MAURICE BARBANELL ENJOY THE SUNSHINE OF LIFE One who is familiar with the higher truths once put on record the experience that changed his outlook. He writes: “For forty years I was afflicted with some of the most horrible diseases known to mankind! Worse than cancer, worse than polio, worse than angina, the diseases which come upon me made my life a hell on earth. The first disease was a severe case of pessimism. If there was the slightest tinge of darkness in connection with anything, I managed, no matter how difficult it was, to find the darkness. Another disease was false desires. How I yearned to have possessions which would not have been good for me. How I longed to do things which would have brought me (and often did) pangs of regret. I charged down the road after a fleeing and fleeting happiness, and always came to the end of the road to find that I had been shadow-chasing again.” The man continued: “Envy was a curious sort of ulcer that gnawed at my insides till I could hardly stand the pain. I was always hoping someone would die and leave me some wonderful inheritance. The companion disease, of course, is selfishness. These two nearly always make their appearance together. They enjoy each other’s company, but you will not find them enjoyable guests.” Finally, he went to a doctor, who made an X-ray examination of the stomach. This showed that he had an ulcer. The doctor said that he would have to ease up and stop worrying. “That night I got thinking,” says the writer. “I decided: ‘This doctor doesn’t know all about me. He thinks I worry, and really I don’t, but I do have a lot of other diseases. They are just too many to try and cure. I think I will die instead.’ “So I got out paper and pencil. ‘If I am going to die,’ I told myself, ‘I am going to make a will.’ “I made a list of all my possessions, not my house and my car and my money. Those are just things that I am using. The things I had owned are the things I put down. Here are some of them – envy, worry, fear, greed, selfishness.” “I died the moment I signed that will. And no sooner did I die than I received a wonderful inheritance from myself. I received cheerfulness, love, courage, generosity, justice, tolerance, ability, mental and spiritual prosperity and I think some material prosperity, too. I received such a large inheritance that I cannot list all.” “I went back to that doctor about six weeks later. He took another X-ray. I sat with him in his office when the nurse brought it in for him to see. He held it up to the light and a puzzled look came on his face. He took the card with my name on it from his file and tore it up. The doctor didn’t have to tell me the ulcer was gone. Yes, I died ten years ago, and how glad I am to be alive today.” Fear and pessimism are both negative and destructive. They make the atmosphere around you listless, apathetic, heavy and dull. They block the channels by which help can come to you. You live in an aura of gloom. You attract forces which, by their very nature, can only increase your despondency. Your mind, because it is wavering, ceases to be receptive to constructive ideas. Fear and worry are always your worst enemies. What a tonic President Roosevelt gave to his listening millions when he broadcast the simple but stirring declaration, “We have nothing to fear but fear.” He knew that fear was corrosive and that worry warped the judgement. Fear is futile. The individual who fears what the morrow will bring is helping to bring tomorrow’s difficulties to him. When you worry you do not improve yourself or your lot. All you do is to make it impossible to think clearly and constructively. When your mind is filled with black despair, you have defeated yourself before you begin to fight. You can be concerned without worrying or indulging in fearful anxiety that makes your mind a hopeless blank. There is no difficulty so strong that it is beyond your powers to overcome it, no load so heavy that your shoulders cannot bear it. Consider the grievous handicaps that others have conquered. Beethoven was stone deaf, Milton was blind, Pasteur was paralysed and Helen Keller suffered from blindness and deafness. Yet she was able to assert. “I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work and my God! Why then, should you be chained by fear? Some people argue that they were born with a certain temperament and cannot change it. If they believe they cannot, they certainly will not. If they believe they can, they will. Others blame their parents or their environment. Every child has in addition to all the usual physical factors contributed by his forbears his own X, the divine spark, the “unknown quantity” which is his own contribution to his evolution. His parents supply his body and his early environment, but they do not provide the X, the most vital asset. History is full of examples of men and women, born of humble parents, in obscure surroundings, who have achieved greatness. Genius has been reared in circumstances that seemed completely alien to its flowering. Abraham Lincoln, who had less than twelve months schooling, suffered unemployment, was in disgrace when he joined the army, and failed again and again, but became the greatest President of the United States. Moaning, groaning, bewailing and complaining will not enhance your position or your prospects. The man who is always looking for trouble will find it. Difficulties must be regarded as challenges which can and will be met, leaving you the stronger for having encountered them. You must make stepping stones of your adversity, perplexity and frustration. The truth is that problems are good for us. They are the means by which character is developed. Without them, the human race would become spineless. Gold emerges only after the dirty yellow ore has been crushed refined and purified. Your real self often does not emerge until trouble has touched your soul. Suffering and pain cease to be mysteries when they lead you to the deepest and highest aspects of your own being, making you aware of innate qualities whose existence you had never before realised. Thousands have found God, and found themselves, when life seemed to be in the shadows. It is part of the divine compensation that through the greatest suffering, you attain the greatest knowledge. Life is comparative. You enjoy sunshine only because you have dwelt in the shadows. You cannot appreciate wealth unless you have tasted poverty. Good health is not valued until you have experienced illness. It is because we have endured the horrors of war that we can enjoy the benefits of peace. You get a different perspective of life when in a plane. As you fly over cities and countries, your mind seems to detach itself from the trivialities, worries and meaningless of life on the ground. A sense of loftiness fills you. You enjoy a greater freedom. There are no hedges, barriers or frontiers to separate you from other individuals. Your mind too, has been given wings. The land over which you travel may be in shadow because of clouds which obscure the sun. But you are flying above those clouds and the sun is friendly and warm. You watch the slowly moving clouds and see a rift. You know, though the people below you do not, that through the rift the rays of the sun will shine. They cannot see the light which you know will soon bring illumination to them. Because of your new horizon, you have a realisation and foresight which they do not possess. Knowledge of life’s greater realities will bring a similar change in your perspective. And fear will never find a resting place in your mind.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 06:49:50 +0000