THE CAUSE OF JOY AND SORROW

The Cause of Joy and Sorrow

Somewhere the idea was born that man should live in states of
happiness and joy all of the time. But, in the first place, happiness
and joy depend upon unhappiness and sorrow, even to be recognized or
appreciated. If man would only know that whatever emotion transpires
within him foreshadows its opposite. Secondly, suffering is a greater
intensity, a higher vibration, than happiness. You do not learn much from
your happinesses; you learn from the states of suffering, which awaken
the higher consciousness of your soul. But suffering has no value for
its own sake. When the mind recognizes it is suffering over something
or other, it is time to practice meditation, to see into the causes,
to expand your consciousness a little bit more so that you will grasp
the workings of life and its karmic laws. Then you will attain to a
greater intensity than either joy or suffering has to offer. You will
view the wheel of life, of cause and effect, objectively. And you will
not so quickly identify yourself with the lower emotions or the objects
of your own mind's creation.

Then there are the people who, like a fish caught by a fisherman, grasp
onto the hook, who step on the spiritual path, but spend their time
flip-flopping in the water, tugging at the line, swimming first one way
then the other, never really approaching the surface. Why? They live in
their ego, that's all. Their consciousness is limited. The ego is just a
trifle dumb. Have you observed an egotistical person? He is just a little
dumb, isn't he--not aware of the layers and layers of wisdom within him.

It is the wise man who recognizes the importance of controlling the forces
of his mind. His life is a struggle to make his philosophy real, to gain
control of the cycles of experience which have tied him to the wheel of
karma. You don't escape the chain of cause and effect by just sitting
with your eyes closed, trying to keep awake, trying to meditate. The
genuine practice of yoga involves meeting new challenges each day,
having new realizations each day, becoming the boss of your mind, not
allowing it to flop around at the end of the line. This type of diligent
concentration will definitely change you from the inside out. You will
begin to realize, more and more, that you are the creator of your life
and every aspect of it.

But your incarnation on this planet is not complete until you have
exhausted the wheel of karma, and it will not exhaust itself unless
you gain control of it. The wheel of karma, of cause and effect, the
world of form, is apparent only when you look at it. You only attain
the natural state of your radiant inner being when you step off the
wheel of karma. It is not natural for man to live bound to the lower
states of mind, ignorant of the fact that God dwells within. But the
hearing and understanding of this truth is only the first glimmer of
the dawn, a preliminary awakening. The rest, the final realization,
is up to you. It is up to you and you alone to penetrate the veil of
illusion and realize the Self, the Absolute, beyond desire, beyond the
experiences of the mind. It is up to you to realize God.