The Beauty of Sorrow

What emotion is more sharply alluring than sorrow! People fall in love with grief, people immerse themselves in the games of sadness. Though everyone flees from negativity, when it comes to feeling sorrow, everyone wears the same color. Yes, humans themselves lay down mats at the feet of grief and sit there, remain there for long stretches of time, feeling the sorrow and gradually absorbing it into themselves.

Sorrow teaches people, sorrow takes them by the hand and leads them toward the path of happiness. When you speak with someone who is grieving, you'll find that at some point you too can feel their pain; some smaller sorrow of your own dissolves away, one that was lesser than that grieving person's pain. Listening to tales of sorrow, love for the world is born. Your thoughts, your way of living, your experiences—everything about you accepts grief. Once you dive into sorrow's beauty, it becomes difficult to emerge from there. The intoxication of grief is a powerful intoxication.

That melancholic mood of sorrow upon sorrow—it's very hard to avoid. It will consume you, it simply must! Very slowly, grief will mix into every drop of your blood, will claim you as its own. You'll suddenly begin to understand what sorrow looks like, where sorrow comes from, how sorrow grows and shrinks, how much of it remains hidden from everyone's eyes. You'll see that toward the person responsible for this grief of yours, you begin hurling countless arrows of accusation, one after another.

The moment you make your overall condition centered around a specific person, you'll see your sorrow growing even more. You'll keep revolving your thoughts around that person or source. At some point you'll become trapped in a cycle. Even if you want to, you'll no longer be able to break free and return to a happy state.

The trouble will grow even worse when you realize that even staying in this dejected state doesn't feel quite right to you. You feel strangely melancholy. You'll be caught in confusion then. Everything will seem irritating to look at. You'll feel that everything is worthless, unimportant. None of this has any meaning. No one around you thinks about you, everyone is your enemy. Gradually you'll become aggressive. Even when someone comes to help you like a friend, you'll end up hurting them too. You won't be able to trust anyone anymore.

You won't be able to understand then whether you'll be better off when this sorrow leaves, or whether you're fine right now! Yes, strangely, you'll want to live by clinging to your grief. Even the pain of sorrow will seem sweet to you then. You'll see that you want to keep the sorrow, yet you also want to escape from sorrow's grip.

You won't be able to hurt yourself, nor will you be able to hurt others. You'll even completely forget what you were like, who you were, before this sorrow entered your life! When you try to think about what life will be like when this grief leaves your life, you'll lose your way. Gradually you'll even forget how to feel!

Now think about this—even if it feels good to remain in darkness, isn't it in this very darkness that all destruction begins? By voluntarily living in sorrow while keeping happiness at a distance, who else is being destroyed besides yourself? Drowning in grief day after day, one day your life's sun will set at a terribly wrong time. Think about yourself a little before that day arrives in your life.

Learn to avoid those whose sorrows easily consume and hold you. Yes, you can help them find freedom from that state, you can stand by them like a friend, but never sacrifice your own happiness to their grief. At the end of the day, make sure you remain yourself.

Don't lose your life by falling into the pit while trying to pull someone out of it! Keep convincing yourself, if necessary stand before a mirror and say it aloud—this world needs you. You must stay well. When you stay well, both you and many others will find joy in living. Sorrow and melancholy are not your friends. Keep yourself away from them. Do whatever needs to be done to stay away, as long as it doesn't harm anyone. Don't listen to anyone else about this except your own heart, don't even let it reach your ears. Even if you die drowning in sorrows, it makes no difference to anyone.

Tell yourself clearly that you weren't born to remain dejected like this. You too possess all the qualifications to do and receive good things. You too can live far more wonderfully than what you were and what you are. Don't let yourself get lost, hold onto yourself firmly. If you reach out and find no one, extend that helping hand toward yourself. Don't think that life hasn't kept many things for you too—things it has never given to anyone else, nor will it ever.

Trust in time's play. Stay away from all kinds of negative thoughts. Keep strengthening your mind's power. Remember, there's truly no meaning in keeping yourself miserable to keep everyone else happy. No one has given you the responsibility of making everyone's hearts happy by keeping your own heart sad. Try to keep yourself well first of all. Someone who doesn't know how to keep themselves well will eventually forget how to keep others well too.