When you find yourself trapped in a great predicament — your willpower drained, unable to summon courage for anything — here is what you should do.
Go to the emergency room entrance of your nearest major hospital. Stand there. Watch. See for yourself what this thing called “life” is really about.
Once you’ve seen it, you’ll understand.
You’ll realize that every one of us has only this one brief life — which means many things, if not done now, will truly never get done.
You’ll realize that in the face of life and death, everything the world considers earth-shatteringly important shrinks to the size of a sesame seed.
You’ll realize that even if you have nothing to your name, the fact that your body is whole and your life is not at risk — that alone is already an extraordinarily powerful foundation.
You’ll realize that those great problems which once crushed you are, beside the fight to save a life, lighter than a feather. Not worth a single word.
This is what I, Master Chi, mean when I say: only those who have truly faced life and death can reach full and complete awakening (大彻大悟).
To look death in the eye is to gain instant clarity — a piercing, sober understanding of this world.
When you turn back to your own life and its problems after that, you will find yourself unmoved. Everything becomes conquerable. [Embrace]