“Few people know that with pleasure there always comes pain, and with pain, pleasure. Both should be set aside by people whose reason is balanced.” Swami Vivekananda

We really know this. We know that our moments of pleasure do not last and if we are honest we know the same thing about our pain as well. We know at the very least that how we feel in each experience changes over time according to how we are and what we choose to focus on.

Vivekananda says…We should seek freedom from being played upon by pleasure and by pain.

For a long time in my life I didn’t know I had a choice. I didn’t know that I could choose to not be played. I could choose to stand in my truth and in my strength no matter what. I could be the fulcrum, the point of balance, looking left and looking right but not getting sucked in to either. I just didn’t know.

So I would scramble left and then right. I would alternatively be happy and then angry. I got played…by tough times and happy times. It was an unconscious thing. I didn’t know.

To not be played is to live life consciously…to be aware…to take off the blinders and leave behind the expectations about how life should be. To not be played is to practice being present to what is, knowing that it will change…maybe even in an instant. To not be played means to not get stuck even in the most gut wrenching, grief filled, bottomed out places.

When we are not played by pleasure or pain our vision is clear…we can take the next step, make the next choice, with confidence and trust. We can believe that no matter what, there is before us a next greatest possibility.

If this young man, whose name is Victory, is able to grasp this idea…can we?

Much love
Paula