“All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.” (Joseph Campbell [1904 – 1987]. If you haven’t heard the above, maybe you have heard “attitude determines your altitude.”Jesus said “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)” But we often say in response, “ya but you don’t understand MY problems, MINE are actually difficult.” Well, take it from a man who was ripped into a concentration camp during the holocaust.
in Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, a doctor in neurology, a man in the absolute torture and hell of suffering in the Nazi concentration camps, embraces attitude. Viktor stated that everything can be taken from a person but for one thing, the last of our human freedoms, the freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances and to choose one’s own way.
Buddhists say that suffering is lack of acceptance of pain. We fight it. We are in the pain of regret of the past or the pain of worry of the future. Be in the now. Practice gratitude of the now. Accept the pain, it is only temporary and will pass.
choose happiness. Breathe, be grateful, laugh. Smile, in the arena of life
The good and the bad, even this, this too shall pass.