Excerpts from The Path to Tranquility

–Perhaps in monasteries in the West there is leisure, but outside-especially in the cities-life seems to be running at a rapid pace, like a clock, never stopping for an instant! So if you look at life in an urban community, it seems as if every aspect of a person’s life has to be so precise, designed like a screw that has to fit in the hole.

 

–In some cases, you have no control over your own life. In order to survive, you have to follow this pattern and the pace that is set for you.

 

–Make efforts to consider as transitory all adverse circumstances and disturbances. Like ripples in a pool, they occur and soon disappear. Insofar as our lives are karmically conditioned, they are characterized by endless cycles of problems. One problem appears and passes, and soon another one begins.

 

–When, at some point in our lives, we meet a real tragedy-which could happen to any one of us-we can react in two ways. Obviously, we can lose hope, let ourselves slip into discouragement, into alcohol, drugs, and unending sadness. Or else, we can wake ourselves up, discover in ourselves an energy that was hidden there, and act with more clarity, more force.

 

–Negative actions have the potential to increase, whereas positive actions can be destroyed by many adverse circumstances.

 

–The story of the Buddha’s personal life is the story of someone who attained full enlightenment through had work and unwavering dedication.

 

–Once you have entered you should stick to it. Do not be like a man who tastes food in all the different restaurants but never actually gets down to eating a meal. Think carefully before adopting a practice; then follow it through. This way you will get some results from dedicating even a little time each day. Alternatively, if you try to follow all the various paths you will not get anywhere.

 

–I don’t feel overwhelmed by sadness. Old, familiar faces disappear, and new faces appear, but I still maintain my happiness and peace of mind.

 

–The person who has a tremendous reserve of patience and tolerance has a certain degree of tranquility and calmness in his or her life. Such a person is not only happy and more emotionally grounded, but also seems to be physically healthier and to experience less illness. The person possesses a strong will, has a good appetite, and can sleep with a clear conscience.

 

–You must anticipate the multiple obstacles that you are bound to encounter along the path and understand that the key to a successful practice is never to lost your determination. Such a resolute approach is very important.

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry wanna steal the heart of his readers. The book, A Fine Balance, is no balance at all. And if you wanna deeply hurt the feelings of a stranger, a tragedy will do the magic. That’s what A Fine Balance strenuously working on.

 

While, this is really a sad story while Rohinton painted a broad picture of the Indian society at large in 1970s. He picked several typical normal people and pull their separate lives out of the amalgamated messy and miserable and meshed lives with each own class. The magic he plays with was to put these characters from different tracks of life together and see what happens while letting those characters acting autonomously.

 

Some very basic background hopped here. There were five castes of people in the old India society while the shadow of the ingrained heritage still lingering today after it being uprooted around 1980s. The rule is once you are in one caste, and then there is no way out. The weight of keeping order of social hierarchy is out of everyone’s burden. And the cruelty of keeping cut the border and shoveling out every attempt of breaching is not at the cost of life. Torture, endless unimaginable and inhumane, will smash every bit of wanting fight and defiantly deny the succumbed body a finale.

 

That’s what dumfounded my mind, blowing my mind all the way to inability faint. While I was reading the part Narayan was tortured to death only for his little oral offence and his little efforts trying to break a small hole on the wall between castes. Allow me jump the description of his tortures. That’s so cruel way beyond your moral capacity. I don’t want to nauseate your good appetite.

 

But the fall of Narayan is not the most surprised design by Rohinton for his character. Hint from the name of the book, A Fine Balance, what balance could be ahead for the heavy darkness shrouded life without any possible sighting of light?

 

After my racing through the 600 pages fiction, I only hit the abysmal of another dark night. And the supposed bubbles of hope with its flimsy deceiving sanguine colors burst out at last; a hope is succumbed to no hope at all. That’s what Rohinton’s treacherous pen bringing us up to.

 

At last, one young lad trying to fight his way out, committed suicide. The tailors ended up on the streets another pair of beggers. And the lady widow desperately exerted all her life away from what she detested, returned to the origin point and took the doom without any more resistance.

 

That’s something Rohinton wanna remind us. Always remember the struggles by small people in old time. While we have the chance of freedom and democracy to pursuit our own dream nowadays.