Solution for Most of our Suffering

 

Photo Credit: Steven Webb

Solution for Most of our Suffering

I remember when I was about 12 years old, I had joined a library – I was a voracious reader even then – and one book a day would not satisfy my appetite for reading. So, I had started taking two books, one officially and one hidden inside my trouser. I would come the next day and return the official book and while looking for new books, quietly remove the second book and put it back on the shelf – this went on smoothly for about a month or so. Then one day while I was slipping the second book into my trouser, I got a very strong sensation in the small of my back that someone was watching and my inner voice telling me not to take the book. But I didn’t listen and went to the counter for signing the official book I was taking – the man at the counter asked me to step back and I had this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach – he asked me to raise my shirt and when I did the second book was visible, the guy slapped me so hard across my face that I wet my pants. The strike was so sudden, there was nothing I could do. I was banished from the library as the guy thought I was stealing books whereas I was only satisfying my urge to read more. But of course, that did not wash and no explanation was being accepted. I stopped visiting that library and started sourcing books from another library! That day I realised I had a very strong sixth sense and not listening to it is foolhardy! I accepted the result because I knew I had been cheating, and by putting myself in the library guy’s shoes I too would have assumed that the customer is stealing!

I remember this saying by Reinhold Niebuhr, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Life is unpredictable. We desire a lot of things in life, but we do not always get what we want. Many things will happen in life that will transform who we are and have an impact on our life. When we accept this, we create the ability to accept whatever life throws at us and also embrace it.

Life will bring many challenges, it could be job related, health related, untimely death of a loved one and it is not easy to accept them when our mental state is that of suffering and wishing that those things would never have happened. But from the moment we decide to start cultivating acceptance in our lives, we are more than likely to cope with future crises in a harmonious way and view such events from a highly evolved perspective.

Acceptance does not mean that you have hung up your shoes and resigned to fate by just putting up with things! It definitely does not mean resignation, failure or agreement. It simply means accepting the truth and letting things be as they are, it simply means going with life’s flow! You cannot change reality, however much you try! The only thing you can do is accept the reality and cope with it the best you can. There is no point in burning energy in trying to open a closed door in front of you, better to start looking for other windows that could open to shed light in your life. Life has a funny way of unfolding not as we will, but as it wills at His will. When we accept ourselves and our situations with all the flaws and aberrations, we create a real sense of peace and calm and learn to let go of the suffering.

Let me end by quoting Rabindranath Tagore, “Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it.”