Paradoxical
as it may seem, the search for happiness is
the greatest obstacle to finding it.
Suppose you
could eat your favorite food for every meal,
day in and day out, with nothing else: how long
would you be satisfied with it? You would probably
soon grow sick of it!
In the same
way, if we were happy all the time, we would
not be happy, but bored. We can know happiness
as happiness only when we have something to
compare and contrast it with. Thus, we might
experience Nirvana only because we know Samsara;
we can know liberation only because of bondage
or captivity; one cannot stand alone, by itself.
Understanding
this can help us to deal with the problems and
difficulties of life, and transform them from
obstacles into stepping-stones. |
