Barn's Burnt Down - Now I Can See the Moon. - Zen Master Masahide

The barn has burnt down, now I can see the moon.

The above quotation from Masahide delivers a compelling message. He looked at what some would consider misfortune and created in his mind a thing of beauty. He could have said to himself, as many of us would today, "How terrible. I can't believe how unlucky I am." Instead Masahide was able to embrace the good. "Wow! I never realized how much beauty I can see with no barn to obstruct my vision. How lucky I am!" It stands to reason that...

If we embrace the good that can come from whatever life hands us, we have come a long way in learning how to embrace uncertainty.
 
There is no question that life sometimes seems really rotten on an objective level. But the objective level is unimportant; it is the subjective level that determines how we interpret what happens in our lives. Do we interpret something as good or do we interpret something as bad? I have noticed that when people look at all their experiences in life as a way of learning and discovering more about the world and themselves, then all their experiences - good or bad - are good! It follows that if we can learn to see that ALL experiences in our lives can be really valuable, our worry about the future is greatly diminished. We have come one step closer to being able to embrace all the uncertainty in our lives.

Two possible attitudes: 

1. An Attitude of Defeat - feeling like a victim
2. An Attitude of Victory -  What is this problem trying to tell me? Maybe my life is out of balance 

Whatever happens, I'll handle it -  the the resilient attitude
You can see why these are magical words for embracing uncertainty. You don't worry as much about the future when you know you can handle anything. When we know that we can enrich our lives with anything that happens to us...good or bad...all is well. I have certainly learned that it was in the handling of very difficult things in my life that gave me so much of the strength I find in myself today.
It goes without saying that if we approach life with a sense of dire consequences, we close out so much of the possibility that is inherently there. But when we approach all of life with an intent to learn and grow, we can see wider and farther than we ever thought possible. Once again, onward!

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