In times past, people have made God a convenience. They have thought
they could drift through life, learning none of its discipline and
then, when in trouble, or things were not to their liking, they could
pray to God and have the unpleasant circumstances taken away. The
same idea is prevalent to-day. People have left the old orthodoxy
and look to various "cults" and "isms" to get them out of their
difficulties. They do not believe now that they can curry special
favour with God by prayer, but they firmly believe that they can get
what they want from the Invisible by demanding it. They think that
by this means they can have their own way after all. By this they
mean having a good time, with no unpleasant experiences, trials,
difficulties, adversities. They are, however, merely chasing rainbows.
The easy life they seek constantly eludes them, simply because there
is no such thing. The only life that is easy is the life of the strong
soul who has overcome. His life is not easy in reality, but appears
relatively so because of his strength.
It is impossible to have an easy life, and, if it were possible, then
life would be not worth living, for the sole object of life is the
building of character and the attainment of wisdom through experience.
Life to all of us must always be full of difficulty, and it is to
help those, who, hitherto, have found life rather too much for them
that this book is being written. What the majority are seeking for
is an easy life (which they will never find, but precisely the
reverse) and for them I have no message. But to those wise and
awakened souls who are seeking for Truth, no matter from whence it
may come, and who desire to overcome life and its difficulties,
instead of weakly giving in to them, this book, it is hoped, will
bring a message.
At this stage we cannot go into the subject of why we should meet
with disasters and adversity in this life, nor why some people should
have, apparently, a smoother life than others. [2] We must therefore
be satisfied to know that we have to meet trouble and overcome
difficulty, and that it is only by so doing that we can attain wisdom
and build up character. The question, then, is not _whether_ we shall
meet the trouble and adversity or not, but rather, _how_ we shall
meet them. Shall we be victorious or shall we be submerged? Shall
we overcome life's difficulties or shall we give in to them?
[2] This subject is dealt with in "The Path of Victory" by the
same author, and published by The Science of Thought Press.
The majority of people are drifters on the sea of life. They are
wafted here and blown there: they are also carried hither and thither
by every current. It is only the few who realize that they have the
Power of the Infinite within them by which they can rise superior
to all their difficulties, overcome their own weaknesses, and, through
victorious experience, attain wisdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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