Watch the plants and trees grow, blossom, and bear fruit. They do not oppose nature in the slightest.
Because we go to impossible lengths in our haste to have things our way, we suffer. If we simply went about our work in accord with nature’s cycles, everything would proceed joyously and smoothly. To do things unwillingly and unhappily is clearly unnatural.
Pointless and excessive self-denial, perseverance, and diligence, in the eyes of God, is nothing short of absurdity. It is the practice of modern man to seek out unnecessary suffering, and call it down upon his own head.
There’s a saying , “Eat till you’re eighty percent full; you’ll never need a doctor”, and this applies to the metaphysical realm as well.
No matter what you are doing, unless you maintain an ample reserve of ease and vigor, your life will be unpleasant. Those people who cling to a position beyond the extent of their own abilities, are bound to suffer greatly. Even those people in a position which requires a full hundred percent of their ability, will somehow feel harried and overwhelmed. Therefore, it is best to find a place where eighty percent of your true ability is enough, and you can feel wholly at ease.
We must reflect often upon our own strengths, and try to live in such a way that we always have a reserve to draw upon deep in our hearts.
Change in our circumstances also brings extreme change in the way we feel. While we are off at boarding school receiving a monthly allowance from our parents, we live in an extremely loose and spendthrift manner. But when we come to have our own family, and must make do with whatever is available, suddenly finances dominate our thoughts and our former free-spending ways are impossible.
Yet, in my own experience, the former of these two states is vastly more pleasant.
Rather than trying to learn things all at once, you should approach life as a painter, gradually brushing on layer upon layer of color in order to obtain a deep rich hue. [*] In the beginning, let your first impressions be enough, then steadily deepen and strengthen them.
The world is full of close-minded and miserly folk. There are none more unpleasant than those who constantly bicker over the petty self-interests right before their noses, oblivious to the greater scheme of things. But if we reflect well upon our own actions, we find that we all unwittingly repeat such folly again and again.
He who does not reflect, knows no advancement.
The desire to be better than one’s fellow men is a despicable thing; from it arises all envy, jealousy and murderous feeling. Yet among the people of today’s world, this desire is stronger than all else. What is needed is for each of us to become able to act just from the motive of pure enjoyment.
Nothing is more hateful than the ambition to advance one’s own status, by forcefully pushing others aside. A surprising amount of the ugliness, wretchedness, and idiocy in this world is merely the reflection of such desire.
We must all naturally come to find a place that is truly right for us.
Each person possesses their own individual philosophy. Regardless of whether this philosophy is actually based on truth or not, the deeper a person’s experience and knowledge, the more profound their words and actions will be.
When we move from one world to a different one, we naturally experience hardship. The essential process and pain brought by a change in circumstances are unavoidable.
This is why our deaths are accompanied by such anguish and suffering. The case of someone who has been living in Japan suddenly moving abroad is the same. The longtime writer of classical prose, making a shift to using informal language, experiences this too. Our first conversation with a stranger is bound to be a bit strained and awkward.
If you make a point of stopping to rest before you become completely exhausted, you will always feel refreshed. But if you only stop to rest after you are wholly beat, it will take a very long time and be quite difficult to fully recover.
Once you have become inured to a particular situation, it becomes impossible to judge it objectively.
It takes great pains and effort to create something of value. If you wish to build a real house, conjuring tricks are useless. First you must build a foundation and gather timber, then spend months of great labor.
In this light, even though the world is full of strife, suffering, and incomprehensible things, from a broad view it is gradually making progress for the better.
Those who believe that this world brings only suffering to the weak, and is filled with nothing but strife, hatred, and the stench of destruction, are failing to see the big picture.
With winter’s coming, we think only of winter, and how unbearably cold it is. While understandable, this is a narrow and mistaken way to think, forgetting the broad view of the entire year. After Winter, in due course Spring will come along. Spring gives way to Summer, and Summer to Fall. The person who, bound by limited and narrow thought, frets at nature’s reasons for tormenting us by making it so hot in the summer, is only causing himself unnecessary suffering.
Most important for us is that we train our eyes and our minds on the broadly infinite, and live in ease and composure.
Some people are always planning this or that in their heads without ever setting their hands to anything.
Someone once said, “Life is indecision”, and he was, in fact, right. While we pass our days sluggishly and hesitantly, fifty years go by like a dream.
This world is a cultivating ground for man, and if we live in fear of even the smallest failure, we can accomplish nothing. It is good to forge ahead boldly and forcefully along one’s own path. Good to stumble over rocks, inch across bridges of logs. Good, too, to meet up with tigers and wolves. Unless we float on the waves and cross mountains, we can’t know the taste of travel. On each occasion it is good to reflect on our experiences. And after much thought and reflection, it is good in the end to understand.
There is no other way to become a true person.
Booklearning is fine; theorizing as well. But we must not become enslaved by them. Just as much as eating is life, so too is defecating.
Without question, every single thing we meet as we pass through this world is all a part of life.
