posted October 25, 2012 05:53 AM            

Once we know how Life works, we see we can rely on it. Optimism is that confidence in the future and in oneself that makes one preserve inner happiness in spite of one’s suffering and while acting in solidarity with all suffering beings on this planet.

Pain is but a form of Teaching, generously given us by Nature. No suffering is more intense than the lesson taught by it, nor can human affliction be greater than the blessing that compensates it in due time. A Master of the Wisdom wrote:

“Nature has an antidote for every poison and her laws a reward for every suffering. The butterfly devoured by a bird becomes that bird, and the little bird killed by an animal goes into a higher form. It is the blind law of necessity and the eternal fitness of things…” [2]

Of course, philosophical optimism can appear to be too severe to some. Being profound, it does not have to appear on the surface for everyone to see and supposedly to applaud it, out of short-term emotional considerations.

Confidence in the future is a deep source of that understanding that sustains a long-term self-sacrifice.

One needs to have true optimism before making a vow to dedicate one’s life to a noble ideal, thus leaving aside all attachment to personal comfort. True theosophy is not an anesthetic. It eliminates the source, not the symptoms, of human pain.

Notes:
[2] “The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett”, T.U.P. edition, Pasadena, USA, see Letter X, pp. 56-57. In the Chronological edition (TPH-Philippines), this is letter number 88."

posted October 25, 2012 08:41 AM            

It works, too. When I was 4 I grabbed Granny's cigarette from the ashtray after she got up to get something and took a drag off of it like she did and got very sick. She was right about my not ever doing that again. Perhaps her own life would've been better (and not had that pulmonary embolism back in 2011) had she learned not to smoke at age 4 as I had...

posted October 25, 2012 09:11 AM            

Amen sister

posted October 25, 2012 08:41 PM            

It changed me for the better, over time.

I don't try and make relationships permanent or stable, the way I used to (NN Scorpio, control freak tendencies). I've been liberated from my fears of losing people because I've learned that there are no guarantees. Also I enjoy the present that I share with others more...you really don't know how long you have with them.