Fortitude.....

[Guest guest]

Dear Jay,

 

I'd like to share this with the group: an excerpt from Swami Ashokananda's

class on the Isa Upanishad, verse 3. One of his longtime students passed it

on to me, so I don't know what in year he gave this class.

 

" You see, life has a purpose, whether we know it or not. And if you say,

'Well, if I find that I cannot accomplish any more, what's the use of

living?' the very fact that you are bearing your sufferings with fortitude

is

itself a great achievement. You probably would be surprised to learn that

our greatest lessons are not learned through accomplishment, but rather by

bearing futility with great endurance. There you really gain the most.

When

outside there is nothing, when the body is weak, when even the mind is not

contributing anything, except that it has this tremendous power of stability

- then you really achieve something. Ordinarily, people think that when we

are full of health and vigor and do this and that, we have accomplished;

afterwards, life has no meaning. Spiritually is it just the opposite. When

we think we are accomplishing, we are really dissipating ourselves. So they

say that if old age comes, disease comes, difficulties, external and

internal, arise, if we have the power of endurance to remain calm and bear

our burden without being bowed down by it, then we have achieved the highest

in our life. That is the greatest achievement. "

 

Best regards,

 

Mkewbird