Inner torment

Meeting hundreds of people, I have realized that Larry’s torment is more common than ever:

“Oh, like everyone else, I want to succeed, I want to improve but not necessarily in the terms of what the world calls success. Somehow I’ve lost confidence in the accepted values. I try to get excited at the prospect of settling down minding my own business and making good but it only increases my urge to move on. I know that if I do find what I’m looking for it will be something that I can share with others.
But how to find it, and where?”

Maybe it will be a consolation for those of you who have not yet figured out what to do when you grow up, but it can also be the definite understanding that “torment” is an almost compulsory battle to achieve success. When I read about stories of men and women who have changed the world, there is always “torment” during the journey; moments in which the hero falters, wondering if the road is the right one, or whether it is better to go back and live a different life, perhaps an easier one.

In his autobiography, Andre Agassi, the world tennis champion, reveals that he has always hated tennis. Despite seeming a paradox, he teaches us that results may come from a job we love, but also from what we hate. That you can enjoy the destination, or the journey. It is just a matter of choice, and none of the “choices” we make may be right or wrong, but simply our own.

As the wise Indian says:

“All your restlessness and confusion are not unique, my son. The whole world is restless and confused.
It will always be so, as long as men set their ideals on the wrong objects. There can be no real happiness until men learn that it comes from within themselves. I know. It is written that the wise man lives from within himself which is from God, from within his own heart. This is the way of calmness, forbearance, compassion, selflessness and everlasting peace”.

“But that’s not easy”.

“The road to salvation is difficult to pass over. As difficult as the sharp edge of a razor. But this much we know and all religions teach it. There is in every one of us a spark of the infinite goodness which created us. And when we leave this earth, we are reunited with it as a raindrop falling from heaven is at last reunited with the sea which gave it birth”.

“We Indians believe there are three roads that lead to God. One is the path of faith and worship.
One is the path of good works performed for the love of God. And then there is a third path, which
leads through knowledge to wisdom. You have chosen the way of knowledge. But you will find in the end, my son that the three paths are but one path.”.

Every day we walk on the edge of a razor, but we just have to remember where we came from and where we are going to to find peace we need. Along the way, everything is relative and depends on who we are in that moment, how we got there, how our state of mind is and countless other elements. Claiming to make “the journey” surrounded by “torment” sounds omnipotent, but seeking peace is the way to everything. Faith, good deeds and know-how are the 3 ways to get there, and that they are “journey” and “destination” together.

“… and in case I don’t see ya…

good afternoon, good evening and good night!”…

(The Truman Show)

Virginio