Such people are living without clarity and therefore the worldly conditions will influence their outlooks. For them there is no search and life will be as happy as when they are surrounded by false happy conditions will remain happy until boredom seeps into their mind. And then there is yet another search for happiness...
The cultivator watches the mind, makes great effort to know it and finally understands its workings and influences. To know the mind is to attain wisdom, is to fully understand the realities of life’s situations. Then the blind search for petty happiness which is transient, even momentary, will be dropped in favour of true happiness. Being able to realise which is impermanent and which is perpetual will lead one to the right path of searching. Then the search begins and one is on to the greatest adventure of his life. Searching need not be filled with sufferings or fear. Pitfalls may be there, but they will affect mainly those who are impatient, those who act without wisdom, those who are filled with pride. To fall is natural but it need not cause great hurt so that it will turn one away from the path. Each fall is a learning, a realisation that one has taken the path with a mistaken view, too hurriedly, too greedily or too blindly.
The searcher walks with care, knows and expects such pitfalls and will not become frustrated, angered or fearful when he comes face to face with them. He will stop and think, will not cross over hastily and forcibly. He will meditate a while, seek the help of those who can give assistance or accept each hindrance as a challenge which he must bravely overcome. Then the spirit is developed and the weak mind disappears. Through contemplation, through sincere calls of help from the Divine Ones who have sworn to give help to serious wayfarers, through self-effort, no obstacle is too great to be surmounted. To be able to conquer one obstacle by self-power through patience and vigour, one gains the necessary confidence to have faith in himself. But one must not be foolish to expect that the next pitfall will be the same so that he should not expect that he has found the method to cross over the obstacles of the path. This realisation awakens the mind that at all times complacency, and laziness should be avoided, that humbleness and readiness to face problems must be practised.
The way to the final goal is thus filled with adventure which, when taken in the right spirit and perspective, will not cause one to fall weakly to complain about the difficulties of life. Life itself is an adventure and filled with all kinds of pains which all beings must undergo anyway, but then there is no path, no attainment!
Friday, 17th May 1985 (3rd Moon 28th Day)