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Buddhism
August 2009 
To be alive
Posted on Aug 16th, 2009
by 
Laurens
Laurens
To be alive
"Because we live
we have desires and hopes.
Because we have desires and hopes
we have fears of failing
to achieve them in the future
and memories of having failed
to achieve them
in the past.
How can we cope with the reality
that our desires and dreams
always extend
beyond our abilities
to attain them?
No amount of effort works satisfactorily;
no direct approach to the problem succeeds.
We hit the dead end of impossibility.
What is there to do?
The remarkable key
is to give up
on trying to solve
the dilemma altogether.
In other words,
we recognize the discrepancy
between what we want
and who we are (what we can achieve)
and accept it.
We recognize the feelings
of anxiety and inadequacy
that come with living,
and accept them.
There is no need to fight,
no need to wish life
would be otherwise
than it is.
We are just fine as we are.
Once (not really once,
but over and over again)
we recognize that naturalness
of this reality of discrepancy
we can go about directing our attention and efforts
toward doing what is possible.
We can begin to live
realistically and constructively
within the limits and potentials
that life offers us.
There has been no problem all along,
except for the one we created in our minds.
There is only
a naturally expansive set of desires,
a naturally limited set of abilities
to achieve them,
and a pressure
to achieve all of them.
To be alive
is to need,
to succeed and
to fail.
To be sometimes anxious
and sometimes confident.
Sometimes regretful
and sometimes satisfied.
Life is just fine like that."
David K. Reynolds on Constructive Living
Excerpt from a free online book available from David K. Reynolds on Constructive Living. Filled with observations, exercises and ideas that will sometimes stretch and challenge you, and sometimes it puts into words what you knew all along, but were never able to put into words clearly and consciously.
http://constructiveliving.org/works/fountain.html
Enjoy, accept and give it your all.
Warm smile and wishing you a beautiful day,
Laurens
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