The wrong key

Sometimes I tell my meditation classes that one aspect of taking refuge involves embracing "reality as reality works". Often we are attached to a fantasy of how we believe reality should work. Here's the remedy:

The meaning of life is not dependent on a particular way of life, but on the conformity of one’s way to the present possibilities. Similarly, a door key is not useful in itself, but in relation to a lock that it opens because it matches it. The key to happiness therefore consists in having our desires match our reality. We are locked out of happiness when we refuse to do this and fiddle in vain with the wrong key – that is, the key to misery.

- Laurent Grenier