Misfortune, the warrior mindset and Zen

The Rock Metaphor and Zen

As waves break on a rock, the rock stands firm.  The rock is unaffected, unconcerned with all the chaos around it and keeps doing its job, which is to be a rock.  We, men are so swayed by emotions and our intellect sometimes can be our worse enemy.  Reality is just as it is.  We interpret things, feel about them, and create our own heaven or hell which in real just exist in our imagination, or our fantasy of what reality should be.  In Zen, we look at things the way they are.  We neither hold on to things nor hold them too loose.  We live the present moment and go with whatever life brings us.  However, this is not a passive way of living.  We live a life where we take full responsibility of our actions, our thoughts, and our intent.  We also realize that we are not in control of so many other things.  When we live this way, we are fully content that we are doing our maximum with things in our control and practicing detachment from things we can’t control.  This gives us the freedom we all want.

Bad Luck, the warrior mindset and owning your life

When tragedy punches you in your face, what do you do? I am quite sure that you say that it is my bad luck, and this has happened to me.  What about the following:  It is my good luck that this has happened to me? This will allow me to see my limitations and go on war against them. I will enjoy being in this mud with blood rolling down my face.  I will destroy my weaknesses and rise above them. I shall rise above this pathetic loser who wants comfort inside of me right now.

Create the Beast inside

We want to think that life is against us, and people are doing things to us. What about taking it all inside of you and use it as fuel? Change the inner talk to the following:  Although this has happened to me, I can bear it without pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearful about the future. Why do we see misfortune in the event than the good fortune in our ability to bear it? Let’s look at Batman. The worse thing that happened to Bruce, which was the death of his parents turned him into the Batman, a resilient, uncompromising, powerful and dangerous entity. So, it’s all about perspective.

If we keep finding excuses for the things which happen to us instead of us looking deep inside of us and fighting our inner demons, we will never push ourselves to unleash our true potential by facing our weaknesses.

May the force be with you.

Much love, Geerish.