We have been born into an imperfect world, characterized by unpredictability and adversity, as finite human beings who change their minds, make mistakes, get confused, and think irrationally. There is much to contend with, and our ability to prevent or circumvent difficulty is quite limited. We aren’t omnipotent beings, and while we try to protect ourselves and maintain order in our lives, we simply don’t have the ability to safeguard ourselves from its disasters.Things happen, and there may be nothing we can do to change that, but we can control our responses to them. We don’t have to despair in the face of disaster. We can either continue to respond in the way we’ve always done and get progressively worse, or we can turn things around and use our misfortune to aid our inner growth. We grow more quickly if we are open to working with difficulties rather than constantly running away from them. We learn to face unfavorable circumstances and “take them as the path” so that we are working with our problems rather than against them.
Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, Training the Mind to Transform Adversity into Awakening
