Some years back a friend of mine gave me this book called The
Buddha in Your Mirror. She told me to read it if I felt like reading it.
For many weeks I didn’t read it. Then I did. And it helped
me a lot. To become a little more calm. To look at things in an objective
manner. To not lose my temper. To not blame other things and other people. To
take responsibility for what was happening to me.
As days passed by and life went on, I forgot about the book
and what the book had to tell me.
I remembered the book only when I was extremely unsettled
and upset. I went back to the book and felt better. I read about the Lotus
Sutra and about how the lotus can be the cause as well as the effect. I tried
to understand yet again, that I am the cause as well as the effect. It was
difficult. Indeed it is difficult to take responsibility for everything that
goes wrong in your life. It is much easier to blame. To believe that nothing is
your fault. To swear that you are a poor helpless soul and wonder why all the
horrible things are happening to you. From there, to believe that it is
actually because of you. Because you let things happen to you. Because you did
not do something about the way things are.
The very few times that I have managed to take responsibility,
to decide to take control, to accept my own shortcomings; life has taken
wonderful turns, and I was left smiling.
