Life doesn't
have answers. Life only gives out experiences. What we do
with those experiences is totally up to us: use them to grow
spiritually or use them to be dragged down. In the end, it
is what we have learned from our experiences and what we have
done with that information that causes a transformation.
In the
search for the truth of life, also known as seeking enlightenment,
we find ourselves mentally battling with many different conflicting
and opposing ideas before understanding comes to us.
As we
begin to change our ideas, there is a period of confusion
and frustration. The changes occur gradually, but the enlightenment
is a sudden realization or understanding.
Teaching
a child studying arithmetic the concept of division provides
a good example of dealing with conflicting and opposing ideas:
To understand how to divide, the child has to first understand
how to multiply. Before understanding multiplication, the
child must understand the principles of addition. To check
addition problems, it is necessary to understand how subtraction
works. Before all of this is possible, the value of each number
needs to be recognized.
You can
see the confusion and frustration on a child's face as he
grapples with these ideas. But, out of nowhere, the child
will cry out, "I understand, now."
Many events
that we face in our daily life have the same contradictions.
The question we should ask ourselves is can we understand
the differences and learn from them.
