IN THE TRIALS OF LIFE, THERE ARE ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD AND BUDDHA

Difficulties and problems, failures and setbacks are usually seen as negative. But it is not entirely right to see them in this way. In failure, you find also the seeds of success; in sorrow, the seeds of joy. I really think it is important to look at these apparent setbacks in a different way.

People who simplistically see the world from a perspective of duality-in other words, people who judge situations to be good or bad-would probably say: “If God exists, why is the world so full of distress and sorrow?” They wonder why there is so much misery and hardship in people’s lives, why they have to experience the pain of facing death, of separation from loved ones, or of poverty.

Life is full of pain and sorrow, but these do not exist for their own sake. In fact, what appears to be pain or sorrow is often an expression of God’s love in disguise. In Buddhism, sufferings in life are sometimes described as the expedient measures to lead people to enlightenment. Trials are like a whetstone that polishes our souls, and through our trials an encounter with God awaits.

If everything went smoothly and you had no serious problems in your life-if, as a child, you grew up healthy, did well at school, graduated from a reasonably good university, found a respectable job, married happily and enjoyed a good family life, then grew old and eventually died peacefully-you would probably have little chance of experiencing the ultimate encounter. However, in reality, at some point in life, everybody experiences failure of some kind, and everybody experiences sleepless nights. You probably lost your appetite after a painful experience, or spent sleepless nights in pain or in a state of anxiety.

The question, then, is how you see life’s difficulties, how you assess them, and how you react to them. Faced with difficulty or pain, anxiety or suffering, do you see these as a manifestation of evil? Do you curse the world, heaven, and other people, or can you perceive in difficulties the prompting to become a better person? Can you see them as an expression of the love of God? These are two different ways of seeing the same circumstances.

From "The Starting Point of Happiness" by Ryuho Okawa