Events unfolding

Our lives are like books, full of chapters with beginnings and endings. For me, another short chapter has just ended as my winter visit to Thailand is now over and I am returning to Europe. A new chapter is starting to unfold and it is a very important chapter which could signpost where the rest of my life goes, for it is geared towards seeking my Shangri La in Italy wherein I can finally put down my roots and create both a beautiful home and a place of peace and inspiration for teachings and treatments. This has been a dream of mine for more than five years but which has failed to materialise before now as the time was not right.

As the Buddhist saying goes, "When the apple is right it falls of itself from the tree". I sense that now the apple is ripe and it is the time to realise the dream. Events are conspiring to make it possible and, now, I must grasp the opportunity. Sometimes we do have a dream but the time is not right for us to realise it and we end up batting our heads against endless obstacles which make for a rocky path. We cannot force the pace if the universe is not ready for us and sometimes it is better just to tread water until the time is right. Patience. There seems to be a natural order to how and when we can realise our dreams. We need to allow ourselves to be guided by our intuition.

Often we don't have enough patience. Or, you can say, we are driven by desire to realise a wish or a dream instantly, rather than allowing time for the dream to unfold naturally. Misplaced desire is the enemy of natural order. I know this, for in the past I have been guilty of it. It is like a loving relationship that cannot be cemented into permanence because of the incompatible commitments of the two lovers. In that case, you have a choice, either to say this isn't going to work and end the relationship and move on, or, to give it time and see if the commitments can unravel themselves and allow the two lovers to come together on a permanent basis. For much of the time we live in a mist of uncertainty and it is only when the mist lifts that we can see clearly the way ahead. And for this we need patience and a clear and open mind. Without them we are doomed to frustration and suffering.