Does Life Give Us the Teachings We Need?

Some painful, some enjoyable?

Does life always give us the teaching we need?

The renowned American Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck wrote the following:

“Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.”

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Beck’s words, which I posted a while back on social media, disturbed some people. One commenter named Rachel said this:

“I hate the idea that ‘life gives you the teacher you need at every moment.’ That’s not true of the Iranian girls’ school being bombed, the people dying of starvation because USAID was destroyed, the kids in ICE gulags, and the Epstein survivors. There’s a big category of experiences that are just destructive.

“Maybe, like Victor Frankl in Auschwitz, people can make something of these disasters, but that’s not the cruelty teaching them, that’s learning from their own capacities. The list here seems to speak to comfortable lives whose worst things are traffic jams and maybe personal troubles.”

Here’s my response to Rachel’s comments:

I think her point raises a valid concern. Statements like Charlotte Joko Beck’s can sound tone-deaf if they’re applied simplistically to situations of extreme suffering—war, starvation, imprisonment, and abuse. Those horrors aren’t “teachers” in any benevolent sense, and it would be cruel to imply that they are somehow justified because they might produce wisdom.

At the same time, I don’t think Beck’s remark was meant as a universal explanation for all suffering everywhere. Zen teachers are often speaking to students about the ordinary frustrations and resistances of daily life, like traffic jams, difficult coworkers, mosquitoes, boredom, disappointment, and irritation.

In that context, the teaching is a practical psychological tool: Instead of fighting every inconvenience, we can treat it as material for awareness and growth.

You might say it’s a training exercise for consciousness, not a metaphysical claim that every catastrophe in the world is divinely arranged for our benefit.

I also think it’s possible to hold two truths at once. One truth is that some events are genuinely unjust and destructive. Another truth is that human beings sometimes discover unexpected strength, compassion, or clarity in the midst of hardship. Viktor Frankl wrote powerfully about that capacity. But the dignity lies in the human response, not in glorifying the suffering itself.

So for me, Beck’s statement is best read as guidance for how to work with the small and medium difficulties of life, not as a philosophical verdict on genocide, famine, or political cruelty.

And I also think it’s okay for spiritual teachings to address people living relatively ordinary lives. Not every piece of counsel has to solve the entire moral tragedy of the world in order to be useful within its intended scope.

In short: The teaching becomes harmful if we weaponize it against victims. But within its proper context, it may be a helpful reminder that even the minor irritations of daily life can be occasions for awareness rather than resentment.

What about teachings that come from generosity, pleasure, and breakthroughs?

Here’s an additional response to Charlotte Joko Beck’s thoughts:

While I appreciate the Zen teacher’s advice, I’m puzzled by how heavily it emphasizes lessons that arise from difficulty. Mosquitoes, traffic jams, illnesses, losses, and obnoxious coworkers: The curriculum she describes seems dominated by adversity.

But that’s only half the syllabus of being alive. You, dear readers, can serve as evidence of this. What if our teachers are just as likely to arrive bearing gifts as carrying irritations? What if the mentors that life sends us are sometimes expansive, benevolent, and generous?

A sudden moment of beauty can educate us as deeply as a setback. All of the following are potentially teachers, too: the smell of rain after a long drought, a piece of music that rearranges our inner weather, an unexpected kindness from a stranger, the loyalty of a friend, the wild intelligence of a forest, and the healing touch of a lover.

Sometimes these blissful lessons are even more radical than hardship’s. Difficulty may teach endurance, but joy can teach trust. Obstacles may strengthen our will, but blessings enlarge our imagination about what’s possible.

If every moment is a guru, as Beck suggests, then surely the curriculum includes grace as well as grit. Generosity is as valuable as challenge. Astonishment might educate us as well as irritation.

Maybe life isn’t only the strict Zen master rapping our knuckles when we drift off into complacency.

Maybe it’s also the lavish host who keeps pressing unexpected gifts into our hands.

