Not Nothing is Black and White

meditating buddha figurine

Use the positive to your advantage.

Zen teaches us nothing is black and white. Or at least, viewing it as such is a much easier way to learn to accept things, which is in turn the best way to get on in this world. Thinking of something as neither good, nor bad, rather as simply existing, is but one step in the important process to acceptance.

At the very same time, however, I like to think everything is black and white.

Everything.

Or in other words, whether something is positive or not is entirely dependent on your perspective on it.

In my daily interactions, I always try to find the positive. I always try and put a positive spin on things, no matter how dark things may seem to be.

This is simply because optimists are obliged to be optimistic. Optimists have an obligation to send out that optimism. Optimism has a way of coming back to us as well, in a vicious circle of virtue.

We don’t have to accept things as positive, nor negative. But we do have to accept them.

And if we’re going to accept them, we may as well make them positive.

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Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan 

tim@timbunting.com

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