Knowing How to Live by Going with the Flow of Life

According to Buddhist teachings, relationships between people and all events in life are the result of connections and karma formed in previous lives. The phrase "let things happen naturally" (or "vạn sự tùy duyên" in Vietnamese) implies that we should learn to let go in order to find peace, without competing, without harboring resentment, and leaving things to unfold as they will. What is meant to happen will happen, and there is no point in forcing things since nothing can be changed.  Instead of trying to control outcomes, we should learn to let go and accept things as they are. Only by doing this can we reach for and embrace the good things that lie ahead in life.

"Going with the flow" also means accepting the present with joy, stopping resistance, and calmly waiting for the right circumstances to come together. Oftentimes, this attitude of calm and non-resistance becomes the very connection that brings forth good fortune. Don’t forget that for anything to succeed, countless favorable conditions must come together; if even one is missing, the outcome may fail. When we possess deep understanding or have experienced certain situations, sometimes we can predict what we should or should not do to help favorable conditions come together and let unfavorable ones dissipate.

We often refer to favorable conditions as "good karma" and unfavorable ones as "bad karma." What benefits one person may not benefit another, and vice versa. This only applies to human interactions, while karma operates on all things throughout the universe. In its essence, karma is neither good nor bad, favorable nor unfavorable. It is simply the gathering or dissolving of energies emitted by all beings. However, our habit is to feel happiness and wish to cling to favorable karma while feeling discomfort and trying to avoid or eliminate unfavorable karma.

Yet, favorable karma does not always bring happiness, and unfavorable karma does not always result in suffering. Sometimes, unfavorable karma leads to personal growth, while favorable karma can make us weak. Favorable conditions at the beginning may later turn into unfavorable ones, and unfavorable conditions now can transform into blessings in the future. Everything depends on our resilience and attitude towards life.

Thus, we don’t need to rush to change the karma we dislike or to seek the karma we desire. When our inner state is strong and peaceful, positive conditions will naturally align with us. In truth, once we find the life force within ourselves, external values will no longer seem important. Whether karma is good or bad, we remain free and at ease. As the Dalai Lama once taught: "Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck."

To know how to live according to karma is to live like this.