Struggling to Live

One of the greatest stumbling blocks we face in our pursuit to change the way we think and live is the idea that we have to struggle to achieve happiness. Some of us inherit this notion from our environment, while others use it to justify their actions. Yet, it is from the maelstrom of victim consciousness that our struggles begin.

Whenever we bend our heads down, shuffle our feet, blink our eyes, and shameful take all kinds of abuse for a slither of happiness, we confirm our victimization. These actions symbolize our struggles to become somebody.


Regardless of our circumstances, too many of us have been taught to believe struggle is a noble virtue. From our lowly positions in society, it's easy to become victims of the struggle-to-live syndrome. And from this perspective, we view our actions from the prism of struggle where we embrace our struggles as virtuous victim actions.

As we know, the mere thought of associating ourselves with victims is unbearable. Some of us find it difficult to even admit we are struggling to live. That's why we continue doing the same things to achieve our elusive goals. Even though we find ourselves stuck, mired in the stench of defeat and failure, we continue digging (struggling) for lost treasures. We have lost sight of our commitment to search for enlightenment.

Now is the time to stop digging (struggling) ourselves deeper into the abyss of defeat and failure and to recognize that enlightenment is not the results of our struggles. Enlightenment is the soft breeze of knowledge blowing effortlessly in our minds. It's the ethical force guiding our actions.

During the campaign for civil rights, many of the leaders embraced struggle as the essence of the work done to achieve their goals. To struggle endowed them with creditability. For them, struggle was a badge of honor and courage they used to galvanize a community of victims into warriors committed to fighting for their freedom.

Today, many of us believe struggle means something else. We equate it with other people, not ourselves. Nevertheless, it affects all our behavior because we all have been tainted by its pungent taste. Whether we struggle by working two jobs, twelve- hour days, constant travel, and the seemingly endless pursuit of acquiring more and more things, or by trying to become someone other than we know ourselves to be, we remain victims of our beliefs.

As we know, it's difficult for some of us to envision ourselves as victims when we have achieved so much in life. To believe we are not free of struggle is blasphemous. That's why some of us find it easier to believe we are actually the illusions, and not their creators.

Nearly every day of our lives, we allow the illusions to manipulate us into believing we are struggling to achieve our goals. We use money, jobs, education, and status to hide the shameful behavior of our deep-seated victim beliefs choking the happiness out of our lives.

Nevertheless, even with this information, we continue to create new illusions to validate our behavior and beliefs on struggle. Somewhere, within us is the glimmer of light pointing us in the direction of enlightenment. To recognize and use the light, we must overcome our beliefs in struggle, and clearly know there is no struggle in empowerment.

Similarly, it is during those infrequent moments when we escape from the luxurious-living syndrome that we are able to feel and know something is missing from our lives.

For some of us, particularly, when we are feeling lowly, we might admire those who struggle to achieve money, power, fame, and so forth. From where we are in our thoughts, they seem happy and successful. After all, they have what most people are working to achieve.

In the meantime, when we look at the stars and planets moving effortlessly around us, we clearly don't see the concept of struggle present. Moreover, we don't perceive struggle when walk on the solid surface beneath our feet. Nor do we perceive it as the Earth rotates around the Sun.



Apparently, all of the important things in the universe exist without struggle. So there's no reason to believe we are not endowed with the same existence. And regardless of how we might feel now, we must clearly believe we have the power to create without struggling to do so.

For those committed to achieving empowerment, the work must continue in spite of what we hear and see.