Attitude Towards Difficulties According to the Teaching

There is no one who has never encountered difficulties in life. Nothing protects against them — neither strength, nor beauty, nor intelligence, nor talent, nor money, nor power… They are an unchanging and inevitable component of human life, and more than that: one of its formative factors. This is the first thing to understand about them. It is an undeniable fact that we will note for now and return to later.

Now we need to determine what exactly we mean by difficulties. Let us put it this way: it is everything that makes life more complicated, more problematic, in any of its aspects. Some tasks are difficult to solve, or there is something that must be overcome. Work that requires great effort. Problems in personal life. Failures, grievances, fears, illnesses, suffering. Vices, negative qualities, bad habits that need to be fought. Difficulties in implementing ideas and realising talents. Challenges in working for the benefit of society. Opposition from others that must be resisted. Various dangers. Social problems that concern you — injustice, poverty, tyranny, and so on. The list could go on indefinitely. In general, everything that makes life harder. That is, essentially, almost everything it consists of. Even positive, pleasant moments have the property of turning into problems. For example, if you love to eat delicious and abundant food, you may gain excess weight, with all the resulting consequences.

People do not like difficulties, they get upset about them, suffer from them, complain, and dream of living without any difficulties. None at all. Many see happiness precisely as the complete absence of any problems, an unceasing state of pleasure and serenity. This is vividly reflected in religious concepts of paradise.

The Teaching’s approach to this issue takes the two realities mentioned above — that difficulties are inevitable and that they practically make up the entirety of life — as the starting point. The question is then posed as follows: if everything is arranged this way, if we live among endless difficulties and live through difficulties, what is the meaning of this? Why is everything arranged this way and not otherwise? This is a crucial question. Because if there is no higher meaning in this, then a person is born only to suffer. And if so, then life has no purpose. Many come to this conclusion, and some are driven to suicide by it. People may be willing to overcome difficulties and even suffer — if there is a reason. But if there is no reason, it is the most terrifying and unbearable thing they can imagine. So the main problem is not the existence of difficulties themselves but the lack of meaning. More precisely, the lack of understanding of that meaning.

Because the meaning does exist. Common sense suggests this. However, in this case, common sense alone is not enough. It only provides hope that things are not so bad. But what is needed is an answer. An answer to the question: “What is the meaning of difficulties?” This is essentially the same question as “What is the meaning of life?” And the answer to both questions is the same.

According to the Teaching, what is the meaning of life? It is to fulfill the Great Duty — to perfect the Creator. A particle of his soul is contained in each of us; by perfecting these particles, we all together perfect the unified soul of the Creator. How does a person perfect their particle? Through knowledge, by learning to distinguish between good and evil, and through the choice between them. Choosing good makes the particle more perfect, choosing evil does not. And in what situations does the necessity of choice arise? In situations where we encounter difficulties. Overcoming difficulties or avoiding them altogether is much easier if one employs immoral methods — lies, treachery, bribery, violence, and so on. This is the choice in favor of evil. The choice in favor of good, however, entails problems and dangers — but it is the right choice. Thus, your particle of the Creator’s soul is perfected. Thus, you fulfill your duty — that is, you realise the meaning of your life.

It is very important to understand that we are all here not to have a good time, build careers, earn money, gain fame, etc. All of this is possible — but as something additional, provided it does not interfere with the main purpose. And what is the main purpose? What was mentioned above: the Great Duty, the perfection of the Creator. And at the same time, work for the benefit of the world and people. All this is interconnected — for by choosing good, we manifest it in life through our actions. In other words, we are born not for personal success and comfort, but for something far more important. If not for this greater purpose, all the rest would not be enough to justify our existence. Simply put, if we did not have the task of perfecting the Creator, we would not exist. Humans, as a intelligent species, came into being to fulfill this task, and each individual is born for the same reason.

Difficulties help us fulfill it. They give us the opportunity to choose between good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral. Human life cannot be free of numerous difficulties, because without them, it would have no meaning. We are born to overcome difficulties. To overcome them in the right way, making choices in favor of good, and thereby perfecting the Creator.

This means one fundamentally important thing. Namely — that difficulties are not something wrong, unnecessary, or something that should not exist in life. Yet people usually perceive them this way. Difficulties appear to them as deviations from the norm, because a normal life, in their view, should be pleasant and serene. But they are catastrophically mistaken. Difficulties are the norm. Without them, life would be static, nothing would move or develop. And stagnation, the absence of development, is death. A descent into nonexistence. Difficulties give life. They are life. And if that is true for a person, then even boundless Being itself lives by constantly struggling with its problem — the impulse toward destruction within it. We are all particles of Being, and we live as it does: by means of struggle.

