When dealing with a situation we often tend to judge it - this is good or this is bad, but on closer inspection we have to admit that there is nothing like 'good' or 'bad' - something just IS.

The following story demonstrates this very clearly...

It is said that there was once a gentleman in the middle east.   His only possession that really amounted to anything for him, his wife and son, who lived in a little hovel, was a gorgeous Arabian mare.  The mare was absolute perfection.

The neighbors always came by and said how lucky he was to have this one beautiful mare.  He said he didn't know whether it was good or bad, he just knew he had this lovely mare.

Well, one night she broke out of the corral and when he got up the next morning, he discovered that she was gone.  All the neighbors came by and said how terrible, how bad it was that the mare was gone.  He said he didn't know whether it was good or bad, all he knew was that the mare was gone.

One morning about a week and a half later, she came back and had seven beautiful Arab stallions with her.  She brought those in the corral with her.  They were all smitten with her, so they went in the corral too.   Now all the neighbors came by and said what wonderful luck he had.  They said, "You have these seven beautiful stallions along with your mare back.

He said,  "I don't know whether it's "good" or "bad", all I know is I got mare back and seven stallions with her."

So while they looked them over, the son decided to break these stallions so they could be ridden and they could sell them.   One of the stallions threw him and broke his leg.  So he was laid up with a broken leg.  They didn't have those little pins they use now so you could get up and go.  He was laid up with a splint.

The neighbors came by and said, "That's bad, your son has a broken leg."

He said, "I don't know whether it's good or bad, I just know my son has a broken leg.

About this time the king sent his men through the area and took all able-bodied young men to send them on one of his war ventures.  The son couldn't go because he had a broken leg.  The neighbor's sons all had to go.

The neighbors came over and said how lucky the man was because his son didn't have to go because he had a broken leg.  He said, "I don't know whether it's good or bad, I just know my son has a broken leg and didn't have to go with the Army.

This said, we now also have to consider our tendency to label a lower emotion like fear as bad - it isn't. Just as above, it just IS.

But there are certainly situation were such an emotion is useful or not useful. Claustophobia - the fear of small, closed spaces is not very useful in most cases, especially if you work on the 50th floor of a high rise. But then again, it might be very good for your health if you have to use the stairs because the elevator is a too small space.

But some healthy fear of lions and tigers when you are on a safari in Africa might actually be very adventageous to your survival.

Now that we are working on ridding ourselves of lower emotions we should not attempt to eliminate reasonable emotions.

Blissfully walking through a hot mine field might not be such a good idea, but looking blissfully at the prospect of meeting the new girl friends parents proably is.

In all our decisions on where we want to go with our training lets keep our attention set to what is reasonable.

Our view of what is reasonable might dramatically change over time, thus a decision today what is reasonable might look totally silly tomorrow.