When things don’t go as planned, we tend to think something bad is happening. In fact, when anything does not go as we prefer, we usually think something bad is happening. Isn’t this so? For instance, when the car breaks down, or we get laid off or fired, or someone leaves us, or we get sick, etc., etc., etc., the usual response is to feel bad because we think something bad is happening. But I (have come to) believe that everything that occurs is somehow good. I believe the Universe is ALWAYS on our side, doing everything to make our lives better. But in order for the Universe to do this most effectively, we have to be willing to ‘go along’ and the way we do this is by monitoring our feelings and whenever we feel anything less than we want, to do our best to get ourselves into some better mood. We need to understand that situations, events or conditions do not determine our emotional condition. Although we have little control of how we may initially respond to events, we can have great control over how we modify that response and get ourselves into better moods. Certainly, this is a skill, and comes better with practice, but it is available to practically anyone. Shakespeare has written, “Nothing is good or bad but that thinking makes it so.” There is a long story going around that helps illustrate this. A part of it goes: There was a man in ancient China who had a son, and the son loved horses, and so the father got his son a horse. But the son fell from the horse and the father was sad and went to a local wise men, grieving that he bought his son a horse and that caused his son to fall and break his leg, and now he felt badly about it. But the wise man simply asked, “Is it bad?” At the time there was a war going on, and men came to the village of the man and his son, but since his son had a broken leg he was not taken off to war. At this, the man went back to the wise man and said something to the effect, “You were right. My son breaking his leg was a blessing in disguise.” But at this, the wise man only said, “Oh?” You tell of so many things apparently going wrong with your computer and such, but then you say you later had the most remarkable sales. Maybe the great sales would not have happened had things simply gone as planned without a hitch. So, who’s to say what is good or bad? I have had many such kinds of strings of events, where what seemed unwanted allowed something else preferred to happen. For example, we wanted to get our son a car, but didn’t have the money. At first I felt bad about this, but then, on recalling this philosophy I decided to believe that ‘all is well’ and everything is working out. I purposely got myself back into a good mood about it (as I have been taught to do). As it happened, someone we don’t know, someone who is not related, but simply one of my son’s friend’s relatives GAVE my son a car. AND,.. before giving it to him, they paid over $500 to make repairs, so that the car was in good condition. Well, that certainly seems an easier solution to our ‘problem’, and I am fairly grateful for it. But I also understand, everything has two sides, so I tend to take even this kind of remarkable good fortune in stride. Dustin Hoffman has a story where, early in his acting career, after years of typical struggling for an actor, he landed what seemed to be a dream-come-true job, acting a lead role in a fully financed Broadway play. But two weeks into rehearsals, an accident happened on the set that injured Dustin, enough so that he had to be taken out of the play. As it turned out, the director for the movie ‘The Graduate’ had had his eye on Dustin for the part, but thought he was committed to the Broadway play. When he got wind of Dustin’s accident, he had Dustin audition for and get the lead part in this movie. And this movie was the one that launched Dustin’s successful movie career. So, who’s to say what is Bad Karma? I believe, the best approach is to assume that EVERYTHING that occurs is good somehow, and this allows it to evolve accordingly, most easily. Whereas, judging an experience or event as bad seems to create a string of occurrences that seem to verify our negative judgment. This reminds me of a saying, “Would you rather be right, or be happy?” Oprah says, "Everything happens for a reason, even if we can’t see it at the time." I’m fairly sure she means that everything happens for a good reason, and I agree with her (although they often don’t appear good at all). When we make negative judgments, we tend to get very self-righteous about them, as if we are God somehow, and know that such things are as we judge them to be. To me, this is common but arrogant. Phil
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Michael Norwood:
I love the Dustin Hoffman story, Phil, as well as the classic one from China. We just can’t know where our supposed "Bad Karma" is going to lead us.
There’s even this guy I know who went through some stuff and landed up writing this book and newsletter series about Wealthy Souls . . .