How to cope with the storm of life?
Buddha said that life is suffering. Someone also believed to have said that “life is not the bed of roses. And then there is another more balanced view:
Anyway, people mostly keep complaining that they don’t see any meaning in life and that they have lost all hopes, they no longer want to live a miserable life. But what they refuse to understand is that sufferings in life are not meant to create frustration, but to make us sober, wiser and enlightened. If there is no suffering, there is no growth. And it is also a fact that there are always two sides of a coin.
And someone has explained the quote very aptly in following words:
“Life without worries makes us arrogant or proud. And arrogance and pride can hold us back from learning the deep truths about ourselves and humanity. It is during moments of pain and loss, we are forced to step outside of our perspective and see things from a different angle”
Complete quote is being reproduced below which gives a context to clearly understand the whole idea:
“I said: what about my eyes?
He said: Keep them on the road.
I said: What about my passion?
He said: Keep it burning.
I said: What about my heart?
He said: Tell me what you hold inside it?
I said: Pain and sorrow.
He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
And then there is a quote from Lemony Snicket’s “A series of unfortunate events,” that says “life is a conundrum of esoterica” which literally means that it is series of unfortunate events. In other words life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans (that you think will make you great.) Quote’s main message is that life is an enigma or riddle understood by or meant to be understood by a few who really endeavour to or make an effort to understand.
Thus life is not just only about sweetness but there is also a bitterness that serves two purposes:
- Bitterness makes sweetness discernible like darkness makes sun visible.
- When there is an overdose of sweetness, bitterness works as a counterbalancing element.
In simple terms, this earth is a school and we are students who have come here to learn wisdom and truth and basic aim is not to enjoy or have pleasure only. However, in between the class times, there are some recesses or intervals too so that you can not only get some relief form the drudgery but also get yourself recharged to once again enter the class room.
Hence It is not just with one person, it happens to us all. At one point in life we lose all hope, emotions, joy and optimism. We feel that enough is enough. But remember that life is not just a passive being. Life is a challenge, life is riddle, life is dilemma, life is a struggle, life is hard work , life is a bravery, life is a fierce fight till last breath, and most of all “Life is a train and not a station.”
And as Winston Churchill has famously said that “Keep going even if you are going through the hell.” In order to reach to heaven you must struggle to pass through the hell. Then Paulo Coelho advises us to never lose hope and “if your heart becomes tired just walk with your legs.” Patience, courage, and steadfastness are some of the most powerful tools to fight all odds.
Remember that our mind is always giving us bad news and it thrives on the negativity but if you can learn to ignore the bullshit that you mind tells you, you are the real winner.
Being hopeless to the point of losing all the desire to live is an insult to our very being. And there is no other recourse except to stare life in the eyes with all the courage and bravery that one can amass in one’s heart. Following words from the “Absurd Courage of Choosing to Live”, Alburt Camus give us the right clue:
“Killing oneself is an unwarranted ‘insult to existence’, even though life is painful.
Camus is keenly aware of the sorrows and struggles of human life; he knows that it can be exhausting, repetitive, anxious, and depressing, but he concludes that once we fully recognize the absurdity of it, a kind of love and joy arise. We should, Camus writes, accept that our desires do not match up with the world as we know it, and yet love the unanswerable strangeness of it all.
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References:
i) https://onbeing.org/blog/the-absurd-courage-of-choosing-to-live/
ii) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/711216966128941854/
iii) https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1299504-i-said-what-about-my-eyes-he-said-keep-them
