Words and Thoughts

     

Earlier this week, feeling very sore, tired and grumpy, I decided to rest and escape with an episode of a Chinese drama I'm watching, The Longest Promise.  I'm a fan of xianxia, a genre of Chinese fantasy dramas set in ancient China, one of the reasons being that  I sometimes find  moral messages in them.  The stories are kind of like extended fables or fairy tales.  

     An episode I recently watched took place in the Abyss of Resentment.  This place was a lower world, part of what one might think of as hell.  It was dark and barren, with foreboding cliffs, dangerous narrow paths and an extremely deep abyss, the bottom of which was obscured by fog or smoke.  The escape route crossed a hanging bridge made of  long, large twisted tree branches all of which were  barren.  The  path had many gaps of varying sizes between the twists and uneven bumps.

     A man and young woman were  trying to escape from the Abyss of Resentment.  The girl was a student of the man, who was a powerful cultivator and her "master" (teacher). She decided to break from him and  took off alone.  She didn't  get very far before she encountered the bridge.  Her master reached the bridge  and watched as she gingerly attempted to walk across it.  She was unaware that underneath the bridge were snaky creatures gnawing away at it. A hun dun--a black and purple smoke monster--appeared at the other end and floated across the bridge towards them, consuming it as it approached.  The girl  hastily retreated back to her master as the hun dun finished eating the entire bridge.

     They were stranded; the cultivator's power was reduced in this place, and both he and his student couldn't think of any way to get over the abyss before them.   At some point the young woman recounted a happy memory from her past, which happened to involve her master, who unbeknownst to her was actually the childhood friend  in her memory.  Magically the  bridge began to grow back a few feet and stopped.  It was beautiful, covered with branches blooming with leaves and flowers.  Both wondered how this could be!  They figured out that perhaps it grew from the words of a happy memory.  The master had no  happy memories (he was obsessed with avenging his mother's death), so the girl continued until she couldn't think of any.  The bridge grew with each memory but was still not complete.  She finally told one more, this one a shared experience in some way with her master, and the bridge completed itself.  They safely crossed the bridge.

     As I watched I felt deeply impressed with the power of our thoughts and words.  In the drama and almost every day since watching it I've been thinking about how  uplifting words and thoughts can build escape paths across our own abysses of resentment.  I've also been more aware of the potential of my own hurt feelings to quickly escalate into seeds of resentment aimed the person whom I think caused it.  I usually ignore that little seed getting planted and by the time I recognize the "poison" in my own thoughts it has begun to grow and I have an inner battle with negative feelings.  I'm finding that when I catch that seed of resentment early I have any easier time getting rid of it.  One of the ways is to focus on uplifting thoughts.  Some of the things I do to accomplish this are the following: 1) remember the blessings and miracles in my life, including treasured memories of people I love.  2) read scriptures or other good literature 3) listen to music that lifts my mood. 4) ponder scripture verses and hymns.  5) I get busy with something distracting; sometimes I forget whatever it is that was bothering me.  

     We are all vulnerable to getting caught in an "abyss of resentment".  The longer we are caught here the longer we will be unhappy.  We might even begin to think that we will always be in this abyss or--even worse--think it is real and  begin exploring the place, even down to the bottom.  

     I hope there is something here that might help someone.  I'm thinking of so much more to write about this but it will have to wait until another post.