Blessings In Disguise

With so many people going through incredible change at the moment, such as financial changes, relationships ending, jobs ending, I find myself thinking of a story that Osho shares.

It goes something like this;

There was a man who owned a beautiful horse, many people, including Emperors had offered him large amounts of money to buy this horse, and he always declined.

One morning he awoke to find the horse had been stolen. The town folk came together to console the man saying, “This is terrible. Many people offered you a lot of money and you wouldn’t sell the horse and now it has been stolen and you could have had all that money. You will never see the horse again”.

To which the man replied “Don’t be silly. All we know for now is that the horse is not in the stable. I do not know what the future will bring, lets wait and see what happens”.

Fourteen days later, the horse returned to the man, and had brought along 12 other beautiful horses with it.

Again the town fold gathered, this time to celebrate with the man. “You are very clever, we did not know what would happen. Now the horse has returned and brought you 12 other horses, you will be rich”.

To which the man replied “Let’s not get ahead of the situation. All we know for now is the horse has returned and brought 12 other horses with it”.

The next morning, the man’s son broke his leg whilst breaking in one of the new horses. The town folk came together to console the man. “How terrible. We are so sorry for you. Your son has broken his leg and now he will be a cripple”.

To which the man replied “Don’t jump ahead. Only say this much, my son has broken his leg – that’s all.”

The following day the government came to town and forcibly took all of the healthy young men from their families to fight the war.

The townfolk came together to see the man “You are so very wise. All our sons have been taken to war. The enemy is much stronger and all of our sons will probably be killed. In our old age, we will have nobody to look after us. You still have your son, even though he is crippled, you still have him here.”

But the man said, “Say this much – that your sons have been taken by the government. My son has been left, but there is no conclusion!”

State the fact. The relationship has ended. The job has finished. What comes from that, no one knows… so lets just wait and see what happens.

Don’t see things as a curse or a blessing. Don’t interpret it and suddenly everything is beautiful.

“What seems to us bitter trials is often blessings in disguise” Oscar Wilde

What is fear?

Fear is something most of us don’t want to experience. It can conjure up thoughts of being totally overwhelmed and debilitated, causing the body to respond to the very thought of a fear with pressure in the chest, sick feelings in the stomach and even causing the heart to beat rapidly. So it no wonder we don’t want to experience fear.

Being willing to meet fear, face to face, you open to the opportunity to experience the fear and allow it to unravel in front of you, to reveal that the fear is nothing when met fully! The greatest fear was of the fear of itself.

The interesting part is that even though you may deny your fears, they are merely pushed to the side, so to speak and only to arise at the most inopportune (or opportune) times. Again may find yourself pushing this fear aside as quickly as possible.

A Simple Example to contemplate

Say for example you had a fear of public speaking, and through your business or work you are offered an opportunity to speak to an audience of 300 people, about that a subject that you are totally passionate about. The fear for some of you reading this might be so overwhelming from the moment of the invitation, so much so, that you say “No thanks” to this amazing opportunity.

For others you might find yourself saying, “Yes” and wonder how you will deal with it later.

Tomorrow is the day of the speaking event, you toss and turn in bed that night, stomach churning, wondering if may be you have food poisoning or a stomach upset (you might even find yourself hoping that this is true!).

In this moment, the fear has arisen to be met! So rather than pushing on through the fear STOP, even if it is only for ½ a second, STOP and be still, willing to meet this fear.

If you find it hard at first to simply stop, you can ask yourself, what is it that I am most afraid of in this moment? You might be surprised at what thoughts rise, it might be of embarrassing yourself, maybe that people won’t like what you have to say, maybe something totally different. I will often take the fear as far as I can by asking something like, “What if nobody ever approved of me ever again?” The fear then springs forward to be met.

Stop completely
and meet the fear
face to face

So in this moment of meeting the fear, STOP! Completely STOP! You will notice patterns of wanting to move on quickly or change the subject arises, you can consciously choose to let those pass through as you STOP and observe them. There is no need to change a thing, simply observe, watch how the energy moves around the body then suddenly subsides and opens you to experience a feeling that is often described as expansiveness, nothingness, stillness, peaceful and loving.

This idea is not to become a new concept and strategy for the mind, simply an opportunity to meet with fear and allow it to pass, as it does naturally. What ever the fear is, be willing to STOP and experience it in the moment.

When we ignore any emotions, including fear, the energy and lesson is stored within the body and often represents later. So why not take the opportunity to meet it as it presents.

When you allow emotions to be present, you may also notice stories beginning to present too! You may even notice many stories begin to appear. The stories of blame “he/she did this to me”, the stories of guilt “it is all because I did that terrible thing”, the stories of justified anger “I have a right to be angry about this”. Simply observe the stories as the appear, the mind may present many memories when you are ready to clear or complete patterns in your life. So as best you can, observe the stories, and allow them to pass through and notice that when you don’t delve into the stories, it simply fades away, as does the emotions.


Gangaji

As Gangaji asks “Are you willing to have your heart broken?” Within that breaking that heart opens. It doesn’t mean that you go looking for experiences of having your heart broken, simply allowing it to happen when it does.

When you are unwilling to have your heart broken, you may not be fully living; protecting yourself from the possibility of having your heart broken can be a very consuming role. A role that may be denying you the opportunity of experiencing the very thing that can open your heart to love as you have never loved before, and to experience every moment in life as life enhancing rather than events to be avoided.

Have you every noticed that what you avoid the most is that which persists in your life and represents itself over and over again? This is very situation that persists may be offering you an opportunity to open and experience the unknown.

Life is made up of both positive and negative energy, positive and negative emotions. Neither is right or wrong or better or worse than the other, they are both simply energy. Both the positive and negative are needed to fully experience life.

“This too will pass” is a wonderful reminder at this point. As the emotions are passing you are opening to a joyful understanding and knowing that life is a wonderful collection of experiences, when fully experienced in each moment.


Meeting with fear is an opening to freedom!