Success, failure, shame, and guilt

 

Right off these four things seem most like bumpers in

a pinball machine.  Some people might think pin ball is

a lot like life, but really human beings do not have that

much in common with small metal balls.

First, we can start with " failure is not an option ".  

Whether it is an option, it certainly happens quite

often, and then also un-expectedly.  One of the more

important ideas in Zen is that, practice is what is

more important, and success and failure are more like

steps that happen as a result of practice.  Often failure

can be as meaningful in the process as success.  For some

reason we seem to feel more positively about the

success parts.

Then we have shame and guilt which are pretty common

emotions and often experienced much differently by 

different people.  The key thing is these are emotions,

and like most emotions, it is sometime important

for us to deal with them.  This is where the key element

of justice as a personal virtue is important, because it is through

our own experience of justice, reflection, on both

events and feelings always plays a key role in how well

we deal with these things.

So, to sum up, I will just say that very often it's not

the falling down part, that is most central, but the

getting up part.