s been playing in your head.

When you live with this understanding, life becomes so much more expansive. 

You start to see the world as it really is, not as the narrow, limited version your mind presents to you. You start to experience the joy and peace that comes from knowing who you really are—pure consciousness, infinite and eternal.

So, turn off the TV. 

Step away from the screen. 

Take a look around at the life you’ve been missing, the life that’s always been there, waiting for you to notice it. 

You are already perfect. You are already complete. You are already home.

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With love and in truth,

Arlin

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