Blessed to be cursed

 

  

My fellow seekers

Lately I've been pondering over a particular incident that occurred some weeks ago. One morning, as I was walking outside from the kitchen towards the hall, I saw an enormous spark of electricity branching out across the sky. This massive flash of lightning sort of struck me. Well...not literally of course...but as I watched this show of light play in front of me, it dawned on me that it is in hands of nature to choose whether to spare me for a little longer and also how easily she could have taken my life had she chosen to do so. 

Feeling grateful for being alive, I continued to march my way towards the hall before I came to a halt when I spotted a monk heading in my direction. He seemed to have witnessed the same incident as I did. 

I shared my thoughts on what we both had just seen. His perspective on the matter was drastically different to that of mine. With an innocent looking smile across his face, he told about what a blessing it felt like to see such a sight. As I recall, he even pointed out that it is my ego that makes me so afraid of death. 

And that's when it struck me...

We may have seen the same flashes of light, which appeared to shatter the sky for a brief moment, but our minds bifurcated into two lines of thinking; one of acceptance and another of rejection ...whilst he was celebrating the possibility of death, I was celebrating the escape from it. 

This incident proves one thing: intrinsically, the lightning itself is neither a blessing nor a curse. However, it is our own perception that colours it to be so. If in fact it is neither of the two, then I suppose we can take it to be that we are blessed to be cursed or cursed to be blessed because they eliminate each other and returns to the nil value that it inherits. 

Hopefully, one day we will see all aspects of our lives in this light. Until that day comes, my fellow seekers, let's try to see the blessings rather than the so-called curses in life. Have a good day. Take care!