This month in ‘The Lounge’ it nice to have a piece of writing from Roy San, who has been a student of ours for over 10 years, wether in health or in sickness (for he has been both) he always has lovely words to say.
I left school and joined the Royal Engineers at the tender age of 15. During my 25 years service I had several occasions to fear for my survival. However I do recall the soldiers philosophy that of…what will be will be – ‘if the bullet has got your name on it then it is just your time.’ To some that may seem to be just trusting in fate, but to a soldier when all seemed doomed it was a way of coping.
Because of injury my training has been considerably disrupted during the last five years and non-existent for the last two, this being a legacy of my army career – the body has had enough. I have however been fortunate enough to have many life changing philosophy lessons with my sensei during this time. During one of my earlier lessons I asked what the difference between Fate and Karma was. Although I could understand the concepts of karma, so often things in my life appeared to just happen, as with all Zen lessons my sensei refused to answer the question, but helped explore the answers within myself, and they have been developing ever since, if i may share the story so far….
As we travel along our journey through life we are confronted with many obstacles and therefore have to make choices, the choices we make will ultimately determine how we progress along that journey. Every choice or decision we make will have a consequence – be it good or bad. It is therefore important how we decide what choice is correct. Some may say that it doesn’t matter what we decide because “what will be will be”. However, wouldn’t it be exciting if in fact nothing has been decided, our journey has not already been determined? The choices we make do still have consequences and are ours to make. So the path we are on is down to our choice and can be changed as and when we like.
A wise man once said, “If you can find a path without any obstacles it probably doesn’t lead anywhere!”. I don’t think that is supposed to mean we should seek out the most difficult path we can find, but a realisation that every journey will have obstacles and therefore we should be prepared to deal with them. I have changed paths on several occasions throughout my personal journey making many decisions along the way – some I know were of my own choosing others I am not so sure. For instance when an event happens – be it catastrophic or one of elation – with no obvious reason, should we just accept it and move on or should we try to understand why? As I get older and hopefully wiser I try very hard to make decisions based upon lessons learnt, when my actions do not comply with my expectations it is no longer so painful or distressing, for it is yet another lesson learnt!
“We should try and learn from other people’s mistakes because we don’t have time to make them ourselves”. Oh to be perfect, if only.
I believe life isn’t just about where I am now; the most important part was and IS the journey.
Luckily we never really know what the future holds, so lets just enjoy the journey.
Sometimes things are not quite what they may seem, so let us just leave the comfort of fate to the soldier, and the wisdom of karma…to the warrior.
I have been both.
Roy San
Wisewarrior Lounge 