For a few posts now I’ve been angling at the zen master story. Here’s the story again:
A boy in a village gets a horse for his birthday. All the people in the village said, “How wonderful! The boy got a horse.”
But the zen master said, “We’ll see.”
Then several years later the boy falls off his horse and breaks his leg. The people in the village said, “How terrible.”
But the zen master said, “We’ll see.”
Then a war breaks out and all the young men are called up to fight, but the boy can’t go because his leg is all messed up. And the people said, “How wonderful.”
But the zen master said, “We’ll see.”
My first blog about this took a positive angle: Bad things can lead to good things, so we should hope for good even when things look bad.
My second zen master angle was tougher to stomach: We reap what we sow. If we plant bad seeds, we get bad crops. Bad choices almost always lead to bad consequences.
While the zen master story points out the questions of cause and effect, saying that good things can lead to bad things can lead to good things, these are mostly exceptions to the general rule that like begets like. When we plant lavender, we get more lavender. When we plant skunk weed, we’ll get more skunk weed.
If we plant good seeds, and cultivate them well, we get good crops. Good choices almost always lead to good outcomes.
I imagine my life like a vast country estate, with gardens and orchards and vineyards all around. Will these fields flourish? Much of it boils down to cultivation. Will I plant, water, and tend to the fields so they flourish? Will I seek wisdom and put that wisdom to work in the various fields of my life? Will I make the choices that maximize my harvest?