4/3/02 8:20 pm
There is no one answer for hardship. It comes from what one has done. It is with purpose, it is the reflexive response to past actions, past words, and past thoughts. We summon our own hardship both individually and collectively. Sometimes wisdom allows us to see its originating cause, more often, we remain unaware from where a moment had its originating impulse.
Lacking this ability to see backwards and forwards, it is wise to live ethically, as such, a harmonious life will ensue. That is not to say there will be no hardships, as they cultivate inner resources, but it is true one is not given more than one can bear. It is the way in which we bear the hardship, that determines the degree to which we are pained by it, or developed in a burnishing by it. Finding joy, even in inordinate struggle.
ZMH