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LET'S TRY IT!
217 take it, if need be, on the jaw. If possible, take it the Judo way, by gently stepping aside so that the problem, when it strives to engulf you, finds that you have just moved out of the way. But it is dangerous to personify one's enemies, for it leads one to forget that they only exist in the mind. The Taoist doctrine of wu-wei is excellent Zen. Non-action, as it is often translated, does not mean no action, but no such action as begets opposition. "Right" action is neither to oppose nor to give way, but to be pliable, as a reed in the wind. In the West we are too pugnacious, so quick to fight all circumstance that we make by our very violence more problems than exist to be solved. It is wiser to walk delicately, "with a hold on life so light that it would not ruffle the bloom on a butterfly's wing". Serene, detached from all results, ready to fight or run, to win or lose, and always ready to laugh at all things, take whatever comes. Your child is ill, you say, or you cannot pay the rent. Very well, accept these facts and face them. Are they not trouble enough in themselves without adding the aggravation of worry to them? Why add the tension of emotion-thought to a situation which is (a) illusion, (6) to the extent that it is real, of passing moment, and (c) in any event the result of previous causes? Do what seems wise to be done, forget it and walk on. Even if you come to a precipice, why walk round it or back from it? Why not go over it? It is probably the shortest way there!
Acceptance can, of course, be unpleasant, but just as you alone make the problem so do you add the label "unpleasant" to an experience which is neither pleasant nor unpleasant, but that experience. If you cannot pay your debts without selling the house, sell it. If you have
