No Shortcut

We human beings don’t want to go to any trouble. When we want something, we like to have it without making an effort. It is impossible to have things without making an effort as we know from life. What we want can only be gained through a lot of effort. There is no shortcut for getting things. There is a story told by Ajahn Jayasaro which provides a good example of this. Here is the story:

There was a man who was hungry. When he walked past a bread shop, he bought a bread roll and ate it. The first roll did not satisfy his hunger, so he had to buy a second one. The second one did not fill him up either, so he had to buy a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth. But he was still hungry, so he bought a seventh one, and then the seventh one took away his hunger. He said to himself, "If I had known that the seventh bread roll would have filled me up, I would have bought it and eaten it first!"

Reality is not like what the man thought. We need to pass through some hardship, or work hard in life, so that we can gain happiness, or gather the fruit of our hard work. There is no shortcut for success, or happiness. We must pass step by step through some hardship, or obstacles in life. That is to say, if, in order to get to our house we have to mount ten stairs, we have to climb the first step, the second, the third and so on, until the final tenth step. We cannot just jump to the top. It is like the man who could not satisfy his hunger until the seventh bread roll. He needed to eat each roll one by one until the last. We should realize, therefore, that we should not lose heart in making an effort when we study, in our practice or when we try to improve our life.

Bear in mind, there is no shortcut to succeed in life. We need confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom to support us to be successful, or happy in life. Everything is possible with confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom.