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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Steve Taylor.

Good Morning.

Once I was ill, with a virus, and felt thoroughly miserable. I was thinking about all the things I wanted to do but couldn’t, all the appointments and deadlines I was missing, all the people I was letting down.

However, at a certain point, it occurred to me that all my worrying was pointless. I was ill. It wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t do anything about it. So I decided to let go of my worries. I accepted the situation, and allowed myself to rest. I felt calm, even contented, and soon began to recover.

The Buddha beautifully illustrated this type of situation, with his teaching of the two arrows. The first arrow, he said, is the suffering that we inevitably experience as human beings, including illness and pain. The second arrow, is our resistance to our suffering, including negative thoughts, judgments, and hostility towards others. When negative events occur, we may worry about the future, complain about other people who may have caused the events, chastise ourselves for our mistakes, and feel envious of those who have avoided misfortune. According to the Buddha, the second arrow of mental suffering is completely unnecessary. Simply by accepting our predicament, we can free ourselves from mental pain.

So today, if I find myself in a negative predicament that I can’t change – illness, a traffic jam, a long queue, a chore that there is no choice but to do – I’ll try not to add negative thoughts to the situation. In the wise words of The Beatles, I will Let It Be. I might even find that the situation ceases to be negative, and becomes neutral or even pleasant.

Blessings.