Two Sides of a CoinOnce a beautiful and richly dressed woman
visited a house. The master of the house asked
her who she was, and she replied that she was
the goddess of wealth. With great delight the
master of the house invited her in.
Soon appeared another woman who was ugly
and dressed in rags. The master asked who she
was, and the woman replied that she was the
goddess of poverty. The frightened master tried
to drive her out of the house, but she refused to
depart.
"The goddess of wealth is my sister," she said.
"There is an agreement between us that we are
never to live separately. If you chase me out,
she is to go with me." Sure enough, as soon as
the ugly woman went out, the other woman
disappeared.
Nature is marked with changes. The flowers
bloom and fade; the tides rise and fall; the
moon waxes and wanes; and the seasons come
and go.
Just as nature is a circle of moods, so is human
life. Like the tides, man's moods rise and fall;
life is happy and then sad. We like to think life is
like a rose, but remember that the rose has
thorns too, otherwise we will be hurt.
The Buddha taught that there are eight worldly
conditions which affect human life: gain and
loss, fame and ill-fame, praise and blame, and
happiness and sorrow.
We rejoice at the arrival of gain, fame and
happiness, and lament at the arrival of their
counter-parts. But these conditions are really
two sides of a coin.
Birth goes with death; fortune goes with
misfortune. Bad things follow good things.
Yesterday's joy will become today's sadness; yet
today's sadness will grow into tomorrow's joy.
Like a wheel constantly turning, sadness turns
to joy, exultation to depression, happiness to
melancholy.
Like the flowers, our joy today will fade and
wither into sadness; yet as today's dead flower
carries the seed of tomorrow's bloom, so does
today's sadness carry the seed of tomorrow's
joys.
Therefore, the Buddha urges us to develop
equanimitythe evenness of mind so as not to
be tossed high up with elation or drowned deep
with sorrow. Like a solid rock unshaken by the
winds, we maintain our serenity in the face of
these worldly conditions.
Those seeking true happiness must transcend
these conditions and be free from attachments.
Be like the lotus, unsoiled by the mud it springs
from.11