THE AWARENESS THAT YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD

From ancient times, it has also been said that to achieve greatness, people need to have experienced some difficulty or suffering, such as a serious illness, a broken heart, a divorce or losing a job. The reason these kinds of hardships are considered a prerequisite for greatness is that suffering and difficulty show us rock bottom, the most difficult times in life.

Those who know the “ground” at the rock bottom of their heart become so strong that they have the ability to get back on their feet and overcome any difficulty. Every time you face a difficulty, it is important to discover your limitations, and how much you can endure. If you can see situations in this way, it is not so difficult to find some positive significance in distress or difficulty. Through these sorts of experiences, you will come to know how far you can exert your strength when you are really driven into a corner.

It is said that to assess someone, you need only see the person at the heights of triumph and in the depths of despair. Those who, at the moment of victory, expose their egos and become conceited, and those who wail and cry out in times of despair are ordinary. Those who can carry on with life as usual and have an unshakable mind in such extreme circumstances are extraordinary for this reason alone.

Take Thomas Edison, for example, the great inventor who after many experiments obtained patents for a number of different inventions. One day, a fire broke out and destroyed his laboratory. When he saw that his laboratory had been reduced to ashes, he simply said, “Good, now I can make a fresh start.”

A similar incident happened involving Thomas Carlyle, the British historian and essayist. One day, Carlyle asked a friend to read a manuscript he had been working on. However, after the friend finished it, he left it on his desk and fell asleep. When he got up, he found that his maid had taken it for waste paper and had thrown it away. When Carlyle discovered what had happened, instead of being filled with regret or anxiety, he simply started to write the entire book again from the beginning. After its completion, this manuscript went on to become a famous history book, described as an immortal masterpiece. I see great strength in his attitude.

Carlyle had a firm will and the strength to make a fresh start, no matter what difficulties he encountered. Even when his earlier attempt was lost just at the point of completion, he had the perseverance to start all over again.

This attitude is very important. Those who believe they can start afresh from nothing at any time have strength. In contrast, those who become afraid of losing their position and try to cling to it when they attain a certain level of status or fame are weak and easily defeated.

Let us be strong like Edison, who, when his laboratory burned to the ground, said it was a chance to make a fresh start. Let us have the strength of Carlyle, who after his manuscript was lost, rewrote it to create an immortal work. I am moved more by the attitudes of these great men than by their actual achievements.

Dale Carnegie, who is famous for his books, How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, had a similar trait. When he was young, he wanted to be a novelist, but the manuscripts of the two novels he wrote were both rejected by publishers. Following this, he did not attempt to write any more novels but instead wrote many wonderful books about positive thinking and self-improvement. These books ended up having a remarkable influence on many people throughout the world.

Carnegie never regretted that he did not succeed in becoming a novelist. He said that he was glad to have chosen his path. When told that he would never become a novelist, he was shocked and felt as if he had come to the end of the road. However, he finally got over this rejection and went on to become a thinker and educator. In this way, he succeeded in carving a new path for himself.

Good fortune can be found everywhere. With the belief that you will always find a way to access your potential, there will be no suffering or difficulty, no matter what the circumstances. The deeper you awaken to the truth that you are a child of God, the more indomitable your spirit will become. You should value this spirit, the spirit that no matter what happens, you will get back on your feet again.

From "An Unshakable Mind" by Ryuho Okawa