If there is one lesson I am grateful to have learned from the Navy, it can be summed up in the phrase I used for this post's title. When I first heard a chief say this to me, I almost laughed aloud I was so delightfully surprised by the direct wisdom of this playful yet stern catchphrase. I really feel that this is pointing to a lesson I have learned time and again through zen practice.
I have a lot of problems. They range from macroscopic (how will the human species avoid destroying ourselves?) to trivial (fucking assholes don't know how to merge!). Quick aside: it seems like those two problems are really just different iterations of the same underlying frustration. But anyways... At work, I sometimes delay my own progress out of frustration with some such issue or another. This only hurts me. At times, doing this even adds to my frustration. The resolution I imagine will fix everything will never come to be. The resolution I should instead put my efforts toward realizing is essentially equanimity: the willingness to experience any mental state (nod to Darlene Cohen for that phrasing). When I am unwilling to be frustrated, I am unwilling to deal with my frustration in a constructive way.
Getting all butt-hurt about stuff is useless. Whining about it and ruminating only make it worse. The buddhist guidance of right attitude is not something I will eventually obtain after practicing at Tassajara (though I may benefit in other ways). I can practice the noble eightfold path (or whichever spoke is applicable) here and now. Sometimes, though, I need a verbal smack on the head to remind me of this.
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