“Use each experience you encounter to awaken and enlighten yourself. This is the key.”
-Shinjo Ito
I like to believe that everything that happens to us is a learning experience or a teachable moment. Admittedly, my granddaughter occasionally chastises me for slipping a “life lesson” into every conversation we have. I guess it is not always a great thing to have a grandfather who thinks he is a Zen Master. There is a saying that goes, “Your behavior can either be an inspiration to others or a warning.” Muhammad Ali once said that if you grow old without learning anything, then you’ve wasted a lot of time. If you want to get away from dualistic thinking, and I encourage you to do so, then stop thinking of every experience as good or bad. It is what it is so the question is, “What did you learn or what did you teach?” Life is a classroom. You can learn and move on or you can fail to learn and keep making the same mistakes. I am not a twenty year old trying to find my way in a brave new world. As a 65 year old grandfather I should be a kind of Zen master or wise man. If I am not, then I have wasted most of my life. Throughout our lives we should be acquiring knowledge while also acquiring wisdom.
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