Sufficient to the moment are the troubles thereof

A Zen story: A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. One day, they came to a deep river. At the edge of the river, a young woman sat weeping, because she was afraid to cross the river without help. She begged the two monks to help her. The younger monk turned his…

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Life isn’t always fair; so what do we do about it? We can become mired in self-pity and resentment—or we can move forward.

 A number of different things affect our idea of fairness: what we think ‘should’ happen or what we believe is ‘right’; our current reaction to misery symptoms (anger, guilt and so on); and the immediate influence of our self-driven will (selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-righteousness.) In any situation, we may not have a fair idea of…

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I do not have to accept a gift of guilt or anger.

We’d have no trouble saying “NO!” if someone offers us a birthday gift of poisonous snakes but it’s sometimes harder to decline gifts of feelings that other people try to give us. Learning which gifts to accept and which to refuse requires emotional and spiritual maturity. We cannot begin to control other people but we…

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Actions—not intentions or promises—produce results

Three frogs are sitting on a log and one decides to jump in the water. How many frogs are left on the log?  Of course, three frogs are still on the log. Making a decision to jump in the water is not the same as jumping in the water.  Action—the actual ‘doing’, the implementation of…

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Difficult people and situations are part of life; whether I see them as villains or opportunities determines their power over me.

Life teaches us that acquiring certain virtues will improve our life; we may develop a sincere desire to be more patient or tolerant; we may seek and pray for these attributes. But the only way to acquire any desirable trait is through encountering people who cause us contention and frustration. Learning patience requires experiencing situations…

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At any moment, life can throw a mud ball at me.

Life happens. We can be enjoying life or just getting by; then, something unexpected hits us. We get bad news; someone rejects us or something totally unfair or unreasonable happens. Do we give situations, events, or other people the power to determine the quality of our day? Of our week? Of our life? If we…

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