Even the enlightened ones, gurus, sages, masters, they have all had their opportunities of falling down. Skinning their knee, breaking a bone, mentally…they too fall periodically. The time that they spend on their hands and knees begging for mercy or crying out, for a better life, lasts a lot less than you and I. The time spent on their hands and knees crying out for mercy lasts merely a second.

To fall and get hurt, feeling pain, is perfectly human. Falling is acceptable as long one learns to get up. It takes little strength to fall, far greater strength to get up. Learn to feel the pain, embrace it, learn from it and then let it go.

One day a master was meditating and he began to cry out, “what am I doing here? why do I continue doing what I do?” This guru is a Buddhist monk who oversees a monastery of many young minds. This Buddhist monk has great responsibility overseeing the monastery and overseeing the community. The reality for this monk…he need only responsibility over himself.

This proven by a boy who overhears a monk crying, over hears his cry out to the Lord. The boy over hears his master asking “please give me strength…I cannot do it any longer…why do I continue? yada yada yada.” The boy interrupts the master, “Master why do you cry out and complain about being hurt or with so much pain,? Why do you cry out to make it stop? Was it not you who said get up off your knees, stop worrying about what is to be? It is not important to worry about what we are to do or who we are to serve. It is more important to help ourselves. In helping ourselves we help others…it is that simple. Master…remember the time you told me that we all eventually get hurt? Are you any different from that? We are all human having experiences, learning valuable lessons of life. In this canvas of life we are to learn valuable lessons, and grow farther than we’ve ever imagine. Through our lessons we grow through our pain…we find strength.”

The teacher replies, “thank you for showing me the way; thank you for showing me the canvas of life is meant for human experiences; through our pain we shall grow; through our falls we only get up. You’re a wise teacher thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Now smiling the master continues…”to be more like you my child. Today you are the master and I am student. You taught me something that I have forgot. We are here to learn and grow, we are all human and sometimes we even fall down. I am no different from any other and I am just like the rest.”

Stepping into the Canvas with no self-judgment. As we travel through this journey of life, we often come to forks in our road. Not sure which to take, we make a wrong turn. Allow yourself to make mistakes and then allow yourself to learn from them. Our mistakes are our greatest teachers, transforming mistakes into opportunities. Opportunities lay ahead…do not wait! Get out there and enjoy every aspect of the Canvas.