Obstacles and mistakes are your friends and teachers

The Silent Master

 “In my first book, Seven Steps to Inner Power, I present a foundation of principles that lead to the discovery of your Silent Master. But once you know about the Silent Master within, when you know who you are and what your potential is, there is one more vital step to take. Action! Inner knowledge brings freedom only when you put it into action. In this second book, I emphasize how to create your own path of Self Discovery so that your knowledge brings you freedom and love and joy.Something else comes with this territory: Work! Self Discovery, taking action, staying on your path until your reach your goal, takes work. There’s no way around it. Work takes effort! I can tell you honestly I haven’t yet met anyone seeking true Self Discovery who didn’t have obstacles to overcome. But obstacles and mistakes are your friends and teachers. They come to you in exactly the strength you need to build equal strength for overcoming them.

I had to learn this lesson of the butterfly the hard way when I was a young girl studying with my Master in Korea. For many weeks I had been watching a cocoon, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. It was hard to believe that there was any kind of life in there, and I even wondered if maybe the cocoon was dead. My master assured me much was happening that I couldn’t see. “Learn to be patient…watch,” he said.

One day I thought I saw the tiniest of movements. Putting my ear up to the cocoon, I was startled and thrilled to hear the small scratching sounds of the butterfly within. After so much waiting, it was happening! Finally I was going to see a butterfly emerge. But it seemed to be taking forever. Although I waited for many hours, it still didn’t seem able to break out of its cocoon. I decided that it must be having trouble and that I’d better help it. Very carefully I peeled away the outer layer of the cocoon to set the butterfly free. The butterfly did step out, but, it couldn’t fly! It was just able to walk and flutter. When I called to my master for help, he saw at once what I had done without me telling him. I had interfered with the butterfly’s process. The effort – the work – to break out of the cocoon was a necessary part of the butterfly’s transformation. In my ignorance, I took away the work necessary to prepare for a life of flying.”