對我的朋友來說，我似乎是個有點難以取悅的人，我覺得當你到60歲時，這是一個應得的敬語。然而，在我的心中，我是一個愛與和平的人。我比較勇往直前，是對我的行為誤解的處治。在任何特定的情況，我總是期待最糟的結果出現，當然，它從來沒有實現，但是我仍然凖備好了。我總是相信使一個人殘廢，這不是短暫的喜悅，而是長期的疼痛與災難。一些破壞性的失敗，它阻礙你或限制你長期的成功，而你如何戰勝，是最後對你的評量。你必須預料事情發生在生活中，生命是無常的，我仍然無法忘懷乞丐在巴黎地下鐵的影像。作為一個大地的居民，你有權利居住在一個不酗酒的生活，但為什麼你要採取這個選擇呢？沒有簡單的答案。這是一個可以解釋的案例，可能是心理的疾病。然而，在廣大多數的個案，我相信那是單純的缺乏“籌備和再次執行”。我不把這個稱為怠惰，只是心靈的疲憊。
我剛讀完陶德亨利的一本書，書名為：偶然創造力。這本書留給我二個補償的想法。第一，在這個行星上，墳墓是富人真正的資產，因為它充滿財富與人們的期望，他們延遲且不曾嘗試去實現他們的夢想，因此，他們死亡且理葬了他們所有的可能性。第二，無意義的死亡，意指我們應該渴望將我們的偉大帶來到這個世界，不要逃避你的任務：假如你做了，在你死亡前，你將遭受生活得不到回報的痛苦，沒有付出就沒有收穫。在他一次的演講中，亨利先生提到偉大的神學家和知識份子：托馬斯墨頓。這位修道士相信我們應該要有生命的熱情，但也要帶著個人的責任。首先，雖然男人有一個共同的命運，但每個個體也必須去計算出，當他們在害怕顫抖時所擁有的個人救助。毫無疑問地，我們可以幫助另一個人去尋找生命的意義。但是最新的分析，個體有責任居住在他所擁有的生活並且尋找自己，假使他持續推卸責任給別人，他就不能找到他存在的意義。你不能告訴我我是誰，而我也不能告訴你你是誰。假如你不知道你所擁有的特性，那麼誰將辨認你呢？有簡潔的單字，雖然他們有點殘忍及嚴厲。
因此這個意思是，你必須面對所有巨大的冒險：發現自己。這裡沒有懦弱的空間，儘管你害怕在大海中迷失，你仍然必須“豎起你的風帆”。你也許將不知道你的航行方向，但你仍然必須冒險，在宇宙所有的行動是被認可的，這是事實，而遙遠的陸地也許會另人失望且不是你喜愛的，儘管如此，你漫長探索過程給予你許多有意義的工具和豐富的正面成果。現在你是個優秀的航海家，你知道如何在暴風雨的海上航行並存活，你可以克服生活中總是放置在你前面的許多暗礁。總而言之，你已經成熟了。這裡主要的課程是你開始了解喜悅和和平不是表面的事，他們說謊包括你，這件事，對所有的個體來說是事實。行動是關鍵的，你必須行動，如同我先前的巴黎例子，你可以自由的選擇不自由，這聽起來一樣不合邏輯。
魯米(1207-1273)，是個偉大的波斯學者及神袐主義的蘇菲派，他留給我們一個思想：當我對你說‘你是美女’，你不相信我，因為你很清楚的知道身上的瘢點，但是那些瘢點是你苦難的疤痕，而且他們照耀你的靈魂，散發美麗，在夏天的草地上雛菊就是用這個方法生長。所以當我對你說，即使閉上雙眼，我仍然看見你是如何的美麗，這是事實，相信吧！相信吧！
笑話一則：有二個年輕人，有點喧鬧的兄弟被他們的母親告知去庭院玩，幾分鐘後全都了安靜下來，然後尖叫聲後接著玻璃破碎了。一個男孩生氣臉紅的跑進屋裡，他的媽媽詢問：發生什麼事？他氣喘吁吁的解釋那窗戶是他的兄弟打破的。他的媽媽不相信地查問是如何發生的，他回答說：他讓我非常的不開心，所以我對他丟石頭而他躲開了。
這星期，請回想一下你如何擁有你自身的和平與快樂。
每天尋找迷人與美麗的事物。
引語：現今我們居住在一個充滿假像的世界，我們被告知如何去看、如何去思考、如何去行動等等。然而，對生活難題的所有解答，只能經由沉思與內省被發現：所有的真理在心中。
To my friends, I might appear to be a bit of a curmudgeon. I feel that this is a well-deserved honorific by the time you are almost sixty years old. In my heart, however, I am a peaceful, loving man. This misinterpretation of my actions has probably to do with the fact that I am relatively “straight forward.” In any given situation, I always look for the worst possible result to occur. It, of course, never does, but I am ready nonetheless. I always believe that it is not the brief moments of joy that cripple a person but the extended periods of pain and tragedy. How you overcome the bottom, some damaging failure that holds you back or restricts your long-term success, is ultimately the “measure of you.” You must anticipate that things occur in life. “Life is fickle.” I still cannot get over the image of the clochards (1) living in the Paris subway. As a citizen of Mother Earth, it is your right to live a life of drunken non-existence, but why would you take this option? There are no easy answers. It could be mental illness: this then is an explainable case. In the vast majority of cases, however, I believe that it is simply lack of will to “get up and do it again.” I would not term this laziness, just spiritual fatigue.
