FORTUNE AND MISFORTUNE ARE OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

The new fiscal year begins next month, and personnel will be reshuffled and transferred at companies everywhere. Some people will get promoted and start the new year with enthusiasm, but the flip side of this is that there will also be people who are utterly dejected because they feel that their work is not valued by their companies.

We tend to dichotomize the things we dislike and the things that make us happy, stubbornly rejecting those not in line with our wishes and welcoming only what is to our liking.

But the truth is that fortune and misfortune are linked—they are opposite sides of the same coin.

If it rains, next comes a sunny day. If sunny skies persist, a rainy day follows. If you are on the top of the world, counting on spring and summer warmth to continue indefinitely, you will inevitably end up shivering in the cold of winter. But if you store up your strength on winter days, spring—when you can tap into these reserves—will certainly come around.

Where there is a chance for promotion, there is also a chance for demotion. What you make of this depends on how you accept your transfer. When you resolve to see your new position as a place to cultivate spiritual discipline, that itself brings forth an immediate result.

Nikkyo Niwano

From Kaisozuikan 9 (Kosei Publishing, 1997), pp. 40–41