Today I hopped in the car to head to Brandon and popped in the Eckhart Tolle CD for A New Earth and the cd began with the following story:
"The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his next-door neighbour became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting and accusing that their daughter had confessed that he was the father. All he replied was, "Is that so?"
News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The Master lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. Nobody came to see himanymore. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the arents brought the baby to Hakuin. "You are the father, so you look after him ..." The Master took loving care of the child. A year later the mother remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was thsee Hakuin to apologize e young man who worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they went to Hakuin to apologize and ask for forgiveness. "We are really sorry. We have come to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father." "Is that so?" is all he would say as he handed the baby over to them.
The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in exactly the same way: "Is that so?" He allows the form of the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a participant in human drama. To him there is only this moment, and this moment is as it is. Events are not personalized."
Around the same time My Own Woman from over at The Perpetual Search for Personal Nirvana left a comment on my previous posting that said in part:
"The only thing I can do is give you a bit of worthless advice: The only person you can change is yourself, you can not change others."
As I thought about Tolle's words and found MOW's word when I got back from Brandon I realized that while I yearn to attain a state like that of Zen Master Hakuin, I am not there ... I have a ways to go ... but what I DID realize is that what MOW said is true ... I want to see other people change - to achieve and experience the freedom from their pain body ... but it is something I can yearn for - but have no control over ...
I can change only me ... I can control (in so much as it is possible) only my journey ... I can do only for me...and for no one else ...
I want to see friends I care about deeply set free from their pain bodies ...
I want my reputation restored ...
I no longer want to be shunned by otehrs ...
I want to be treated with fairness ...
I want others held accountable for their misdeeds ...
I want others to be taken to task for the toxicity they have wreaked upon me and others ...
I want to be doing the job and the career I was trained to do and that I was good at ...
... and in saying this, I realize that ALL of these things are things that I have no control over ... and that Hakuin would respond to with a thoughtful - "Is that so?"
I can only bring change within myself ... and that change can only come from accepting what is, and living present to this moment ...
It's funny ... hearing Tolle share the story as I selected one of the CDs helped me to remember an important truth - live present to the NOW ... and the fact that the story of Hakuin was the first track on a CD selected at random was not so much a coincidence, but was a happening that simply happened ...
I need to just work at learning to let it go ... and letting go can not be intentional ... it can only be achieved by being present to the moment ... and lately I've learned that is easier said than done ... I just need to trust that one day the truth will be revealed, and the Karma energy will pay back what is owed to those who have been less than hospitable to me and who have enacted the violence I've experienced ... but in the mean time I have no control nor say over it ... and I can only focus on myself ...
In this moment there are no coincidences ... just a moment from which we can learn and grow if we dare ...
(btw, thanks MOW - you advice was wise!!)
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