All good things never come to a bad end – all good things always come to a good end. It is you who create all the obstacles.

I agree with Donato that it is we who create the obstacles, but the only real obstacle we create is the craving for good things or the aversion to bad.

We decide if we want to see the glass half empty or half full. We decide if winning a million dollars is a good thing because we’ve never had that much money, or a bad thing, because we’re already wealthy and this only puts us into the next higher tax bracket. It can most certainly go either way, and it is always our own perceptions that color otherwise neutral circumstances good or bad.

Morningland was very fond of the saying “as it is” and rightly so, it is a beautiful expression of acceptance of the present circumstances without comparison to prior expectations, so there is no good or bad about it. When circumstances give us physical/emotional sensations that we crave, we say that things are “good”. When circumstances give us physical/emotional sensations to which we have an aversion, we call them “bad”. But it is only our reactions to what is, not what is that we’re actually calling good or bad.

Some of us were sent away from Morningland amidst great cries of anguish and gnashing of teeth. Others were sent away with a deep sigh and the sensation of a great weight having been lifted off of our shoulders. Same exact experience, two very different perceptions.

Probably Donato’s best teaching of them all said that if you have no expectations, you’ll have complete fulfillment. Expecting good things to always come to a good end is a rather dramatic departure from the wisdom of having no expectations, and this teaching about good things is in my opinion barking up the wrong tree.

If you insist on seeking out the good and/or avoiding the bad, you’ll be destined to live a life of twoness, not oneness.

-Sunfleur

Filed under: Dao of Donato