Become the Creator of Your Own Reality

By Bill Harris
Excerpt from 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life

There is a zen story of a great enlightened master, who, upon hearing of his own master's death, began to cry uncontrollably. His followers were shocked to see him cry. They asked him, "Why are you crying? You're enlightened. You're supposed to be beyond suffering. What will people think?"

He composed himself as best he could, and turning to them, he said, "What can I do? My eyes are crying. They are so sad that they will never again see this teacher I loved so much."

As this story so poignantly points out, sorrow upon experiencing loss is a normal part of being human. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism point out that all life involves suffering, that suffering is caused by desire or attachment, and that suffering can be ended by giving up attachment (the fourth Noble Truth is the method of doing so).

The Four Noble Truths are based on an obvious, often overlooked, but fundamental reality of human existence: all things exist "in time" and eventually pass away. Not getting what you want involves suffering, but it's equally true that getting what you want also involves suffering because the thing you wanted is, like everything else, transitory.

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