There is no place for regret in Life, in nature there is no “what if”. Everything that has happened has no return.
Nor the stone out of hand, nor the word spoken. Neither the child that was born, nor the seed that germinated.
Trying to stop on-going processes is inglorious, can be harmful and create blockage and distortion. Permission is needed to act, just like when crossing a busy road you have to wait for vehicles to stop or pass.
The excess of voluntarism and impetuosity brings us greater risk than prevents any undesired situation.
After we act, may our morale not be disturbed. May we serenely and responsibly watch and accept the results and opt for the most harmonizing action afterwards.
Imagine a surgeon who is upset and out of control because an artery has been perforated. Even if he is responsible for this consequence, he can only mitigate the damage if he remains calm.
Emotions stir us internally. They are reactive and expansive. It is up to us to hold the reins of their force, to remain level-headed. Emotion makes the blood boil and triggers action. Its twin - Reason - makes it cool down. And the driver of the vehicle brakes or accelerates according to what his discernment indicates: the tip of the scale, impartial and dedicated to ensuring a dynamic balance, that is, the balance that is continuously adjusted, because karma – action – is a condition of Life.
Preventing is always better than fixing up. Undoubtedly! Popular wisdom illuminates the path.
Correctness or harmony of an action essentially depends on the use of two tools: weighting and feeling.
Weighting consists of looking forward at the possible “unfolding of action” and makes us adjust before hitting the ball towards the hole.
Feeling indicates the moment to take action, thus giving us the impulse to break out the stalemate that would result from postponing the action sine die, in search of the perfect angle that we still wouldn't have the expertise to find.
Improvement comes with training, not with stubbornness or desperation. One must accept to miss many holes to start hitting some and end up hitting almost all of them.
The player's humility allows him to know his place in the ranking of success avoiding inappropriate expectation.
Those who keep waiting will despair. Another successful shot of popular sayings. Focus must be on action, on training, and not on fantasizing a result one hasn't worked for.
And if we have worked and the result hasn't arrived yet, let's do like the farmer who waits for the seeds to sprout at the right time, depending on the humidity and the sun rays, which are “variable” conditions.
Since we do not control all variables, we should do only our part and wait, otherwise our agitation will create obstacles to result’s manifestation; which is equivalent to shooting one’s foot.
When we stop to reflect, all this makes sense, we even feel we already knew. Yes, we actually know. Those who reflect, know. Therefore, we concluded that lack of wisdom derives from lack of reflection, which is a consequence of not stopping; not pondering and not connecting with our feeling.
Expectations and consequent disappointments - or punches in the gut of those who only wait and don't take action - end up making us doubt our ability to "hit" the target. In other words, through a perverse mechanism, we compromise our self-confidence and become programmed to fail.
From self-proposed instant champions we became victims of bad luck; and negative emotions continue to damage us and to erode the last shred of discernment.
It didn't have to be that way, the story could and can have another ending. We just have to rewrite the script.
