Finding our path can resemble

a piece of a jigsaw puzzle searching for its home.

A class member told us one evening that although she was raised in a particular religion, she never felt as if it was the one for her. She did not quite fit in. Someone suggested that spiritual traditions are a bit like jigsaw puzzles. Some people gravitate to the closest “puzzle,” the one of their parents. Seeing an empty place, this person approaches it.

A perfect fit!

But others can approach their same puzzle and, for various reasons, they just don’t fit. They try to. They just don’t. Nothing is wrong with the puzzle. Nothing is wrong with the individual. They just don’t go together.

People can spend years trying various puzzles, looking for the one they fit. All the puzzles are beautiful. The fit just isn’t there.

Then, one day, the person walks up to yet another puzzle. Here I go again. But there’s no sigh this time. Instead, Wow! This is it! In a world of beautiful puzzles, with good fortune and persistence, we, too, will find the one that feels just right for us.

Our lives today are a rare opportunity,

a precious chance to choose 
and progress.

Very rarely are we reborn as humans. Rarer still are we reborn at a time when we can learn what the Buddha taught. And do what he encouraged us to do: practice and experience his teachings. Even now, with the teachings widely available, few learn and practice them. What seems so clear and obvious to these few remains unacceptable to many others. Or perhaps inaccessible.

Those who have the conditions to learn and practice in order to evolve into more loving, caring people have received a gift. Yes, it’s a gift received due largely to their past hard work and sincere efforts. A gift, nonetheless. One from awakened beings!

When presented with a gift, the wise recipient is appreciative. It would be hubris, not to mention bad manners, to murmur “Thanks” and then set the gift aside, undervalued and unused. And so, upon receipt, we hold our gift and marvel at it for it shows the way to a bright, loving future.

Do not waste it.

Viewing our loss

as a positive for another.

We can feel a sense of loss when something does not work out as we hope. We do not get the promotion that we feel we are entitled to. Our soccer team makes it to the finals only to lose to our longstanding rivals. Again. We finally work up the courage to ask someone out only to be told that he just started seeing someone.

In these and many other circumstances, as disappointment sets in, we feel we have lost. That we didn’t get what we wanted. And deserved. This initial reaction is understandable. We worked hard for the promotion, practiced all year for the soccer finals, took the time to help that wary person feel safe with us. And what happened?

We were rejected. We lost.

But what if we could look at this from a broader perspective? A coworker got a promotion. A team that also practiced hard won the championship. And maybe the special person has at long last found his soulmate.

Reminding ourselves that our conditions just weren’t right, let’s try to be happy for those whose conditions were.