(I super-duper doubt it, though. This is actually just classic hindsight bias.)
I’m not in Val’s head, but I didn’t get the sense that he was claiming this was the best way to meet Shaolin monks. Rather, his aim was to find a way to build on his moment of Kensho in a way that progressed his growth and development.
He could just as easily have missed the monk, and then he would have by chance run into another form of teacher, and that would have been the story instead. Or he would have learned something from his aimless wanderings that he couldn’t have learned by finding a teacher. Or he would have not learned anything and been frustrated, and then the story would be that he was undergoing some sort of trial and the next thing he did would be the payoff.
Yeah, you’re right. I wasn’t being very precise, there.
Thinking in terms of narrative and such as all well and good (and even natural and unavoidable) but sometimes the superficial story “I scheduled a trip and almost missed one of the people I wanted to see on the trip, I should consider this is a potential thing to look out for going forward” is the one worth paying attention to.
I’m not in Val’s head, but I didn’t get the sense that he was claiming this was the best way to meet Shaolin monks. Rather, his aim was to find a way to build on his moment of Kensho in a way that progressed his growth and development.
He could just as easily have missed the monk, and then he would have by chance run into another form of teacher, and that would have been the story instead. Or he would have learned something from his aimless wanderings that he couldn’t have learned by finding a teacher. Or he would have not learned anything and been frustrated, and then the story would be that he was undergoing some sort of trial and the next thing he did would be the payoff.
Yeah, you’re right. I wasn’t being very precise, there.
Thinking in terms of narrative and such as all well and good (and even natural and unavoidable) but sometimes the superficial story “I scheduled a trip and almost missed one of the people I wanted to see on the trip, I should consider this is a potential thing to look out for going forward” is the one worth paying attention to.