Good morning friends
When I was writing about one door closing and another one opening, I remembered a beautiful story told by Osho. I have heard the story many years ago in one of his discourses, so I may not be very accurate about the details. But I will try to convey the gist of this story.
A blind man is trapped in a room with 1000 doors, ( obviously, this is a metaphor ) and the doors are revolving. Only one of these doors actually opens out to the exterior, but the blind man has to try each one of the doors to see if it is the right one which can free him. So the man tries to open each door as it comes in front of him, but none of them can be opened. Eventually, he gets frustrated with the whole thing, and gives up. A short while later, the door which can be opened is right in front of the man, but he has already given up ! He has given up all the attempts to try to open the door and so he remains trapped in the room.
So often we see similar things happening in real life too, don’t we ? We stop trying after the first few attempts fail and we too, are trapped in an intolerable situation for a very long time.
I am sure that this story can be interpreted in various ways. One interpretation is : whenever people are trapped in a situation from which it is difficult to get out, very often they give up within a few attempts. Later, when the right opportunity comes along, they cannot grab this opportunity as they are not even trying now. And so they remain in a situation which they do not like, which they hate in fact, but are unable to free themselves.
Another important interpretation is that we must always be on the lookout for the right opportunity if we want to change our circumstances in life. The right opportunities do not come along very often, they’re quite rare in fact. So, we have to be aware all the time, we have to be on the lookout for them, assess the likelihood of success in any opportunity which comes along and not miss out on the right one. In fact, we should be ready all the time to grab the right opportunity.
It has been my personal experience that if we miss the right opportunity ( for whatever reason—- because we didn’t recognise it or because we were scared or because it was not feasible at that time to accept it ), it’s a very long time before such an opportunity becomes available again. And in the meantime, we may get frustrated with life.
Of course, at times, it is difficult to assess whether a particular opportunity is the right one for you. But regular meditation practice can help you in making this decision.
As I wrote this, I remembered a lovely zen story about awareness. As always, I have heard this story from beloved Osho. I will share this story in a day or two.
Till then, praying that all of us can recognise the right opportunity ( the specific opportunity which is right for us ) and take the necessary actions,
Love,
Anjali Bhatawdekar
