Good Morning, This Is God
We should not be disheartened when faced with problems, but instead act wisely in overcoming them. No worldly-minded person can ever be free from problems. Hence, it is not so much who experiences problems that marks the difference between a wise and an unwise person, but the manner in which he faces them.
Socrates, whose wife was reputed to be hot-tempered would always find fault with him and used to nag him almost daily. One day, when she had finished all what she had to say, Socrates complimented her saying that compared to previous occasions, she had on that particular day shown some improvement in her diction and style of speech.
This shows how a wise person should face false accusation and blame in a humourous way.
Pandit Nehru once said:
“We have to face problems and try to solve them. We have to face them, certainly, on a spiritual background; but not run away from them in the name of spiritualism.”
Ella Wilcox gives her viewpoint on smiling one’s way out of troubles.
“It’s easy enough to be pleasant;
When life flows like a song,
But the man worthwhile,
Is the one who can smile,
When things go dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth
The praises of earth,
Is the smile that shines through the tears.”
Dr. Rabindranath Tagore, a well-known Indian poet, explains in a prayer, the approach to face problems without harbouring fear or worry.
“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
But be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
But for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
But hope for the patience to win my freedom.”
Something unpleasant happens, say, our favourite thing or possession is lost or is accidentally broken. There are two ways of reacting to the loss and damage. We can either choose to brood over it, by blaming either ourselves or others. Or we can pass it off by saying ‘The thing is gone. It is bad enough to have lost it, but why should we allow it to make us unhappy to suffer the loss and damage?” It would be useful to trace back to the causes that had lead to the breakage and loss so as to avoid such an occurrence in the future. We can also think about how the loss can be replaced, or how to avert whatever problems that may arise from that loss. If the loss is of no real consequence to others, we may even start to do something else to take our mind from the incident, since it is in the nature of compounded things that such occurrences happen. Should an unfortunate thing happen and if it is beyond our control, then with the support of our understanding of the nature of life, we must have the courage to face it.
In other words, adopt a positive frame of mind when faced with such problems, rather than let it dwell on negative states. If unhappiness should arise due to a negative frame of mind it is really of our own doing or seeking.
According to the Buddha, “Mind is the forerunner of all states. Mind is chief; mind-made are these states.”
The Buddha also taught that our sorrows are caused by our own actions and arise from our own ignorance. He showed us how to remove sorrow, but we ourselves must work to gain happiness.
