Setbacks are Setforwards!
TONT.ORG
Feb 15 '26
Play video above for some Baroque music while you read...
Heartbreak and setbacks have a way of seismically reducing lesser concerns or preoccupations to rubble leaving how you really feel about yourself and the world. If the cataclysmic has made impact, again then again -- have you been confronted with "Good-time God" syndrome? This is faith holding until institutional walls fall, intact as long as illusions are maintained, the paradigmatic scaffolding never questioned until crumbling with assumptions never serving truth but serving as insulation for one not yet prepared for Reality. While suffering can be painful and inevitable, after the initial response to tragedy comes the space between loose cannon and conscious choice. Things happen: Terrible accidents, travesties of justice, man's inhumanity to man... It's incumbent on each individual NOT to perpetuate this unfairness unto one's self. A human's inhumanity to her/himself is the cause of most strife & crisis in this world and THIS is the opportune moment to address it.
First: Quit your self-pity. "What have I done to deserve this? Why is this happening to ME? I'm doing everything right, I'm trying so hard and THIS happens??!" These martyr-like questions along with the attitude, "All is lost. We're going to hell. Doom, nothing but doom on the horizon," can quickly takeover a person's thoughts and feelings in a spiraling frenzy fueled by grief over occurrences that should be sincerely grieved, blessed, released, but we cannot leave it there. Your pain is justified but should you succumb to it, it will immobilize you in bitterness. Crying may be cathartic, but on a continued basis it's emotional incontinence which brings forth more destruction than the incidence catalyzing such crying in the first place.
If there were ever a time to learn from the man called Jesus: It's now. It's not that he died for your sins but that he proved beyond horrific torture and death, there is nothing God's Love can't overcome. If you experience knee-jerk negativity upon hearing the word God or the name Jesus, please don't fault either for their bad PR. Religion shouldn't become defensive either but learn to adapt to a modern world instead of platitudes and teachings of the past leaving people with more questions & presumptions relegating religion to the superannuated along with horse & buggy & fax machines (but apparently anti-Semitism and Birkenstocks never go out of style).
Growing up Buddhist there was neither indoctrination nor taboo re: Jesus. Even a stint in Catholic school shed no more light on this Great Light of the World, who, in effigy upon the cross appeared morose and maudlin -- a shrine to suffering. This is the same man who decided his first public miracle would be helping a young married couple and their families not lose face by making the fine wine even better at the end of the party! No need to ration or run out, no cutting wine with water to make it last, this was a man who loved a good celebration and his kindness and consideration in this instance reminds us that his trials and public immolation were for witnesses eyes and not his own. Even before this incredible act of trust he reassured those around him: "I have overcome the world." He was ready to change the world through his death and resurrection, his suffering proving his future actions no trick: He really had overcome the world. And so will you.
And so am I. Setbacks or heartbreak you may be experiencing is the avenue for a great revival in your life -- and who knows who else you'll positively affect in the process! When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane he asked for this cup to be taken from him if at all possible: Who would want to go through that? After prayer/communion at the highest level with Spirit and Higher Souls it was clear no other path could fulfill his special mission to bring to the Earth, now and forever, a message of Love, the power of Love coming through us as us and the fabulous festival of Christmas honoring this fact in our hearts through its season, and better still, from moment to moment throughout the years. Can you imagine a world without this marvelous conspiracy of giving and goodwill? It didn't exist before Jesus and took hundreds of years to manifest afterwards but look how it has become a fixture in our world and one I would never want to be without.
Buddhists are generally open to all kinds of philosophies. Buddhism does reflect the Oriental mind of its time in its analysis and meticulous rule book for enlightenment. Buddhism's dominance of the Eastern world had a lot to do with a man of royalty eschewing his position and let us not underestimate how his experiments with asceticsm only added to his credibility. To sacrifice his wealth and title and enter into deprivation made him a man of the people, they felt understood by him because of this, and though he would reject the ascetics recognizing that either extreme promotes imbalance, these poles brought him to the crux of Buddhism which is to walk the middle of the road - everything in moderation - including moderation!
Living to an old age and ready to ascend under the famed Bodhi tree surrounded by his devoted followers, Buddha by example showed how far humans can go on their own -- no godhead required. However, when we see this same individual in another iteration further down the line, we can also observe his advancement from those teachings to the penultimate level achieved in that lifetime where 3 Kings of the Orient came to honor his birth. Jesus, coolest dude ever, said it: "Why praise me? It is the Father within me that doeth the work." I'm not going to get all Bible verse-y with you, his words will live forever in their simplicity and expansive truth only growing in depth as we do. No rules of religion are required to fall in love with this guy. The more you learn about him -- using your intelligence and meditative abilities - the more you will find to admire. Whether you do it is up to you. We have all the time in the universe.
Knowing this, knowing within you is this undeniable indefatigable force for good -- the Source of ALL good, OF ALL YOUR GOOD -- should you elect a continued willful path of pain and punishment (of yourself), you inhibit this power COMING through you and choosing death over life. Even at your lowest, hope disappearing, limiting how we can move forward, holding on to hurt, unable to ask for help -- YOU'RE NOT ALONE -- no one ever is. God IS ESPECIALLY present in the darkness:
See the magical results for all of Earth's progeny from the most famous injustice historically documented providing absolute proof any and everything can be used for good -- and the very worst for the very best good of all. ~t.
