If the Mountain Will Not Come to You

A prophet said to a crowd of people, “Do you believe that I can get that mountain up ahead to come to me?”

Everyone shook their heads, saying, “No, that’s impossible.”

The prophet said, “Okay, just you wait and see. I’m now calling that mountain over.”

A hush fell over the crowd. Everyone watched with their eyes wide open.

“Come here, mountain!” the prophet bellowed. But the mountain remained motionless. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to think.

Unfazed, the prophet called out again, “Mountain, come over here this instant!” The mountain remained stock-still. People began to whisper among themselves. Despite their murmuring, the prophet was unaffected, looking as confident as before. He said to the gathering, “She’ll definitely come to me when I call out to her one more time.”

He tried again, this time in a louder voice. “Mountain, behave yourself and come over.” Still, the mountain didn’t move an inch. This time, the crowd erupted into ruthless jeers and bitter sneers for the prophet.

His smile didn’t waver for even a second. Slowly and surely, he said to the people, “Okay, since the mountain will not come to me, I’ll go to her.” With that, he walked toward the mountain in big strides, his head held high.

What is the moral of this story? Though we may not be able to change our circumstances, we can change our response to those circumstances.

As a matter of fact, circumstances never change for us. It is always we who have to adapt to the circumstances. That’s what the prophet meant when he said, “Since the mountain will not come to me, I’ll go to her.”

An old Chinese saying, roughly translated, goes like this: “When one comes to a dead end, one must think of change. With change comes solutions and breakthroughs.” With this saying, our ancestors were teaching us the importance of adaptability. If we are flexible, if we learn to look at things from a different angle, even a dead end can lead to endless possibilities. When your perspective changes, the direction of your thinking changes, and a different world is revealed to you. When that happens, the tangled web that traps you unravels and sets you free.

Everyone is familiar with the proverb: “All roads lead to Rome.” If one road is blocked, we can always go by another. No hardship is insurmountable. If you are going through a rough patch, tell yourself, “Don’t worry, it will work out in the end.” And it always does, unless you choose to give up. If you can think positively, the sun will shine into the dark corner of your soul and help you see a beautiful spring day outside the window.

Life doesn’t come easy. Though you may encounter many setbacks and tribulations in the course of your life, they can help you appreciate how good it is when things do go your way, just as you can never know light without darkness. American author Og Mandino (1923-1996) eloquently expressed the wisdom in this perspective: “I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” All it takes is a change of mindset. The mind alone creates everything. A shift of mindset can mean the difference between heaven and hell, even though the circumstances remain the same.

We often hear news of suicide in the media. Some people might defend those who took their lives by saying, “Who doesn’t love their life? Who would commit suicide if not because they really can’t take it anymore?” Such arguments seem valid on the surface, but they don’t stand closer scrutiny and examination. Pain is just a feeling. When we encounter situations that bring us pain or make us suffer, we have two choices. We can let the pain eat us up and keep us on edge all day long, or we can reinforce our minds with upbeat and affirmative thoughts and channel the pain into a force for good.

Dharma Master Cheng Yen says, “Everyone has unlimited potential; every life has endless possibilities.” Unlimited potential and endless possibilities are borne of a positive, vibrant mindset. We can all develop such a mindset by practicing affirmative thinking, such as “gratitude, respect, and love.” By practicing positive values such as “gratitude, respect, and love,” we can create endless positive energies for ourselves. A negative mindset, on the other hand, is destructive and weakens us. Greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, and doubt give rise to hatred and afflictions and sap our energies. When negativity sucks up all our energies, we lose hope and see no point in living.

Depression is like the pandemic raging across the world. An attitude of cynicism and hostility is spreading across the globe too. This is all due to negative thinking getting the upper hand. Negative thinking is like an invisible yet insidious virus, infecting lives and leading to depression and a climbing suicide rate.

If one’s depression is due to physiological reasons, one should seek medical help. If it is a result of negative emotions, the best cure is by practicing positivity.

Everyone hits a low point now and then, but some people are better at climbing out of the dark pit of depression. Practice gratitude. Be mindful of things that affirm life’s value. Happiness is not so hard to attain because it does not depend on the circumstances—it depends on your attitude. And your attitude is within your control.