I just finished a book by Todd Henry entitled The Accidental Creative (ISBN: 978-1-59184-624-6). The book left me with two redeeming thoughts. Firstly: the graveyard is the richest real estate on the planet because it is filled with the wealth and the expectation of people who procrastinated and never attempted to achieve their dreams: hence they die and are buried with all their potentiality. Secondly: “die empty,” meaning that we should aspire to bring our “greatness” out into the world. Do not shirk from your mission: if you do, you will suffer the pangs of an unrequited life just before your demise. You put nothing in and you get nothing back. In one of his talks, Mr. Henry mentions the great theologian and intellectual Fr. Thomas Merton (2). The monk believed that we should have a zest for life, but with a personal obligation, as well: “First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for ‘finding himself.’ If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?” These are succinct words, even if they are a little cruel and harsh.
What this thus means is that you are then faced with the greatest adventure of all: the discovery of you. Here there is no room for cowardliness. Even though you are afraid and somewhat lost on the sea of life, you must still “set your sail.” You will perhaps not even know the direction of your voyage, but you must venture off nonetheless. In the cosmos all action is recognized. Yes it is true, the distant shore may be a disappointment and not to your liking. In spite of this, your odyssey has given you many meaningful tools and a wealth of positive results. You now are a good seafarer. You know how to navigate a stormy sea and survive. You can overcome the many shoals that life always places in front of you: in short, you have matured. The major lesson here is that you have come to realize that joy and peace are not something external. They lie within you. This is true for all individuals. Action is critical: you must act. Like my previous example in Paris, however, you are free to choose to not be free, as illogical as it sounds.
Rumi (1207-1273), the great Persian scholar and Sufi mystic (3) leaves us with a thought: When I say to you, ‘You are lovely,’ you do not believe me, because of the blemishes you know so intimately; but those blemishes are the scars of your sufferings and they shine out of your soul, radiating beauty, the way the daisies do in the long summer grasses. So when I say to you, “even with closed eyes, I still see how beautiful you are,’ it is true. Believe it. Believe it.
A small joke: Two young, rather rambunctious brothers were told to go into the garden to play by their mother. For several moments all was quiet, and then there was the sound of screaming followed by the shatter of breaking glass. One young boy flushed with anger ran into the house. “What happened?” his mother inquired. He breathlessly explained that his sibling had broken a window. His mother incredulously demanded how this could have happened. “He made me very upset so I threw rock at him and he ducked,” was the response.
This week, please ponder how you can access your personal peace and joy
Every day look for something magical and beautiful.
Quote: We now live in a world filled with artificial images. We are told how to look, how to think, how to act, etc. All solutions to life’s puzzles, however, can only be discovered through meditation and introspection: all truth lies within.
Footnotes:
1) A clochard is French for a homeless man.
2) Thomas Merton, (1915 –1968) was an American Catholic writer and Trappist monk. He was a poet and social activist who wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and pacifism.
3) Rumi