We should not abandon life in the face of suffering and grief—we can overcome such if we set our hearts on love, beauty and meaning which are eternal values. Once having cultivated these in our heart, they are ours; our very own, to be known or felt by none other except ourselves and as such, can never be taken away from us. It is as though, in our love and adoration of the highest and most sublime sentiments, we somehow rise to a mysterious emotional and ‘spiritual' understanding beyond ourselves. If so, we should not rail at destiny nor be bitter — we have had our happy moments, which we knew all along would not be permanent states of existence, and should be humble enough to accept what subsequently follows. To have known love and have dwelt within it is enough blessing for such could have been denied to the less fortunate. We might even say to ourselves: we have been more fortunate than many others....
Extracted from my
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ZEN-
THE PATH TO A CALMER & HAPPIER LIFE, (copyright)
Melbourne 2018, republished in US last year.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem