Do you remember the famous little story about the man who was showing the moon to his friend by pointing at it? But his friend only saw the finger and not the moon. Human beings often do exactly the same. They focus on the “means” rather than the “goal”. Ideas and beliefs, opinions and judgments, for example, are necessary to make you start moving, acting. They are like the fuel and the car that you need to go on a journey. But the actual driving is up to you. It is up to you to decide where to go and how to reach your destination. You are free to go straight, to turn right or left, you choose your speed and the route. Similarly, the ideas created by your mind are just the tool that will help you experience, learn and reach true knowledge. They are like the road signs that you see while driving. But… be careful, try to follow the direction of the correct sign. Do not turn right when your destination is on the left. Absurd, you say? You would never do that, you say? Good for you. You are lucky indeed. Many human beings, though, get stranded because of delusions, false hopes, deceiving promises or cloudy goals. Everybody needs to be always alert, to keep their eyes wide open in order to see the difference between beneficial and useless or dangerous ideas, between balanced or irrational judgments, between opinions that are corroborated by actual facts and those that are clearly illogical. True knowledge and understanding can be obtained only by filtering all that the mind presents to your awareness, thus eliminating the superfluous, the useless stuff that human beings love to carry around without realizing it.
On the topic of pain, we can easily notice that although we can talk about it at length, we are actually aware of its essence only when we are personally touched by it. Pain is unpleasant, no one would ever feel it. Yet, it is an experience that every one must undergo and, although we dislike to admit it, it is a true incentive that compels us to wake up and see reality as it is. It make us part of situations that millions of other human beings are living, and which we have been — till now — completely detached from, even unaware of or, worse, indifferent to. The world is what it is and we must accept it exactly thus — as it is — without refusal, without anger, without fear. Facing the reality of certain situations means to identify oneself with the life of other human beings who are fighting the same battles, who are facing the same problems. Let us remember that we are never alone, even in our saddest times — provided we are able, and willing, to raise our eyes and look up rather than down. Pain tends to make us lower our head, cry and despair. As these are humanly natural feelings, they certainly deserve to be experienced and manifested, never hidden or suppressed. But their personal experience should bring each individual to sublimate (= raise to a higher state) suffering, to overcome the immediate devastating feeling and allow oneself to be led to see the reality of what is happening from a higher perspective. This, although not easy to do, can help us find a new aim rather than give in to desperation and renunciation, to look at others as fellow human beings and not as enemies, to dry our tears and be able to smile again.
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