Hari
OM
Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and
parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
As
introduced in yesterday's Freeday post, we are going to embark upon an
exploration called "Beyond Sorrow" over the next few
weeks here. These will be mini-essays and quotes from varied sources and
spiritual backgrounds and will, hopefully, shed some light on why it is we find
ourselves in a state of sorrow and what it is that we can do to correct our
thinking in order to remove it from our lives. This is not to belittle any
grief which may be taking place for anyone - that is a different and pertinent
aspect of life. Here, the 'sorrow' is that more general malaise that has us
being discontented, even depressed, about how things are not the way we want
them to be. Sometimes that arises from an acute incidence of grief. If we do
not have appropriate support and correct vision of life, it can grab hold and
drag us down.
However,
many will say that life is being unfair to them, that they are 'suffering' from
that perception of inequity or lack of this and that. There is a root cause and
it is almost always about the fact the change happens and we'd rather it didn't
- because we also have to adapt and change. This seems like a good place to
begin. The first few posts will be about understanding suffering. We will start
off with a quote from the 'Tales of the Hasidim.'
When
Rabbi Shmelke and his brother visited the maggid of Mezritch, they asked him
about the following; 'our sages said certain words which leave us no peace
because we do not understand them. They are that men should praise and thank
God for suffering, just as much as for well-being, and receive it with the same
joy. Will you tell us how we are to understand this Rabbi?'
The
maggid replied; 'go to the house of study. There you will find Zusya smoking his
pipe. He will give you the explanation.'
They
went to the house of study and put their question to Rabbi Zusya. He laughed.
'You certainly have come to the right man! Better go to someone else rather
than me, for I have never experienced suffering.'
However,
the two knew that, from when he was born right up to this day, Rabbi Zusya's
life had been a web of need and anguish. Then, they knew what it was… to accept
suffering with Love.