|
Classwork stuff that I found interesting enough to post ^.~
Well I just got done with my homework (YAY!) and I thought I'd share what I have to read/respond to in English. I can think of a couple people right now (including myself) that this applies to:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problems and Pain by: M. Scott Peck
Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. (*The first of the "Four Noble Truths" which Buddha taught was "Life is suffering." wink It is a freat truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend is. Once we truly know that life is difficult- once we truely understand and accept it- then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life SHOULD be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this moaning because I have done my share.
Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we want to teach our children to solve them?
Discipline is a basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems.
What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, evoke in us frustration or grief or sadness or loneliness or guilt or regret or anger or fear or anxiety or anguish or despair. These are uncomfortable feelings, often very uncomfortable, ofter as painful as any kind of physical pain. Indeed, it is BECAUSE of the pain that events or conflics engender in us all that we call them problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.
Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes us between success and failure. Problems call forth out courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of our problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challange and encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the human capacity to solve problems, just as in school we diliberately set problems for our children to solve. It is through pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn. As benjamin Franklin said, "Those things that hurt, instruct." It is for this reason that wise people learn not to dread but actually welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain of problems...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well there you have it, I'm tired of typing now so I'm gonna stop. Make of this what you will, I'm gonna go get ready for class. TTFN!!!
|
