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Is
"good" necessarily good? Is
"bad" necessarily bad? It's
considered good to be beautiful, but many people
through being beautiful have ruined their lives and
the lives of others. It's considered bad to be
unattractive, but because of being unattractive,
many have come to concern themselves with matters
more important than surface appearance and have gone
on to make something Special of themselves--in quite
a few cases becoming Beautiful in the process.
It's
considered good to be healthy and strong, but many
energetic people lose their health and strength by
taking what they have for granted, not knowing what
it's like to be old and depleted--and therefore not
taking care of themselves--until it's Too
Late. It's considered bad to be ill and weak,
but many have responded to such conditions by
examining their lives and changing their ways of
doing things, thereby building up their health and
strength to remarkable degrees.
Unattractiveness, illness, and weakness have many
valuable lessons to teach to those willing to learn
from them.
It's
considered good to live a long life, but many spend
their long lives sitting and complaining, watching
television, describing their operations, and
retelling for the umpteenth time what Aunt Gertrude
said forty years ago. Many Great Achievers
died young, yet lived every minute of the time they
had. As Chuang-tse pointed out, even death
itself may not necessarily be bad:
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do we know that to cling to life is not an
error? Perhaps our fear of its end
approaching is like forgetting our way and
not knowing how to return home.
Li
Chi was a daughter of the border chieftain
Ai Feng. When Duke Hsien claimed her
as his wife, she cried until her sleeves
were soaked with tears. But after she
had come to know the duke and had shared his
palace, she laughed at her former tears and
sadness. How do we know that the
spirits of the dead do not do the same?
Those
who dream of feasting may awaken to hunger
and sorrow. Those who dream of hunger
may, when they awaken, rise and join a
hunting party. While they were asleep,
they did not realize that they were
dreaming. . . . But when they awoke, they
knew. Someday will come a great
awakening, when we will know this life was
like a dream.
These
words may seem strange, but many years from
now we might meet someone who can explain
them, unexpectedly some morning or evening. |
In
the meantime, we can look clearly at our lives and
the life around us, and Live. Before we start
crying and praying to the Universe to take away our
Trials and Tribulations, we might more closely
examine what it has given us. Maybe the
"good" things are tests, possibly rather
difficult ones at that, and the "bad"
things are gifts to help us grow: problems to
solve, situations to learn to avoid, habits to
change, conditions to accept, lessons to learn,
things to transform--all opportunities to find
Wisdom, Happiness, and Truth.
When
we see Things As They Are, we find a world of
Magic--the world that has been there all
along. And we find ourselves wondering how we
ever missed it.
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