Sunday Sermon (It's Too Much to Hope for)

¡Hola! Everybody...
Today is the Dominican Day Parade. I will be there as the [un]Official Parade Culo Inspector... LOL

I don’t know if the following was written by a Buddhist, but it sure does capture the core Buddhist POV on pain and suffering...

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-=[It’s Too Much to Hope for ]=-

It's too much to hope for a life without pain,
It's wrong to expect a life without pain,
For pain is our body's defense.
No matter how much we dislike it,
And nobody likes it,
Pain is important,
And,
For pain we should be grateful!
How else would we know,
To move our hand from the fire?
Our finger from the blade?
Our foot from the thorn?
So pain is important,
And for pain we should be grateful!
Yet,
There's a type of pain that serves no purpose,
That's chronic pain,
It's that elite band of pain that's not for defense.
It's an attacking force.
An attacker from within
A destroyer of happiness
An aggressive assailant on personal ability
A ceaseless invader of personal peace
And,
A continuous harassment to life!
Chronic pain is the hardest hurdle for the mind to jump.
Sometimes it is almost impossible to jump,
Yet, we must keep trying,
And trying,
And trying,
Because if we don't it will destroy.
And,
From this battle will come some good,
The satisfaction of overcoming pain.
The achievement of happiness and peace, of life in spite of it.
This is quite an achievement,
An achievement very special, very personal,
A feeling of strength
Of inner strength
Which has to be experienced to be understood.
So, we all have to accept pain,
Even sometimes destructive pain.
For it is part of the scheme of things,
And the mind can manage it,
And the mind will become stronger for the practice.

-- Jonathan Wilson-Fuller

What is even more remarkable about this piece is that it was written when Jonathan was only nine-years-old! Read more about him (click here)

Love,

Eddie