The Principle of Contentment

"If day and night, summer and winter are fine with you,you have overcome the contradictions ."

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This principle notes in a figurative way, the opposition of situations. However, such opposition can be reconciled if one changes one's point of view of the problem.

The excessive heat of summer makes us think about the cold of winter (or of the rainy season) as a compensation, and vice-versa. Every difficult situation makes us remember or imagine an opposite one. But, once we are in this opposite situation, discontent arises again. Then, this new compensation leads us back to the opposite point. Whenever suffering appears, a compensation begins. But this compensation does not overcome suffering itself.

A person who is oriented by a well-defined meaning in life will have a different point of view and behavior when faced with difficulties. If a person believes that his life has a meaning and that everything that happens to him is useful for his learning and to better himself in such direction, then he will not simply avoid problems that come up by compensating in the usual way. Rather, this person will fully face the problems and also find some usefulness in them. Both the cold of winter (or the rainy season) and the heat of summer can be used, and when they happen, this person will say, "In what way are these seasons opposed to each other if both are usefor to me?"

 

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