What does it mean to fall apart? In this age of short fixes and shortsightedness we are encouraged to believe that losing our job, being diagnosed with cancer, or getting divorced is the end of the world.

I spent an extended period of time living at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, California. This venerable institution was founded by the late Master Hua. When a junior monk once returned with him from Asia and complained of the depravity and negativity he saw in every aspect of Los Angeles society, the old monk simply responded, “Everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be.”

Buddhism takes a very natural and straightforward approach to life. Things do not fall apart; they fall together. Every seemingly negative turn is a natural response of Karma, on either a societal or an individual basis.

Is it the end of the world the instant one receives a diagnosis of terminal cancer? Or is it the end of the world only as one knows it? Many people given such difficult news are actually driven to begin living anew, be it for months or years beyond expectation. Taking the approach of Master Hua, we realize that grasping to things as they seem to us and projecting our beliefs of how things should be onto them only puts up huge barriers to our spiritual and personal growth.

It is sometimes only after a few things have fallen apart in our lives—sometimes after nearly whole lifetimes of self-destruction—that we finally can fall together.