April 29th

Resources


Use a mirror in difficult times:
You will see both cause and resolution.

When faced with adversity, you must ask whether you have done anything to bring misfortune upon yourself. If the present difficulties are the unforeseen outcome of events that you yourself set in motion, then it is necessary both to learn from your mistakes and to search for any possible way to correct it. If the difficulties are due to character flaws, then the situation should be resolved, and the basic fault must afterwards be eradicated.The wonderful part of all this is that the resources for resolving our problems are also within us. When we watch athletes in competition and they outperform even their own high standards, we often say that they reached deep down and were able to give something extraordinary. When we are in the midst of our own confrontations, we must be the same way. We need to reach deep within and use the utmost of our abilities to overcome our obstacles. This is one manifestation of our continuing efforts at self-development.
When confronted with problems, we have all the more power to respond. When we triumph, we have even more confidence and facility to handle future problems. Therefore, meet life head-on. Maintain your self-cultivation, move forth to confront difficulties, and accumulate the momentum that success will give you.

Personal Interpretation


The resources that we need to resolve conflict are often to be found within ourselves. It has been said that the keenest sorrow is to recognize that oneself is the source of all adversity, and yet, one is also the source of all resolution. When misfortune strikes, we must seek to ascertain our role in events. Have we done something to bring trouble upon us? Have we made a bad situation worse? Do we seem to get ourselves in similar situations time and time again? Character flaws can be corrected. This is not an easy task, but, as with anything else, bad habits can be excised. Good habits can fill their place. Once we have practiced a positive behavior instead of a negative one enough times it will take the latter's place. We must talk kindly to ourselves but also know when to be forceful. Let us all try to learn from our mistakes and move forward.

And in those situations where there really was nothing we could have done, let us look to our response to misfortune. Let us learn to bear the burden with humility. Perhaps it can also do us good to recognize the people and circumstances that define our lives. Are they conducive to growth or likely to lead to distress? We all face hardship, but there are usually things we can do to ride it out, correct it, or insure that it doesn't have such power over us in the future. Even as we despair, we can learn. And that makes the next lesson easier to bear.