Today I’d like to tell you something off the top of my mind.
Many people live lives of quiet desperation. Really, you might not notice it, but you are suffering.
There are many reasons why people suffer. Often the main cause is not having enough money. That denies us all the nourishment that this world provides to the affluent.
When you don’t have enough money, you don’t turn on the air conditioner. You don’t even turn on the lights! You live in darkness. You don’t clean your house because cleaning supplies cost money. You eat instant noodles, but only one packet because two would cost too much.
I know life is full of suffering for the ordinary person, but at the same time I would like to introduce you to the concept that you can actually transform pain into beauty.
For example, a single struggling mother taking care of four children — working two jobs to bring up four kids. These situations exist you know? But at the end of the day, she sees her older children being responsible and caring to take care of the younger kids and that is beauty in action. When she brings back dinner and the children rush to greet her — that is transforming pain into beauty.
Many things, although we suffer through them… are for a worthwhile cause; the results are worth bearing the pain for. That is why… you need THE STRENGTH TO SUFFER. So you can transform PAIN INTO BEAUTY.
Why not just make a lot of money instead of suffering so hard?
It’s not so easy… even a genius can just barely make a living or can go broke betting his life savings on marketing his invention. The world is not geared for prosperity. It is not there to make you rich. Most likely, like the rest of us, you would suffer scarcity and lack purpose, meaning, and entertainment.
There are many buildings and much infrastructure, but most people are not rich. Many people struggle. The old wisdom says that you must study hard, go to school, and get a good job. This… remarkably is the real way to survive poverty — Education. If you were not fortunate enough to be educated, be prepared for low salary.
What if I can’t study? I think I have dyslexia.
FINISHED.
The world is very much a survival jungle. You got to think like a tradesman in a tribal village setting. There is a medicine man, but that would require 5 years of study in today’s top medical schools. Can you afford it?
Maybe you can be a cook. Harvest plants and catch fish. Serve meals twice a day.
What I want to tell you is… if you can find work you enjoy, you will be fed. You will be clothed. You will have a home. But the one who clinches the higher salary, is usually the educated. That affords them all the luxuries.
So you got to use your brains more than your brawn. But there is an option that is open for smart blue collars… that is GET PAID WELL FOR MANUAL LABOUR — do a lot of business. All these brainiacs with super fast computers — don’t know how to plumb their toilet bowl or fix a light switch. So if you have these trade skills, you can still make a lot of money by doing a lot of paid work.
So here you are cranking that toilet, while your customer is in the next room doing the accounts for his business. You have a small business as a profitable plumber, while your customer has a big business that is losing him millions. So life is very funny. It does not make you rich, but if you are good person, you will have a small profitable business rather than a large vacuum drain hole of a money-losing business.
Just imagine the stress of burning two landed homes to pay for a money-losing business. It really happens.
So, be happy if you can take care of your needs. There is no need to be upset that you are not a millionaire. Most people aren’t anyway. Worse, is to be millions IN DEBT!
If you keep doing good with your life, you can dream up opportunities every week with the wealth karma that comes from doing good in this world. So… this is also another funny principle of life — it will reward you if you are good. If you do bad… be prepared to suffer bad luck. If you have sex with a lot of prostitutes, you will have bad luck. Because they absorbed all your good luck. If you cheat people, you will suffer in future. If you help others, you will be rewarded with spontaneous happiness, good life, and wealth in this world. You cannot run from this. It is the most fundamental principle of Buddha — The Law Of Karma. Every cause has an effect. Every action, a reaction. Do good for a good life. Do bad and you will suffer a bad life.
I think of it as a spiral escalator driving you up to heaven or down to hell — Buddha’s Creation. All activated by your choices in every specific moment when you have a choice to be good or to be evil. Good people go to heaven. Evil people go to hell.
What to do if I am an evil person? How can I enjoy a good life?
REPENTENCE. You need to atone for all the wrong done to others. There is a principle in Buddhism and Taoism, that you can trade the karma of your good deeds to pay for your bad deeds. So if you do incredible good and go pray at your Temple or Monastery to report to Heaven, your good deeds will be recognised and you can ask to trade or pay off your bad karma by your good deeds. That will result in a better life. A reformed bad person can really Transform Pain Into Beauty.
Be Blessed.