Once marched out to meet the enemy with an army one-tenth the number of the opposition, a Zen master speaks to his students about a great warrior of ancient Japan who.
This general’s name was Nobunaga, and he said to himself, “I will win. I am sure.” His men had doubt.
En route to the field of battle, Nobunaga paused to offer prayers at a wayside shrine. He told his soldiers: “Destiny help is our hearts.”
From his pocket he took out a coin while telling everyone to face your fears, and said, “I will toss it. We will win if heads comes up. If it be tails, then we must prepare for our death.”
He flung the coin skyward.
It flashed in the sun’s light and then fell heads up. A roar of courage shook the inspired soldiers. Eager to fight, Nobunaga’s men won their battle easily and answered to, “what’s my destiny.”
” No one can change the hand of destiny with the toss of a coin,” the victorious warrior’s aide told Nobunaga after the fighting was over.
” Indeed, one can not,” Nobunaga replied. Smiling, he held up the coin he had tossed, which was double-headed.
Each of us has a destiny help within that is chartered beyond our own thinking.
The world we live in sends us in a multitude of directions, so the courses we pursue in life are not always of our own choosing and we often work to achieve objectives and goals that do not reflect what we truly want.
The Course in Miracles teaches that, “Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use.”
The individual like you out to face your fears and who believes he is complete master of his own destiny exists solely in the eyes of his own ego.
I began to idolize the Beatles at age seven, when I first saw them perform on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Later, as a determined young boy, to be all that I could be, I wanted to know more about “Lucy in the Sky” and I fantasized about being on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
I yearned to be a part of the “revolution” and the “evolution” they sang about. Their free spirit and free will struck me, and I wanted it too.
Growing up in 1960s Ohio, I was the oldest of six children in a low-income Catholic family.
My father worked as a welder at a local factory and my mother was a registered nurse at a local hospital.
Growing Pains
Previously I discussed free e-books and other material on the web about manifesting your dreams to reality.
My dream beyond rock-n-roll was to be a football hero at Notre Dame, but this was also the dream of all the other boys I played parochial league ball with.
My heart’s desire felt to me that it was bigger than the others, so the dream continued for a while.
Speaking of face your fears, I did pretty well and scored many touchdowns as a small halfback, and I was told that the other teams keyed on me each game.
By the time I was a freshman at Central Catholic High School, though, my size had not yet caught up with my desire.
At the team’s official weigh-in, I came up with the idea of placing a few weights into my pockets to portray a heavier me on the roster.
The scale teetered at 96 pounds.
I was very concerned about my weight and height, if I were to earn a scholarship to play football for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.
The idea of face your fears, was a constant pursuit for me.
I tried all the proven stretching gimmicks and sprinkled loads of wheat germ over every meal, but I just could not seem to grow.
After the freshman season I was forced by lack of inches and pounds to awaken from the dream of tearing up the turf at Notre Dame.
I finished high school in a few more years with slightly above-average grades, only because I did not ever prepare for tests, and my physical form finally had matured.
My parents had always been devoted Catholics, and they expected the same from their four daughters and two sons.
My grandparents, too, occupied the same third-row seat every Sunday at 11:30 am at Saint Barbara’s.
It was an old parish with generations of “good Catholic” families, with a cemetery behind the church for the members who had passed along to a “better place.”
At Sunday mass I would sit in confusion, bored with the readings and sermons, and impatient with the kneeling, standing, and sitting.
I was an altar boy and was often seen daydreaming and fidgeting of girls, music, football, and anything else other than my duties on the altar.
Occasionally I would get a nasty look with a signal from the priest when I was late ringing the concentration bell (really called consecration) at the most boring part of the mass.
Of course, at that age I didn’t understand it, and is why I thought it was “concentration.”
What I wanted to know about above and beyond how to overcome fear, was the most was the secret conversations Jesus had with the apostles.
I figured there had to be parts left out of the fragments recorded in the Gospels, which I also suspected had to have been touched up a bit after all these years.
I wondered what they really talked about while out for the day on Peter’s fishing boat.
How did they hang out together, and did they help one another with how to face your fears?
What jokes did they tell one another about all the challenges in life? How did they talk about the local women?
I always believed that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife, and I still do. I wanted to know more than the people who wrote the history books were willing to tell us.
(Please note, I also suggest searching the net for further helpful content on matters like, the qualities of successful people who have ever walked among us.)
To tremendous success in your life!
Source by James Nussbaumer
#Youre #Searching #Finding #Destiny self improvement
