Humility

Webster defines humility as "a disposition to be humble, a lack of false pride, modesty, humbleness." I'd like to talk about humility today from a different context - to be patient with the suffering or challenges we encounter in our lives. It is a short term event and it too shall pass!

This claim is based on my belief that we are eternal souls and will return again to this world. You don't have to agree with this statement, but it is the basis for my assertion. Because I've been here before and will continue to progress in this spiritual journey, the incidents that occur in this life are temporary; lessons for a better future. I can be miserable and condemn each one; thus living a life filled with blame, anger, and frustration. On the other hand, I can accept them with humility (patience) and understand that it could be karma from a previous life or a lesson because I stranded from the right path.

In this context, the failures we encounter are temporary, a miniscule event in many past lives and potentially future ones. For example, I've been married twice in my current life. Some would argue that my relationships have been failures that ended up in divorce. The possibility exist that I can be alone the rest of my life and not find my "soul mate, my better half." What if in a previous life, I met my wife when I was 15 and stayed with her until I was 95 years old, had 40 children, 87 grandchildren, and 156 great-grandchildren......would you consider that I was very lucky indeed? Why can't I have the same "dharma" in the future? If my life were a 24 hour clock, JC today represents one minute in this 24 hour clock, and I think that I am being very generous because it could be one second, or half a second. How many more seconds or minutes I have or have lived where happiness was complete (if there is such a thing), where I was successful and enjoyed riches beyond my wildest dreams, or where I lived a peaceful existence surrounded by loved ones and died quietly?

The problem I see in too many people is that they believe this minute or second is the only one they have so they try to jam everything they can into this very short cycle. Life becomes a race to acquire as much as they can, to find "true happiness" (a topic for a future blog) because without it life has no meaning, or hurdle over everyone in their path to get to the finish line first. As a result, they force mistakes, blinded by their ambition, and ultimately forget the true purpose of this life.