What the monk said to the entrepeneur

For this week’s blog, I’d like to share an inspiring story I recently read about an American entrepreneur and a monk. Barrett Ersek, the entrepreneur, asked the monk how he could believe and have faith in religion when there is so much despair in the world. The monk said something inspiring:

“Heaven is available to all – it just requires faith.

Faith is not a religious thing, although some people get their faith from a religion.

Faith is trust in life.

Trust in life is trust that everything life brings you is a gift even when it seems like it is a pile of S#&t.

If you can trust that everything life brings you is a gift, even times that seem dark and full of despair, then you have faith.

If you choose that those times are gifts, then you remove conflict, stress, and anxiety from your heart and you replace it with peace, creativity, and opportunity.

If you can choose that everything that life brings you is a gift, then you can have heaven on earth.

Because what is heaven if not peace, creativity, and opportunity in our hearts?

If you can trust that everything life brings you is a gift, then you will trust that even death is a gift, because life brings death to us all.

If you can trust that even death is a gift, then surely you will go to heaven.”

Ersek describes this as one of the most powerful messages he has ever heard. He describes how he chose to stop whining about the S#&t in his life, and instead to start looking for the good in his life. He now chooses to be thankful for what he has and for all the good things that happen to him. He treats everything that happens to him as an opportunity to be creative and as an opportunity to grow.

Maybe we can all learn from Ersek’s philosophy. See his message here.

IBEX Payroll extends our profound respect and immeasurable gratitude to all the ancestors and keepers of the land on whose traditional territories our work takes place. We acknowledge that we are on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional gathering place of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the traditional homeland of the Métis people. This land is sacred, historical, and significant.

Every time we acknowledge this truth, we have an invitation and an opportunity to reflect on the wrongs of the past, what we do in the present, and what we can do to continually honour the people whose lands and water we benefit from today.

This statement only acts as a first step in honouring the land we reside on and its peoples, and must be paired with education, understanding and informed action.