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Books I’ve published

Want to read free excerpts from my books? The links are below:

Free excerpts from Astrology Is Real: tinyurl.com/BraveBliss

Free excerpts from Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: tinyurl.com/FreePronoia

More free excerpts from Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: https://is.gd/Sny4dO

My entire book for free: The Televisionary Oracle: freewillastrology.com/books/oracle

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And/or buy the books here:

Astrology Is Real: https://tinyurl.com/BookshopAstrologyIsReal

Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: https://tinyurl.com/PronoiaBookshop or the ebook here: tinyurl.com/PronoiaEbook

The Televisionary Oracle: https://tinyurl.com/BookshopTelevisionaryOracle

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Descriptions of my books:

1. Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia

This is my cult classic and manifesto of “cagey optimism.” I propose that the universe is conspiring in our favor rather than against us. It’s equal parts spiritual handbook, storytelling, and philosophical jailbreak. I invite readers to become suspicious of despair and flirt with outrageous gratitude.

2. Astrology Is Real

Here I cast a corrective spell on both skeptics and lazy believers. I articulate my long-evolved approach to astrology as a poetic, psychological, and soulful language—not a fortune-telling gimmick but a tool for awakening your agency. I’m less interested in “the planets control you” and more in “the planets collaborate with your imagination if you use it as a liberating force.”

Read reviews of the book here: tinyurl.com/AstrologyIsReal

3. The Televisionary Oracle

This is my full-on novel: a surreal, shape-shifting narrative that splices feminist storytelling, mystical shadow-work, and benevolent sorcery into a prophetic fever dream. Novelist Tom Robbins read it and said, “I’ve seen the future of American literature, and its name is Rob Brezsny.”

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Check out my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/robbrezsny

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

For the Week of April 23

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’re finished with energy-draining indulgences. No more seductive perils or cute ailments, either. Once you wriggle free from the tangles that have been hobbling your style, I suspect you will also renounce anything that resembles joyless restraint, naive certainties, pointless cravings, numbing comforts, or misplaced bravery. May it be so! Abracadabra! The emancipations that materialize after these escapes will likely stoke your holy appetite to shine more fiercely than it has in ages.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In music theory, the tritone is an interval exactly halfway between octaves. In old church music, it was considered diabolical because of its unstable, unresolved quality. But this “devil interval” is now essential to blues, jazz, and rock. The precariousness that once made it seem outrageous became the source of its potency. What was taboo became foundational. I believe you’re entering into a metaphorical tritone phase, Gemini. Lots of interesting and valuable stuff may be a bit wobbly, irregular, hectic, or ruffled.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A treasure you have long yearned for has morphed since the day you first set out to claim it. Either it has genuinely altered its shape and flavor, or it has remained exactly what it always was while you have changed. In either case, the relationship between you and this prize is no longer the same. Its meaning and value have shifted. The strategies you’ve been using to pursue it aren’t entirely relevant. So I suggest you pause and reconsider. Decide whether you need to formulate a revised approach or identify a different version of the treasure altogether.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): My radical predictions: You will soon discern truths that have been hidden and unravel mysteries that have resisted your understanding. A limiting belief that has dulled your mind will fade away, and a so-called ally who has confused your sense of self will drift out of your orbit. And that’s just part of the renewal ahead. I foresee that you will emerge from a weird emotional haze, regaining access to feelings you’ve needed to highlight. And with that awakening, you will be blessed with beautiful realizations that until now have lingered just beyond definition.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In theater, “blocking” refers to the carefully choreographed movement of actors on stage. Every step is intentional, designed to create meaning and flow. But if an actor forgets the blocking and moves spontaneously in response to what’s happening, sometimes the scene becomes more alive. Let’s apply this idea to your life, Virgo. It may be that you have been following the blocking carefully. You know your role well. But now you’ve been authorized to forget the blocking. You can respond to what’s really happening instead of what’s scripted. I invite you to speak from your heart rather than parroting what’s expected of you. Yes, you might mess up the scene. But on the other hand, you might make it extra real and vibrant.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the future I envision for us all, the prizes that truly matter won’t be the wealth we’ve gathered or the impressive names on our contact list. They won’t be the clever deals we’ve made or the attractiveness of those who walk beside us. What will count most is our ability to transform the messy, selfish, frightened parts of ourselves into strengths. That’s hard to do! Each of us carries a share of that leaden dross, of course, but some of us are more tirelessly ingenious in our efforts to transmute it into gold. And the coming weeks will be prime time for you, Libra, to make dynamic progress in harnessing this magic.

