Life is like a bed of roses. It is beautiful but there will always be thorns. We must not be taken aback by the pricks of thorns.
It is good that we have social support, family support, savings and a job. But that is not enough.
We must know that for life to be a joy to live, we need to have peace come what may.
Of course, if we do not manage life and make it less complicated, we will be overwhelmed. Worse still, if we simply give up and not make any effort, there will not even be a bed of roses in life but bleakness and emptiness which will be even worse, perhaps sort of hell on earth. The sky will fall down on us even though it is still up there.
The one thing we forget is that we don't seem to have enough and we grumble and grumble. There does not seem to be any end to the things we can grumble about. That is the problem with us.
On top of that, religion may offer the olive branch for us to hang on. That seems good. But who is the one to offer that branch. Is it the men of religion or God and saints? Often, it is men and not God at the other end of the olive branch.
Men are visibly present and seemingly easy to reach. But God and saints are not visibly so though omnipresent.
Men are visibly present and seemingly easy to reach. But God and saints are not visibly so though omnipresent.
But men certainly can help but ultimately the way out depends greatly on our own outlook in life, on our spiritual core resilience. Are we able to seize the peace once again, take stock and stand up even if we fall?
We do need fellow men and we need their support as much as they need ours. But if we expect too much of this, things won't work out and men in society seem to fail us. At least we may often think this to be the case.
We do need fellow men and we need their support as much as they need ours. But if we expect too much of this, things won't work out and men in society seem to fail us. At least we may often think this to be the case.
Above all, we need to take cognizance and have confidence that we can make it mainly on our own. Our confidence, of course, must be that inner peace from knowing that even saints walk the same road of ups and downs before they become saints.
It will be however be foolhardy for us to distance from fellow men, more so the support of sorts we have, however limited, finite or inadequate this may be. But the bottom line is that we and not others must be able to want to make life work.
We may turn to religion. But this too often means we turn to men in religion, rather than to God and saints. Isn't this sort of the crutch mentality for us to reach God and his saints. Why not go direct and depend less on go-between.
We must have God in us and be one with God and saints. No go-between please if we can. To do so, we must understand the nature of life. Why is life like that? Why are there the ups and downs? What is the design of God in the scheme of things in life?
Life should at least be a bed of roses. Even if the roses fade away and even if the thorns are painful, so what?
There must be more to life. Worldly success and family trappings constitute the bed of roses. But bed of roses will have thorns.
Life may not even be that bed of roses at times and Lord Bo Tien says that we need to learn from the lessons and gospel of life, not only those of our own but others as well.
We need to know that after storm, there will be calm and then storm again. This too the lord saint did remind.
He said that we are never alone. God and saints are there. But are they in us and that is the issue.
We need to know that after storm, there will be calm and then storm again. This too the lord saint did remind.
He said that we are never alone. God and saints are there. But are they in us and that is the issue.
We must have the peace of God in us and not seek the peace outside us. We must cultivate the peace of the saints in us by balancing the ups and downs, the yin and yang in life, like depicted by the lord saints feet atop the elements.
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| Lord Bo Tien |
Sure, our friends and pastors can help and lend us their shoulders to lean on. But they cannot live life for us. They can tell us about the awesomeness of God and saints.
But we need to have the peace within and have the God and saint within. We need to be one with God and saints to be at peace to traverse the trials and tribulations of life.
We are not here for nothing. We are here to learn and learn we must. Go for the peace of God and saints in us and be like the saints even if we can only be a little bit like them for now.
The problem in life does not lie in religion or in other men or even in God and saints. It lies in our not having the inner peace in our spirit, in the world within us.
Life is learning and we must learn how to have peace within and not expect more of the peace without. We cannot do much to the world outside us but we can certainly manage the world in us.
Have the inner peace and we will have God in us and not God out there, somewhere.
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