Welcoming Everything!

You should welcome everything which happens to you from birth to death, because the existence and the purpose of the world is in these cases.

Marcus Aurelius Cited in Calendar of Wisdom

Those things which we call happiness and those which we call unhappiness are useful for us, especially when we see them as an opportunity to try ourselves.

Leo Tolstoy Cited in A Calendar of Wisdom

How we perceive what happens to us during our lives, or what happens to us as a result of particular events and experiences, are informed and often defined by our subjective perceptions.

Perceptions can dictate our realities, or at least shape our understanding of their value or their burden. Just as it is true what Eckhart teaches that “[The eye that beholds God is the same eye that beholds each of us’] so too does the eye, ear, or over-all sensory input of our lives give us information from which we can evaluate what has happened, how we feel etc.

Meditation and the skillful means found in genuine spiritual paths and timeless world religious instruction teach us not to be so quick to react with only our sense testimony; but to take in the information…to breath… to listen. To observe through the theatre of our minds, and then respond to what the life situation asks of us as clearly and as responsibly, and as ethically and as compassionately, as we can…

Frankly, it has been a challenge to adopt and consistently practice the outlook on my life, where I can “welcome everything!” To live in such a place of non-judgment and acceptance that I would be able to “make the best” of what appears to me as a difficult task or impossible challenge.

With both self-knowledge and humility, This goal of total acceptance will remain an aspirational one; I still have plenty of illusions and attachments that need their release, and their redemption before I could claim to be of such a sound and quiet mind/heart.

As for the second statement… it reminds me of a terse yet true teaching I received from Arica that declared, “You get just enough karma (negative life experience) as you need! Some of us have had to taste or endure some lessons repeatedly, until we have a breakthrough in awareness and self-realization. Some need to sample it just once, to know if something/someone/some experience is toxic for them. We get just what we need to break down or break through to higher levels of understanding, compassion, and self-knowledge.