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If you would like to support my work, please consider:

buying my Expanded Audio Horoscopes and Daily Horoscopes

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Is it possible there’s something you really need but you don’t know what it is? Sometimes the soul sends up subtle hints long before it sends clear demands: a vague restlessness, a mysterious sadness, or a boredom that doesn’t match your circumstances. These are often clues that an unnamed or unacknowledged need is summoning your attention. My advice to you: PAY ATTENTION! Ask your deep, sweet, sensitive self to provide unambiguous clues. To expedite the process, say the following sentence out loud, filling in the blank at the end: “I suspect I might be starving for ________.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You have arrived at the Glorious Grunting Season, my dear Sagittarius. I hope you’re poised to sweat freely and trust the intelligence of strenuous physical effort. Your wise body, more than your fine mind, can best align you with cosmic rhythms. Whenever you throw yourself into work or play that makes you grunt—hauling, scrubbing, digging, lifting, dancing, running, making love—you will harmonize with the deeper pulse of life. I predict that you will invigorate your instinctual vitality as you clear emotional sediment and ground your energy in the earth’s rich rhythms. You will metabolize frustration into focus, inertia into momentum, and abstraction into embodiment.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What might motivate you to become an extraordinary lover? I’m not suggesting that your romantic and erotic talents are lacking, only that there is delightful room to grow. And the coming weeks will be prime time for you to have fun with this noble experiment. I suggest you follow the clues that life and intuition will drop in your path. Keep this in mind, too: What makes a person a superb lover has a little to do with sheer technique, but is mostly due to emotional intelligence, imaginative responsiveness, and tender ingenuity.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): This horoscope isn’t composed by me. It’s coming from you. I’m channeling it straight out of your own deep mind. Why now? Because your conscious ego has been so swept up in the constant swirl of tasks and distractions that it has been tuning out crucial communications from your still, small voice. And now that precious Spirit Whisperer has conscripted me as its messenger. Here’s what it wants to say: “Hey you! Remember me? Your inner guide? Also known as your higher self and the voice of your soul? You urgently need to turn your attention back in my direction. I have a backlog of messages for you, starting with how we can and should intensify our devotion to creative self-care.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1967, Piscean biologist Lynn Margulis proposed a revolutionary idea about life’s evolution: that many of its great leaps occurred through symbiosis. She theorized that distinct organisms have sometimes merged their identities to form entirely new beings. One example is the mitochondrion, the powerhouse within our cells. It began its existence as a free-living bacterium that later entered into partnership with the ancestral cell. Margulis’ formerly controversial idea is now mainstream science. (She was called “science’s unruly earth mother.”) With this as our guide, Pisces, let’s contemplate what separate elements of your life might merge into unprecedented blends. I invite you to consider bold experiments in merging and mixing. Hybrids might be more beautiful and valuable than the sum of their parts.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The visible lightning bolt we see is actually the return stroke. It’s electricity racing back up from the ground to the cloud after an invisible leader stroke has created a path. So the spectacular display is actually the earth talking back to the sky. I’d love to see you adopt this phenomenon as your power symbol, Aries. In every way you can imagine, be like the earth conversing with the sky. When a hopeful sign crackles overhead, send out a bold message that you’re ready to act on it. If your ideals are vague and wispy, flying high above you, take a brave practical step to anchor them in reality. Proclaim your bright intentions to the clouds and the stars.

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