Meditations: The Obstacle Becomes the Way

“In the morning, when you get up unwillingly, let this thought be ready: I am rising to do the work of a human being.Why then am I unhappy, if I am going to do the things I exist for, the things I was brought into the world to do?Or was I made for this: to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm? “But this is more pleasant.” Were you born, then, for pleasure, and not for action?Do you not see the little plants, the birds, the ants, the spiders and the bees, each doing its part to put the world in order? And you are unwilling to do the work of a human being?

It is my duty to do good to people and to put up with them. But when some of them block my proper work, they become to me like the sun, the wind or a wild animal: things that may get in my way.They may stop my action, but they cannot stop my intention or my attitude, because the mind can adapt and change course.The mind turns every obstacle to its activity into an aid. What stands in the way of the action moves the action forward, and the obstacle on the road helps us along this road.

Do not despise death, but accept it calmly, since this too is one of the things that nature wills.Being young and growing old, growing up, getting teeth and a beard and grey hair, having children: all these are works of nature, and so is dying.A thinking person, then, is neither careless nor impatient nor scornful about death, but waits for it as one of nature’s operations.

You have been a citizen of this great city, the world. What difference does it make to you whether it was for five years or for three?Where is the hardship, if it is not a tyrant or an unjust judge who sends you away, but nature, who brought you in? It is as if a manager who hired an actor now dismisses him from the stage.“But I have not finished the five acts, only three.” You are right, but in life three acts are the whole play.Leave, then, with good grace, for the one who releases you is also gracious.”