When you realise this, everything changes for you. Hardships cease to be an abnormal and meaningless distortion of life. You no longer ask yourself, “Why me?” or “For what purpose?” No one up there is making your life difficult on purpose. That’s just how life is. And if someone does complicate your life, it’s not higher powers or relentless Fate — it’s other people, just as you make life difficult for them. Ask yourself why you do it, and you will understand why they do it too. And hardships are not meaningless. In them lies great meaning. They exist so that we may “level up”, become better, wiser, and stronger. I used the gaming term “level up” because it accurately reflects what is happening. Though this is not a game, but life. Not only human life, but the life of the Universe, the Creator. We do this for him. But he is not separate from us, not detached. He is us. His soul is within us, and our bodies are his flesh. We are identical to the Creator. When we improve, he improves. And only in this way can he continue to live — he and we. Becoming better is necessary both for fulfilling a mission of cosmic scale and for living a normal human life here, on our small planet, in our society. In the society of one another. And it is hardships that help us become better. They provide us with choice, with the space to exercise free will, to act with reason and conscience. They give our lives meaning and perspective.

So, what should our attitude towards hardships be? It’s time to summarise.

First and foremost, we must accept them as a given. They are inevitable; they cannot be completely avoided. When one set of hardships passes, another arrives. This means you should not torment yourself with dreams of a life without difficulties or hopes for such a life — that only leads to disappointment and inflicts painful blows on the psyche. Do not try to run from hardships — it won’t work anyway, and you’ll only waste time and exhaust yourself. But neither should you deliberately seek them out or create them for yourself. Life will provide plenty on its own. They should be accepted as a normal part of existence and overcome calmly, purposefully, and with awareness of what is happening.

Next, understand that hardships have meaning. There are no pointless difficulties, problems, or sufferings. Even if they seem pointless, even if they do not bring any visible positive results, they are neither meaningless nor useless. Their benefit may be purely internal — spiritual — when a person does not submit to them, does not give up, does not break, does not lose dignity, and does not turn into a scoundrel. Perhaps, because of their moral principles, they may lose something externally — material wealth or something else — but in doing so, they grow spiritually, becoming better and stronger. And that is precisely what is required. If you approach hardships correctly, you cannot truly lose. If you overcome them with dignity and gain practical life benefits — good, that means you have gained both spiritual and material benefits. If you suffer losses but do not fall morally, you still gain enormous spiritual benefit. Even in this case, there is practical value: you set a worthy example for others. And because of that, someone else will not break, will not contribute to the world’s evil, and their fragment of Spirit — the fragment of the Creator’s soul — will also become more perfect.

Hardships should not be seen as something that grinds down your life and makes it unbearable, but as a useful factor — as an opportunity to develop your mind, your will, to refine your moral qualities, and so on. In short, as an opportunity to “level up”. I compare this to regular workouts at the gym. Someone who trains with weights gets very tired, sometimes their muscles ache — but these are just temporary discomforts. The benefits far outweigh them: strength and health. Hardships should be regarded as spiritual training equipment. You must learn to turn them to your spiritual benefit. Accordingly, they should not be feared. They should be accepted as a challenge — knowing that this is why you are here, and that if you approach them correctly, you cannot lose.

Finally, remember that hardships cannot destroy you. That is what people fear most. But in truth, even death is not final. We all live more than one life; only the body dies, while the person is reborn. And the body must die eventually, no matter what. Delaying it through cowardly acts, lies, treachery, or other disgraceful means changes nothing — it is inevitable. So isn’t it better to die with dignity when the time comes? If in the struggle against hardships a person faces death, it is an illusory death. Later, they will be reborn in a new body. Spiritually, however, they will have risen much higher — because even in the face of such a threat, they did not lose their humanity and behaved with dignity. And that is a great merit in the eyes of Nature. Even in this seemingly worst-case scenario, defeat is impossible — if you perceive everything as you should.

Many believe that hardships are the scourge of human life, its horror, its misfortune. But we see them as a very difficult yet positive factor. You just need to understand them correctly and know how to use them properly. Yes, exactly: use them. It is not they that break us, but we who use them. We use them for the good of the Creator and for our own good. As has already been said above, these are one and the same.

If you approach them correctly, they will not be frightening. Why fear what is natural and beneficial? And of course, they will not be able to defeat you. Because if the body loses in this struggle, the Spirit wins. And that means you are always the victor. You cannot be otherwise if you perceive hardships correctly and act correctly. And this depends only on you. That is how life truly works. That is how a human being is made. That is how you were created.

© Atarkhat, 2020