THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE GIVEN IN LIFE.
WILL YOU ACCEPT THE WHOLE DEAL?
YOU MUST ACCEPT THE WHOLE PACKAGE
Once you move to a location, you “get” to have the weather. Some rain, some storms, some very cold days, some very hot, some in between. Will you be damning the weather a lot of the days or will you be looking at the whole year and saying that it all works out on average?
And, if you do damn the weather, what do you think you’ll get out of it?
Looking at it logically, with reasoning, if you damn the weather, you will be irritating yourself and sending bad chemicals out into your body. (You’ll be using a function used in caveman days that required action, which would then burn off the bad chemicals, essentially, so that you didn’t have long term damage. But you’ll leave the damage in this case.)
Other than deciding to move elsewhere, you simply “get” to accept what is there. No damning will change the weather. You simply adapt, and maybe even appreciate what you do have. (Or, you move!)
BUT THE AVERAGE IS GREAT!
Now what we are actually talking about is that you get a life which on average has some pretty good stuff in it with some storms and some limitations. Overall it is good.
Should you then damn things that come up that you don’t like? Should you wish they weren’t so? Should you wish that you could be the smartest, best looking, sexiest, rich person you would like to be or should you simply accept that the basics of life are damned good and the only thing that will make you unhappy in the long run is yourself damning what happens, damning the imperfection of life?
Well, duh!
The answer is obvious.
But then why do we complain, bitch, worry excessively, stress ourselves – all objecting to not having it our way (like a child) or to not having things work out better for us. Without the negative evaluations, we get x number of sunny days that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. And we lose nothing in the other days – UNLESS we stress ourselves about it instead of adapting. Indeed, many people conclude that life isn’t so good on average, but amazingly enough that is only because they have inserted so much unnecessary suffering into the balance! Without the suffering added, life itself is good – very good, even wonderful!
IT'S AN OCEAN OF LIFE
The other metaphor I like is the one about the ocean. To fill in the metaphor, we are given this vast amount of water, upon which there are waves on the surface, which can sometimes seem treacherous to us, but in fact the vast, by far, greater part is calm and deep water underneath. Life for many is like focusing on the waves and then feeling bad about them.
And, so we find ourselves wanting to play in the surf because the other parts are boring. We get bashed by a wave and we say “ouch” and “oh, well, that’s what happens with waves” – but we don’t need to add suffering (the “ain’t it awful” of life) to it.
The latter would be pretty stupid, hey? You do see that, don’t you?
If you do see that and accept it, then you are “enlightened.” You’re just playing in the surf, getting bashed once in a while – a big “so what?!”.
Then you notice your friend standing in the waves, damning them as he gets pummeled. But, as an “enlightened” person, you simply attempt to get as many good rides on your surfboard as you can, maybe dinging up your surfboard once in a while, but, as an “enlightened” person would say, “So what? That’s just part of life? Life is good overall!”
[The latter statement is also known as a “coping statement”, where you talk to yourself in a way that better makes you able to cope with or accept what is happening without getting upset about it, often by adding a higher perspective to think from. Statements like “this too shall pass” are helpful and a form of "coping". These are thoughts that generalize about life which are brought into mind readily and frequently when things happen. They can be disempowering (identify yours) or empowering. Link to Coping Statements - A Path To Peace And Empowering Oneself. Examples are provided to choose from or jump off of to create your own.]
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Interestingly enough, if you accept the logic and truth of this, you will also see that there is no suffering to be added to bad events or physical pains - and then you’ll begin to see (perhaps with some help of This Site and its resources) that there is never anything to worry about. See the piece on my site, linking from Suffering And Struggle:
"My Enlightenment Experience Being Sick In India, Gratitude And Non-Suffering" - A
profound, though simple, experience that will stay with me forever, where I didn't
add any pain or suffering because of...
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Best of luck in your quest to eliminate all suffering and to fully experience true happiness!
