Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for July 07, 2014

When one door closes, a whole bunch of other doors close at the same time.

Why should one choice automatically exclude all the others?

Oh my…Not quite uplifting, but powerful nonetheless…

Thus the phrase “He who hesitates is lost”.

:-( Now I’m depressed. Maybe I can find some figs covered in chocolate.

When you try to assign potential futures into categories, trying to choose which is best, you almost inevitably fail, because no one is wise enough to see true outcomes. This is the same as regrets. Having regrets is futile, because no one is wise enough to know what would have happened. The truth is that you may wonder what would have happened if you have followed another path, but each different path is equally liable to success or failure, joy or horror. The truth is that, if you never do anything, never eat at least one fig, you are assured to never know sweetness. And that is indeed a kind of madness. If you eat your one fig with total attention to appreciation, you need not ever wonder what the others would have been like.

A famous poet, yes…inspirational? Depression, disappointment, madness.The first Zen Pencils I have not appreciated.Poor girl!

The point is to NOT be caught in indecision. Any of those futures are awesome, don’t get caught by indecision, but choose and live it without looking back at “what if”. Those are the people that are remembered throughout history. The longer you delay, the more worthless your life becomes.

She chose to kill herself.

Like most people…can’t make a decision. Wallflowers naturally shrivel and die.

The cowardly never start and the weak die along the way. That’s why actual leadership, willingness to make a decision and act upon it, is a rare and valuable commodity. Most of it is concentrated in the military, on police forces and in firefighters and surgeons. Those people have to make life and death decisions on a regular basis. The first three are grossly underpaid, by the way.

And then I realized that I actually don’t give a fig.Roll with the changes. That is the lesson of the Bodhi tree.

This is different than the usual Zen Pencils, but just as inspirational. (an earlier source is the fable of the donkey who starved to death between two piles of hay because he couldn’t choose).

Make the best choices you can, and then move on!

Or as the race drivers say, don’t drive in your mirrors.

In my experience, the figs show up gradually as one travels the road.

If you choose no fig, one will be chosen for you.

“And then I stuck my head in the oven.”

What do you expect from a person who killed themselves."

If you’re going to be insulting, at least learn grammar.

I’ve had enough! Good bye to the one that is just trying to get the work out on time.