San Simeon Coast (taken by me in 2007)
I found this online back in 2008. It is from the book:
Above All, Don’t Wobble Chapter 10: Use That Clarity
It is very thought provoking and wanted to share it. I hope it gives YOU some clarity!
Clarity is the target. Pains and suffering remain with life, they are part of it. You just need a clarity to see everything in the right perspective, everything where it belongs. Then it all falls in line; even pain, even suffering, become part of a greater harmony. Not that they change. They remain, they are a part of life, but now they are not isolated facts -- they have become part of a greater whole.
When you are clear in your perspective you can see that the greater whole cannot exist without this part; it is a must.
You accept it, because happiness cannot be without unhappiness, and the day cannot be without the night. When everything falls in perspective the total attitude changes. Ordinarily you see one day between two nights. When you attain to a little clarity, you see two days with one night in between. Ordinarily when you look at unhappiness, sadness, frustration, you take it apart from the context, you look at it as an isolated thing, and then it is very painful because it seems meaningless.
The basic pain is meaningless -- why is it there? Why does one suffer? And when you cannot see the why, it becomes unbearable. When you can see the why, it is no longer an isolated fact; it has become part of a pattern. And in a great painting, black is as much needed as white -- otherwise the painting won't exist. Unhappiness is needed as much as happiness. They are like two wings, and once you know they are two wings, you have to use both to fly in the sky of existence. Then you accept, and you accept in deep gratefulness.
Even suffering is accepted, because now you see it has a meaning. It is a step to something greater; it is part of a bigger harmony. It is not isolated, it is meaningful.
When suffering has become meaningful, you have transcended. Now you are not worried about it. You don't want to drop it, because if you do, all that is beautiful will drop with it.
You have understood well that the beautiful rose flower exists between thorns, and those thorns are part of the growth. In fact they are protective, they protect the flower. They are not the enemy, they are not against it. If a thorn sometimes gives you pain, it is only because you have not understood the meaning of it.
There is no need to seek suffering, to seek thorns, but when you find them, accept them. Let them be transparent to your clarity of vision, so that you can see that on both sides of the night there are days. And then night becomes less and less dark. Night becomes a bridge from one day to another. It is not against the day, rather it is a rest. A new day can come out of that rest. The night becomes like a womb, creative. Darkness is creative, and suffering too.
If you find a person who is very rich inside, you will always find that he has suffered much. If a person has not suffered much, you will find him always shallow, superficial. He will laugh, but his laughter won't have the depth, it won't come from the heart. It will be just like a painted thing, on the lips at the most. If you listen to the sound of it, you will hear that it is very superficial. It is not coming from his being, it carries no meaning, no depth. Whenever you see a person who can laugh deeply, remember he has cried deeply -- and laughter is enriched by tears. If you are not capable of crying you will not be capable of laughter.
This is clarity -- to see life as it is and not to ask the impossible. By asking the impossible by wanting only days and not nights, only happiness and not unhappiness, you are creating meaningless misery for yourself. It will be meaningless because you are asking the impossible and it cannot be fulfilled. It is because of your unintelligence that the misery is arising. It is not part of life; it could have been avoided. There was no need for it; it is useless.
So there is suffering that is useless -- if you create it. There is a suffering which is very meaningful -- if life gives it to you.
You love, and of course suffering comes in. If you want to love you will have to suffer much, and if you become afraid of suffering, by and by you will become afraid of love. Then a point comes when you may not suffer -- you may have a very comfortable and convenient life -- but you will miss all that is beautiful, because all that is beautiful comes through love... but love comes only if you are ready to accept the suffering also. That's the price one has to pay for it.
Nothing is free in life; everything has to be paid for. And it is good that it is so, because once everything is free, everything becomes meaningless; nobody enjoys it.
Use the clarity to look into problems, and try not to change things; just try to accept them. Go on creating more and more clarity -- and that is the only change that there is, that is the only mutation. Go on moving higher and higher on the wave of clarity and awareness. As you go higher a different world comes to your vision. The world remains the same but your clear eyes now give you a different picture, and by and by everything falls in line. One day one realises that everything is as it should be.
That is the perfection of clarity -- everything is as it should be, nothing else is needed, everything is perfect. This world is the perfect world.
In that moment your acceptance is total, and when acceptance is total all wounds are healed. One attains to the calmness of a Buddha, to the innocence of a Jesus, or to the superb perfect perfection of a Lao Tzu -- ordinary and yet extraordinary. One loves the same life and yet it is not the same life at all... it has a different dance.
So use that clarity, mm? Enjoy it, delight in it.
