HOW TO FACE OUR PROBLEM

Those who cannot cope with their problems create more worries. When misunderstanding occurs in their family they make life more miserable. Sometimes violence, bloodshed and sucide can also take place. So where is the satisfaction in a worldly life? Today people need more income not only for their daily living such as to provide their food, clothing, medicine, shelter, and to fulfill their obligation but also they have organized a way of life such that their sensual indulgence has increased. It has become a sort of competition. "People concentrate more on pleasure rather than the duties and responsibilities." Some people continue to feed their dissatisfaction by worrying about their future although they have more than enough at the moment. They worry about their sickness, old age, death, and also about heaven and hell in the next birth. Everyday they experience unsatisfactoriness in their life. They run here and there searching for a remedy to end their problems throughout their live. They continue this search for peace and happiness until they die but they never find their 'real solution'. When they feel that they are getting old they worry, they worry when they cannot get what they want, they worry when they lose their things or person they love. This leads to frustration and mental agony and may even later lead to mental derangement. We do not know the real nature of our existence but try to maintain life without experiencing any disturbances and changes. Life is changing, it is a bundle of elements and energies which are always changing. As a result no situation will ever be according to our expectation and we feel life does not work in our favor. When the elements and energies are imbalanced we experience uneasiness, sickness, pain, and many other problems. When mental energy is disturbed we experience mental problems. These mental problems if left unchecked over time manifest themselves as physical problems because our organs and glands also change their normal functioning and affect the blood circulation, heartbeat and brain cells. Today many people lead an artificial life not knowing its danger. Many of their problems are created by themselves due to their ignorance and crazy desire for too much pleasure. "Many of our problems and burdens come from middle age." To understand how our problems increase with age, let us assume there is a pit about hundred feet deep with burning charcoal at the bottom. If we put a ladder and ask some people to go down one by one, those who start to go down first will not complain about the heat until they descend to a depth of 40 to 50 feet, after that they feel a certain amount of heat. When they go further down to 60 to 70 feet and reach nearer the burning charcoal they experience the sensation of burning. They try to worn those coming after them about the danger below, but no one listens. In the same manner young people say there is nothing wrong with them and they do not experience suffering. It is as we grow older and have more understanding of old age, disease and impending death that we ... "Begin to feel the heat." I would says life is suffering and this is good example for young people to understand the nature of existence. Older people also have some of this wisdom and if young people listen to them they will be able to avoid many mistakes. Here is another example for you to understand why we would listen to our elders; "A flock of fishes see an unusual small obstruction in the water; it is really a trap put up by the fisherman to catch the fish. Some young fish want to go inside the obstruction and explore but the elderly fish advise them to do that because it could be a dangerous trap." The young fish ask; "How do we know whether it is dangerous or not? We can only know what it is if we go in and investigate? So some of them enter and are caught in the net. This tells us that it is not necessary to have personal experience in certain things to understand whether they are good or bad. "We must be prepared to accept the advice given by wise people who know infinitely more than we do." Therefore we should not think that we know everything and that no one can teach us about life and how to avoid its problems. When our elders and parents advise us not to do certain things, "we have to listen to them, because their experience in more advanced than our theoretical knowledge regarding our worldly life." This is why parents always advise their children to do certain things and not to do other things. "BEWARE OF LITTLE MISTAKE, A SMALL LEAK WILL SINK A GREAT SHIP." When young people neglect the advice given by the elders, they do many things according to their own way of thinking. Problems are created by our mind. If we developed our mind to maintain patience, tolerance and understanding, we will be able not to take any incident to create more problems. Remember! Our problems are of our own creation. It is not the work of others. From Empty Hands, A.RAHMAN BIN MAHADI. LABIS, JOHOR. 016-602 0321/017-716 1330. 05 JULY 2015. Next Topics: 1. "Bergantung Kepada Duit atau Wang Ringgit". 2. "Dealing With Enemies And Criticism".