How many times have I fallen for the belief I have it all figured out?
~ Chick
We often demand that the path is clear before we take any steps. We want to know where we’re headed exactly how it will work out. So sometimes we end up following someone else on their path. However, our true path is revealed to us through courage, intuition, and trust. To paraphrase Rumi, “when you step out on the way, the way appears...”
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Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship's wake on the sea.
-Antonio Machado
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Both suffering and happiness are of an organic nature which means they are both transitory they're always changing the flower when it wilts, becomes the compost. The compost can help grow a flower again. happiness is also organic and impermanent by nature. It can become suffering and suffering can become happiness again. --- Thich Nhat Hanh, page 12 in "No Mud, no Lotus"
Brother Phap Dung, at 28:29:00 (https://youtu.be/RoS-zshhF2I?si=qB8famyKy4Xg-Cib) uses the term 'organic' to describe this practice. He has just finished talking about how mindfulness practices create the conditions to see oneself, to see all parts of oneself with compassion, and without judgment (if that's possible)....a self that is continually mutating, changing... and he reminds us that being organic, we use the suffering as compost to grow happiness in this present moment. Happiness will invariably change into suffering and back again.
