Struggle
Life acquires meaning
When we face that conflict
Between our desires
And reality.
We have differing personalities vying for predominance in our lives. Some come out at just the right moment. At other times, our aspirations and our fondest hopes find little support in our environment. Only a few can truly say that they are living their lives exactly according to their desires. For the majority of us, life is a series of conflicts between our inner ideas and our outer constrictions. How will we test ourselves against the flexing of external circumstances?
Goals are important. Forebearance is also important. But the very process of struggle is equally essential. Rice must undergo the hardship of pounding in order to become white. Steel must endure the forge to become strong. Adversity is the tempering of one's mettle. Without it we cannot know any true meaning in our accomplishment. Of course, when things happen without struggle, it does not mean that we did not deserve it.
A musician may compose a brilliant piece in an afternoon. An artist will dash off a masterpiece in a single sitting. A writer will write significant passages as if they were dictated. Each might say, "It happened so fast!" But in reality it took all of them years of dedication and struggle to come to that moment of climax. Thus even the virtuoso performance is the tip of a lifetime of struggle, and the gem of meaning is set in the metal of long perseverance.
Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao
No. 130, Northern Hemisphere, May 10
Copyright 1992