The more you seek ease the more elusive it proves. The faster hardship creeps up on you and overwhelms you. For what is once easy becomes harder and the hard becomes even harder. Ease is easy in the short-term but it draws you in and suffocates you in the long run. Try to return to the womb and you end up in the grave.
The more you run towards hardship the greater the repulsion to hardship. The more ease is drawn towards you. The more one gets used to hardship the greater the ease. Such is the nature of man. The avoidance of suffering only increases it in the long term. Yet getting used to suffering eases it somewhat.
Of course old age ensures the hardship runs even faster and ease flees even faster if you stand still. But even then that means that one should stay the path of overcoming it for it slows down the inevitable decay.
The key to ease is hardship to a certain point. For reality in truth doesn't become easier but you become more able. And just as ease seems to make things harder its because you are weaker. The cushion hasn't ceased being comfortable after all.
"History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below." -Voltaire
Its easy to slip into silken slippers. Yet those silken slippers are hard rock to the weak. For the hobnail boot wearers its just as comfortable as the silken slippers in the beginning.
Hence man needs a certain degree of hardship in order to be comfortable. For if one doesn't know pain. How can he truly know comfort?
The more you run towards hardship the greater the repulsion to hardship. The more ease is drawn towards you. The more one gets used to hardship the greater the ease. Such is the nature of man. The avoidance of suffering only increases it in the long term. Yet getting used to suffering eases it somewhat.
Of course old age ensures the hardship runs even faster and ease flees even faster if you stand still. But even then that means that one should stay the path of overcoming it for it slows down the inevitable decay.
The key to ease is hardship to a certain point. For reality in truth doesn't become easier but you become more able. And just as ease seems to make things harder its because you are weaker. The cushion hasn't ceased being comfortable after all.
"History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below." -Voltaire
Its easy to slip into silken slippers. Yet those silken slippers are hard rock to the weak. For the hobnail boot wearers its just as comfortable as the silken slippers in the beginning.
Hence man needs a certain degree of hardship in order to be comfortable. For if one doesn't know pain. How can he truly know comfort?