It's pain that teaches us to concentrate.
A decade on the cushion can't compare
To one agonizing hour of despair
For the terrain it can elucidate.
Perhaps, we think, it's given for the sweet
Relief of its cessation, when a joy
Envelopes and transports us; but this ploy
Was never necessary to complete
Our education. Well we envy those
Whose path entailed less suffering, or none,
Though they attain to an exalted place.
No, pain, we must admit, is what we chose
When we embarked (for adventure and fun)
On this wild ride, life's lusty steeplechase.
- JJM = #65 in the I Ching Sonnet Project
