Walking into the night (machine translation)
My favorite quote from the pandekt adopted me as a personal motto, is that “Tomorrow will see going into the night” (Five gems I, 10). Why her? Because it formulated one of the most important principles as human life in General, and following the Teachings. It can be reformulated as: “a Better future will only see one who does not run from difficulties, and struggling with them and overcomes them hard going forward.”
Usually people are very afraid of difficulties, perceiving them as something sick, evil, and dream about calm life in which they are not. But dreams of such a life is just a sweet illusion. Peace, in this context, does not happen. Problems and difficulties there is always certain. In the words of the famous song, there is the eternal battle, and the rest can only dream of. It is really so. Because of that, the desire for peace turns into a chase for the impossible, and thus becomes another problem. A problem that takes mental strength, distracting from what’s really important and brings a lot of frustration. Therefore, it causes additional suffering — beyond those you’re trying to run.
But if peace understood as the absence of problems, difficulties and suffering do not exist, then what exactly is these very difficulties and suffering? After all, if they are unnatural, abnormal for a person? No, in and of themselves, are not. Abnormal, unnatural can be human actions; the actions that cause problems and give rise to evil. The same problems and difficulties as such — and generated by man, the other is a normal component of life. They appear in the motion of life, in the development process. After all, forward movement is almost always associated with a particular resistance, which have to be overcome. And it is overcoming resistance — that is, the constraints leads to the result. In human life you can find many simple and clear examples. The child learns to walk, he’s hard and hurts when it falls. Training at school or University, mastering any profession or skill is associated with many difficulties — but it gives precious results. Any social work, or business, or military service, or spiritual journey — it all happens through the difficulties. Overcoming challenges — this is the movement to success. And it is programmed at the level of Being. Being developed because of fighting against the current it trend to destruction. In the struggle for life, it becomes more perfect. This principle applies in all infinite Existence, at all levels, including at the level of evolution of our Universe and at the level of ordinary human life. When we overcome the difficulties, we are not only developing themselves, becoming stronger, better, more perfect, but also participate in the same process the scale of Being.
This means that the difficulty is natural and even necessary. In fact, they help us. Help the fact that hinder, — as paradoxical as it may sound. The absence of problems and difficulties, the advent of peace, is the cessation of motion, stop. That is, death.
For a follower of the Teachings is very important to understand all of this. This understanding allows you to learn to accept any challenge not as a disaster, breaking a life and break the person psychologically and morally, as well as the next stage in the development of the ability to become better. However, this does not mean that you have to purposefully look for problems on your head. There is no need to look for them and create for yourself a difficult situation. Life will throw challenges, and throw in enough of them. And the higher goal you set, the more difficult it will be to achieve, and the more opportunities you have for development. The main thing — not to stand still, not to be fixated on petty purposes and not become a victim of small but numerous problems that may sugalite to death, like a cloud OS. From the difficulties still will not go away — so let it at least be for a worthwhile cause.But such a thing in itself gives strength to the struggle.
This applies to all people. And the followers of the Teaching – even more so. Indeed, the Teaching, unlike false spiritual systems, does not lure people with attractive promises. It does not promise a solution to all problems, the onset of complete contentment, peace and happiness, rapid spiritual growth and paradise after the end of life. More likely the opposite. It offers knowledge and the possibility of spiritual development, but honestly warns that this is not a quick matter, and that it is connected with work and responsibility, with a difficult struggle against everything evil in itself and in society, with suffering and, possibly, even with dangers , without which sometimes such a struggle is not complete. In other words, instead of promises of an easy life, it warns that life can be complicated even more. And this is logical and understandable. It is very naive to think that such important things as knowledge and spiritual growth can be easily obtained. The more valuable that you get, the more expensive it costs: it is well known. Yes: Teaching provides knowledge and does not require a fee. But “gaining knowledge” and “learning” are not at all the same thing. Knowledge is given for practical application; otherwise, it makes no sense. Studying, sorting out, understanding, is already hard work, and often a struggle with such negative qualities as laziness, impatience, frivolity, etc. And when you start to apply the acquired knowledge in practice, then the real difficulties begin. It’s hard to change for the better. It is difficult to do something truly valuable for people and the world, to change them for the better. It’s hard to resist various temptations. It can be difficult even to lead a very ordinary life — to work, to establish relationships with people, to raise children, etc. — while remaining a principled person who adheres to high moral standards. All this is really very difficult in the modern world, in a consumer society, where there is a lot of pride, greed, cruelty and immorality.
Therefore, to belong to the Doctrine means, among other things, to meet difficulties, clearly understanding this. Each follower of the Doctrine is going to the night. Does this sound somewhat ambiguous? Only if you do not know what content is embedded in these words. For some, “going to night” means plunging into the darkness of spirituality, accepting it into yourself and becoming it. For us, the people from the Doctrine, “going into the night” means going towards difficulties and overcoming them, breaking through the darkness, trying as much as we can to illuminate it. Walk through the night to gain the opportunity to see the rising sun. This is good for every single day, and it is a worthy goal for a lifetime. Not only a follower of the Doctrine. For the life of every person.
© Atarkhat, 2016