Broken Open Part 7 of 8: Comfortable with Uncertainty
September 18, 2009 by dr. lam
Another Tibetan Buddhist monk, Pema Chödrön, wrote a book, Comfortable with Uncertainty, that helped Elizabeth Lesser shed her own fears and anxiety. Chödrön learned her lessons from Chögyam Trungpa (mentioned in last friday’s blog) who lost his family, teachers and country after the Chinese invasion of Tibet broke him open radically to being present in an unsettling experience.
Trungpa teaches that many people pray for life to turn out in a certain way. Instead, he encourages us all to learn from what life already has decreed, i.e., for us to look at life’s messages in the events that we have already lived. As Lesser says, “I try to apply Trungpa’s wisdom especially when I am at work and nothing seems to flow easily. The meeting that is turning acrimonious, the project that is failing, or the assistant who is moving: Each of these situations is a reservoir of meaning, a bank of rich information. The answer to every problem is wrapped in the problem itself. I need only stop resisting, open wide to reality, and decode the message.”
Well put. Sometimes, we try to force our own destiny and only accept a destiny that is framed by our narrow construct of it. If things are not going our way, we become alarmed rather than look at what message that a certain event may actually hold for us. For example, I was involved in a minor fender-bender that was my fault. I thought I was in the left lane in a narrow street but there was another lane to my left, as I tried to turn into an empanada restaurant, scraping the unsuspecting car to the left of me. I remained at peace during the incident, was thankful that no one was hurt, and offered a prayer of gratitude that I could learn to be a more careful driver in the future. That was my message that I decoded.
Life may not throw at you a perfect recipe every time. You have to make a great meal from whatever recipe is given to you. Find that hidden message in your daily life and look with appreciation at the message that may help you move forward in life along your journey. Remain comfortable with the uncertainty of your future life. You can do that when you start to see only messages rather than obstacles in your life’s journey.
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Great wisdom! Dr. Lam, your example was very good. That’s awesome that you were able to remain calm. Hey, Dallas driving if pretty tough with all those lanes.
I find that what we tend to think of as obstacles in life or things that didn’t go our way, are necessary in our life to mold our character. If everything went our way or we never had our character tested, we probably would all be brats…lol I’ll be contemplating this thought over the weekend! Thanks, Dr. Lam!!
Hey, blog buddies, have a great weekend!!
thanks heather. very kind. glad it helped. have a greatttttttt weekendddddddd!