The life principle I am about to share with you here will help you accept reality as it is, people as who they are. When this happens, you can choose not to be disappointed or frustrated about things that you think have gone wrong, people that you think should have acted differently. Imagine life without anger and disappointment! What would it be like? Isn’t it that life will become happier? After all isn’t it happiness that you want in life?
If you don’t agree, you should stop here to do something else you love. If you do agree, here’s the principle:
Expect the unexpected
photo credit: lukasberg on Flickre
Some advise this: Have no expectations. Maybe we can only after years of regular meditation. Most of us can’t. The alternative is to expect the unexpected.
You may be expecting that when you get home from work today, you will have a restful moment with your family. But things didn’t go as expected. Unexpectedly. Your wife may have had some difficult time at work and wanted more of your time with her that night. She didn’t tell you so. She expected it. You didn’t know that until after you finished helping your kid with their homework. Expectation missed! To expected the unexpected, consider the following Zen story.
“Is that so?”
A beautiful girl in the village was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the Zen master whom everyone previously revered for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin with their daughter’s accusation, he simply replied “Is that so?”
When the child was born, the parents brought it to the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. “Is that so?” Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.
For many months he took very good care of the child until the daughter could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to Hakuin to see if he would return the baby. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. “Is that so?” Hakuin said as he handed them the child.
There are so much you can say about Hakuin’s “Is that so?” response to all these dreadful situations happening to him. One of the messages I get from the story is that Zen Master Hakuin always expects the unexpected, so when it happens he is always ready to respond appropriately.
To expect the unexpected allows the zen master to go with the flow of life. After all, the unexpected is not always a bad event. In the end, Hakuin taught the villagers (and even the world) invaluable life lessons.
