Being open to the moment - a story

 

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2008 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

 
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The normal man or woman sees everything as a blessing or a curse. A spiritual warrior sees everything as a challenge. The challenge to enjoy the pleasant moment and being free to release it when it passes and the challenge to endure and not resist or oppose the non-pleasurable, moving with it into the future. We really don’t know if the next instant will be pleasurable or non-pleasurable, so there is no use in fearing and worrying about the future. All we can really do is be of the moment, free to move with whatever arises.

There is an old story about a Chinese farmer who had a son and a horse that addresses this issue quite nicely. One day the farmer’s horse ran away and all the neighbors were trying to commiserate with the farmer on how unfortunate a circumstance it was that his horse ran away. The old farmer just said, "Could be good, could be bad." The next day the horse came home with four mares following it. All the neighbors were rejoicing at the farmer’s unexpected wealth, whereas the farmer said, "Could be good, could be bad." The next day the farmer’s son, while trying to ride one of the new mares was kicked and his leg was broken. All the neighbors began to again commiserate with such an unfortunate circumstance. The old farmer replied, "Could be good, could be bad." The next day the commanding general of the local army came into the village and took all the young able bodied men. They were all drafted into the army and marched off to fight the war, except, of course, the farmer’s son, who had a broken leg. Rejoicing with obvious mixed feelings about the farmer’s son being the only son remaining in the village, villagers congratulated the farmer on his good fortune. The farmer of course replied "could be good, could be bad." So it is with us, we really don’t know what that next moment will bring. An event seemly bad can turn out to be good and events seemly good can turn out to be bad. All we can really do is learn to enjoy the moment, releasing it to the past and being open to the future.

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