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Living in the Dharma - Confusedly > “A smooth road all the way to your door”
By Rev. Shojo Honda
Happy New Year everyone!
A new year has come. That is cause for new cerebration for us to start toward a new, but unknown future. We are, now, ready to go full of hope.
Just a few days ago, I was looking back at the year of 2004, and was thinking of days in which I had experienced many things including both “joy” and “sorrow.” I felt like I wanted to hold the rest of days in my hands. Because, that year and those days never come back again.
Everyone knows that life is not smooth. In the journey of life, sometimes we have to walk on a rocky road up the hill; sometimes we go down on a gentle slope. No matter, it’s on sunny days or rainy days, we keep going without stopping even a minute while taking care of our daily responsibilities.
Once, a man asked a camel that was working on the Silk Road whether he preferred going uphill or downhill. The camel said: “What is important to me is not the uphill or downhill—it is the load!”
In the man’s life, “Good and ill luck are next door neighbors.” Nobody knows which one comes first, and which one comes next. Whatever life may be, I tell you that life cannot be concluded in a theory or hypothesis.
In Shinran Shonin’s later writing, there is a well-known phrase that is “naturalness and Dharma-nature (Jinen Honi).” This phrase means: “Let things happen as they will. Let them be as they are, and do not resist the things that happen, and be total with them.” Things happen under the universal law, so that, Shinran’s word encourages us to live in harmony with the law.
It is said: “every day is a new day.” So is every year. Now we are at the beginning of a new year, and you will learn many things through your experiences in the year to come. A little while ago, I said that a life mingled joy and sorrow. As to this matter, I would like to give you some advice which may make your life little easier.
A feeling of “joy” or “happiness” is a comparatively stable feeling, it does not show much change of amplitude. So, when you are happy, you feel at ease.
On the contrary, “anxiety” or “worries” always change in their intensity. Sometimes, all of a sudden, the feeling of anxiety grows like a monster, and all of a sudden it shrinks like Tom Thumb. That feeling raises you and tosses you down again and again.
Particularly, when the monster of anxiety takes over you at night, it grows greater and greater. It doesn't let you sleep. As it is said in the Dhammapada: “Long is the night to the wakeful, long even three-miles road to one who is exhausted (with travel).”
So try not to think about bad things at night; you will not get an answer to solve your problems then. The monster will never give you the right answer. If you have worries or problems, think about them in the day time. I hope this advice will be of some help in the future.
Incidentally, the following is an Irish toast. I think this is suitable for the compliments of a new year’s greeting, too. So, I convey to you these blessed words:
May you have warm words on a cold evening, A full moon on a dark night,
And a smooth road all the way to your door.
I wish you a happy new year.