'Acceptance of God’s Will and of how things are allows us to change, adapt and offer help'

MOST of us spend the majority of our time bemoaning the way life is and trying to reshape future events so that they are more to our liking.

We do not realise, as the Buddha realised, that day to day life is fundamentally unsatisfactory and that ‘He that expects nothing shall never be disappointed’.

This is a summary of the first and second Noble Truths of the Buddha’s teaching.

We can be pleasantly surprised and thankful on those occasions when the cookie crumbles our way. The realisation of the unsatisfactoriness and the angst of life and the pain of old age, sickness and death is the essence of the religious path.

A particularly poignant demonstration of this Truth was spoken by Jesus just before His crucifixion.

‘My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me. Yet, not my will but Thine be done’.

Acceptance of God’s Will and of how things are allows us to change, adapt and offer help. It also marks the beginning of the way of the Spiritual Life.

Michael Jackson

Altrincham Interfaith Group