On Being Stuck and Unstuck

 During the Dharma video sharing tonight after the group meditation, Master Sheng Yen remarked that for Chan practitioners, there is always a way out even if one feels stuck or has reached a kind of wall of sorts. I think Master Sheng Yen was referring to the fact that from the perspective of emptiness itself, there are infinite possibilities available to mine and explore. The only reason I fret or lament over the loss of one possibility is that I treat that one possibility as the only one, not realizing how it's connected with an infinite array of others. In other words, my sense of stuck-ness or frustration is only due to a narrow mindset which is clinging to only one way of thinking about things.
   After listening to this talk and reflecting on it, I wondered, does this entail a kind of dogged refusal to bow down to one's own goals or intended results, until something 'gives' as it were? I don't think so. To the contrary, I think that Master Sheng Yen is suggesting that it's only when I can stop attaching to any result whatsoever that my mind becomes open to endless possibilities. This isn't easy to do, but I think the work involves continuing to frame situations in different ways so that one can expand their awareness of how to deal with it creatively.
   I think, however, that it's more important to know when one is stuck, rather than admiring the cosmic possibilities. Being stuck in a particular view can be such a source of suffering, and of course desiring what is unattainable is one such example. If I am thinking that the road to a goal is impossible, it might be helpful for me to envision the road as a series of short steps, rather than getting stuck on the entire journey as a whole (which is always subject to change at any given time).