Solving Problems

Weekly wisdom to level up your creative life in 3 minutes, for free.

A SHORT STORY

Lately, I've been pondering a quote from the 9th-century philosopher, Shantideva. He said:

If there is a solution to a problem, why worry?

If there is no solution to a problem, why worry?

I recall the first time I encountered these words after meeting the president of the Central Tibetan Administration, Dr. Lobsang Sangay.

In 2011, the Dalai Lama stepped down as the political leader of the Tibetan exile government. The Tibetan community democratically elected a new political leader for the first time, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, who served two terms from 2011 to 2021. He traveled the world on behalf of the exile government and the Dalai Lama.

When our group asked him about the qualities of a good leader, he shared with us Shantideva's quote and how it has guided him.

'We need a stable mind,' he told us. 'If a problem has a solution, we must work to find it; if it does not, we need not waste time thinking about it.'

What strikes me about this idea is its practicality. Lately, I've found myself grappling with anxiety as I confront the challenges I'm trying to solve in my work, life, and beyond. Therefore, I've quietly been reciting Shantideva's wisdom over and over.

It reminds me not to be swayed by external circumstances and, deep down, to have faith.

What is a problem you are currently facing that feels overwhelming? Is there a solution? Is there no solution?

A CREATIVE TOOL

In creativity, I have often found it helpful to look to the masters to help illuminate and inspire one’s practice. And so when my friend Brian shared with me a short video of Judi Dench reciting Shakespeare’s sonnet 29 - I was absolutely blown away watching such a master at work.

A PIECE OF ART

“So Much Happiness” by Naomi Shihab Nye

originally published in Words Under the Words.

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against,
a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.

But happiness floats.
It doesn’t need you to hold it down.
It doesn’t need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of noise and dust
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibilities
of coffee cake and ripe peaches,
and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records . . .

Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.

Grateful,

Michael