Geri deGruy's blog of art, musings, and inspiration

This story speaks to me.

"Once a farmer went to tell the Buddha about his problems. He described his difficulties farming- how either droughts or monsoons complicated his work.  He told the Buddha about his wife - how even though he loved her, there were certain things about her he wanted to change. Likewise with his children - yes, he loved them, but they weren't turning out quite the way he wanted. When he was finished, he asked how the Buddha could help him with his troubles. 

The Buddha said, "I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

"What do you mean?" railed the farmer. "You're supposed to be a great teacher!"

The Buddha replied, "Sir, it's like this. All human beings have eighty-three problems. It's a fact of life. Sure, a few problems may go away now and then, but soon enough others will arise. So we'll always have eighty-three problems."

The farmer responded indignantly, "Then what's the good of all your teaching?"

The Buddha replied, "My teaching can't help with the eighty-three problems, but perhaps it can help with the eighty-fourth problem."

"What's that?" asked the farmer. 

"The eighty-fourth problem is that we don't want to have any problems." "

(from "Being Zen" by Ezra Bayda)

I relate to this story!  I DO think there shouldn't be problems! I have certain long-held expectations, or at least hopes, about the way life should be.

THIS GETS IN MY WAY, BIG TIME! 

The way for me to truly live is to be here now, this very second, with what really IS, rather then what I wish or expect or hope.  Yes there are problems. Sometimes they're so big I can't see straight and I fight despair. But I think part of the despair is that I don't want to look at what really is. I'm rejecting reality and life. I'm wishing things were different. I'M WISHING THINGS WERE DIFFERENT. My 84 th problem.

I'm working on seeing and being in life as it really is. It's hard to release the old fairy tales in my head. But it is also freeing when I can see NOW simply, openly, without the filters, and deal with my life in that truth. And I can love life as it is, right now.