What do you do when your efforts do not materialize into results?
Or when life suddenly places you in difficult circumstances?
In such moments, the mind easily fills with worry, frustration, or disappointment. We ask: Why did this happen to me?
Yet wisdom traditions often remind us that life’s gifts often come in unexpected wrappings.
Here is a popular story we often pass on to children – but perhaps need to practice more consciously as adults.
The King’s Visitor
A visitor from a neighboring kingdom once brought the king a beautifully handcrafted sword. While inspecting it, the king accidentally cut off the tip of his finger.
He winced in pain. The finger bled profusely.
While the other ministers gathered around him with concern, one minister calmly remarked,
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. Something good comes out of everything. There is a Divine plan behind every event.”
“Good?” the king was puzzled. How could such an injury be good?
Offended by the remark, he demanded that the minister apologize. But the minister maintained that he was only stating a time-tested truth.
Angered, the king ordered that the minister be imprisoned.
The Hunting Expedition
A few days later, the king went on a hunting expedition as usual. His minister did not accompany him—he was still in prison.
During the expedition, the king’s group lost their way in the forest and were captured by a tribe of cannibals. The tribe had been waiting for someone to offer as a human sacrifice.
They captured the king and decided he would be the offering.
They bathed him, anointed him with scented oils, and brought him to the altar for the ritual. Just then, the priest and chief noticed something unusual—the tip of one of his fingers was missing.
The priest frowned. “Only a person with a fully intact body can be offered as sacrifice. This man is not suitable.”
They took the king some distance out of the forest and released him.
Indeed, a Blessing
When the king returned to his palace, he went straight to the prison and embraced the minister.
“You were right,” he said.
“Today my life was saved because I lost the tip of my finger.”
But the king still had one question.
“Why did you have to suffer imprisonment for days, even though you were trying to help me?”
The minister replied calmly,
“That was a blessing too. Because if I had accompanied you on the hunting expedition—as I usually do—they would have sacrificed me instead. My body is fully intact. So my imprisonment saved my life.”
A Meditation for Everyday Life
When we face setbacks, or when events do not unfold the way we expect, the mind quickly fills with worry, anxiety, and pessimistic thoughts.
BK Sister Shivani suggests a simple practice for such moments: repeat to yourself a time-tested truth—
“This too is a blessing. This situation has come as a gift to help me grow on my journey.”
Fretting and complaining drains our energy. Blaming others for our problems often creates further conflict and dependence.
But accepting that every situation may carry some hidden possibility gives us the calm and steadiness we need to respond wisely.
- Facing conflict in a relationship? Perhaps it is an opportunity to strengthen the power of patience.
- Not seeing success in a task yet? Perhaps it is inviting you to develop persistence.
- Not receiving enough recognition? Perhaps it is an invitation to deepen inner conviction about what you are doing.
A Nature Meditation to Pause
Here is another meditation from Thich Nhat Hanh that can help us stay steady in the face of everyday emotional storms.
During a storm, the top of a tree sways wildly, as if it might break at any moment. But if you observe the trunk, it remains solid—deeply rooted in the ground.
When strong emotions arise, shift your attention from the top of the tree—the head and the heart—and bring it to the trunk: the area just below your navel.
Rest your attention there. Notice the movement of your abdomen as you breathe in and out.
In this way, you anchor yourself in the body and allow the storm of emotion to pass.
Thich Nhat Hanh suggested practicing this exercise when we are calm, so that it becomes available to us when we truly need it.
“If you practice this exercise for twenty days, ten minutes each day, you will know how to use it whenever strong emotions arise. After ten or twenty minutes, the emotion will pass, and you will be saved from the storm.”
Reflection Question
Can you think of a time when something that first appeared as a setback later turned out to be an opportunity?
The Sabad Project - Wisdom stories 
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