When life goes badly, how can I find a next step through setbacks?

When life goes badly, first examine the actual problem you face. Do not rush to conclude that a deity has failed to protect you or that you are being punished for not practicing. Even if you contribute at a spiritual center, you still need to learn job skills, how to treat people, communication, and how to choose your direction. Set the identity of 'spiritual practitioner' aside for a moment and look at what has gone wrong. That can make things clearer.

Is the original method not working, or do you have no idea what comes next? Do your abilities need strengthening, or do the same emotions keep pulling you back? Describing the difficulty clearly helps reveal where adjustment can begin. If you cannot find a way forward, talk with family or friends. From a spiritual perspective, difficulties reveal our desires and life lessons. In daily life, the practical matters still need handling, and finding a direction must still be followed by action.

We once discussed a news story about a girl from Belarus. According to the report, she came to Taiwan as a model at fourteen, learned several languages, and hoped to earn enough to buy her family a home. She was delighted by the portions and prices of Taiwanese boxed meals, which prompted us to consider differences in living environments. Knowing where she wanted to go, she learned languages, used her circumstances, and worked toward her goal. The income figures in the report were background at the time. The point of this example was her action, not blaming everyone who needs help.

There is a connection here with what spiritual practice calls the wish for liberation. Not wanting to remain caught in worldly troubles, greed, anger, and ignorance leads someone to seek another state. Similarly, not wanting to continue the same life requires finding a different approach. Some changes may involve a different industry; others may involve a different place. The point is to find a next step. You cannot continually use the same thinking and actions while waiting for life to change by itself.

When starting a business in my twenties, I asked a business owner how to earn a hundred thousand a month. Instead, he took me to look at houses and cars, saying that once I had those monthly expenses, I would find a way to earn the money. I did not understand then. Years later, when carrying the expenses of a family and spiritual center, I understood what he meant about need and motivation. This was a conversation from that time. I did not say I followed it by buying a house and car. What I later understood was how needs and goals can motivate a person.

Behind entrepreneurs' success are hardships outsiders may not easily see. In the program, we also recalled our own part-time jobs when young. At sixteen, YOYO sold fruit and Taiwanese sausage-in-sticky-rice snacks on Hehuan Mountain to earn first-year senior high school tuition. At eighteen, YOYO worked again to buy a secondhand scooter. Dao Xuan worked at a convenience store at sixteen, and I also worked part-time while at junior college. Everyone has taken a different path, but we can each consider what else we can do for the life we want.

I used the expression 'shedding the last drop of blood and tears' to describe my determination not to give up easily. I also said then that if I truly gave everything and still did not succeed, I would accept the outcome. If there is still something to adjust or try, give yourself another chance. This demand I place on myself differs from judging someone else's result alone and deciding they did not try hard enough.

Dao Shun shared that work went well when young, with successive promotions. Later, setbacks in business and the loss of savings led to a very low point before a direction gradually emerged. Knowing what changed later should not erase the hardship at the time. A present setback may not be the final shape of your life. First consider what this experience has taught you, then find one step you can take.

Sometimes setbacks also prompt a fresh look at habits. Discussing a news story about someone losing a work opportunity after controversy over their work attitude, we considered another angle: could the person remember the experience in the next job, correct past shortcomings, and value the new opportunity? What happened has happened. What to do next is still a choice you can make again.

I apply that examination to Sheng Zhen Men too. Along the way, we have also felt low and dispirited. When we notice something is wrong, we need to identify the problem and adjust our approach. I believe spiritual practice should move life in a better direction, so this reminder cannot be only for other people. We must honestly look back at what we are doing and where change is still possible.

You can think this way after losing a competition too. Perhaps you were too nervous or not calm enough; perhaps you lacked practice or the other person's skill was better. Different causes call for different work. Willingness to acknowledge what you did poorly, learn again, and adjust prevents you from remaining stuck in resentment and repeating the same approach next time.

Once, while recording a program with students and disciples, we spent nearly two hours before discovering that most of it had not been recorded. We were genuinely stunned. Looking back, we may have overlooked a detail while operating the software. All we could do was remind ourselves to be more careful next time. We could organize what had been recorded and record the missing parts again. I provided the later portion myself.

That experience was also a lesson. When a setback comes, besides asking why things went badly, consider what remains possible. Although the recording was missing, we could still continue sharing. One mistake did not require abandoning everything we had intended to do.

Self-examination does not require blaming yourself for everything. If you have examined the cause and it genuinely is not your responsibility, you do not need to take all the blame in the name of changing yourself through spiritual practice. Work seriously on what can be adjusted. If you truly did your best and still did not get the result you wanted, learn to accept the limits of your abilities and circumstances, rest, and then consider how to proceed.

In a workplace conflict, for example, asking why a supervisor made a request may reveal constraints beyond that person's control. Dao Xing shared that you can first consider the other person's position, then ask, 'Why does it need to be done this way?' and 'What can I do?' But some supervisors really are unreasonable or deliberately target someone. If something seems unreasonable, raise it at an appropriate time. Understanding others does not mean abandoning your own feelings and judgment.

When I was young and working, I also could not accept a supervisor saying, 'If you cannot change the environment, change yourself.' Later I chose to leave the job and move toward what I wanted to do. That did make me happier, but it did not end all difficulties. Clients, running the business, and income became the next concerns. Following your heart still means taking responsibility for your choices.

When I first began divination work, I was also waiting for clients, but I did not merely sit and wait. Websites, posters, signs: I learned to make what I could and sought help with what I could not. Asking the deities for support and finding practical solutions myself happened together. If family members were worried about a lack of income, income needed to be addressed. If communication was unclear, the full circumstances needed explaining. Different difficulties require different kinds of effort.