your problems are only as big as you make them out to be
it doesn't matter how great the flame, but what it falls upon.
Similarly with fire, it does not matter how great is the flame, but what it falls upon. For solid timbers have repelled a very great fire; conversely, dry and easily inflammable stuff nourishes the slightest spark into a conflagration — Seneca
The striking of a match against a rough surface produces a gentle flame.
A gentle flame marks the beginning of a fire.
The burning match is external to you. It is internalised once the match falls onto your pile of logs. Your once gentle flame can cause destruction, suffering, and collapse. But it can also be dropped onto solid timbers that control the fire, and extinguish it with ease.
Everyone walks through a forest collecting their own logs. Each log represents unique experiences, characteristics, and qualities.
How the fires in your life burn is directly determined by the wood you collect.
You are responsible for the ferocity at which your blaze burns.
You are responsible for managing the fires in your life.
pain is unavoidable, suffering is optional
Life will light matches that you never wanted to be lit.
But there are things external to you that you cannot control.
Life will be hard. You will be tested. There is no escape from pain.
Pain is when someone walks out of your life.
Pain is when you fail.
Pain is when you break promises you made yourself.
Pain is allowing physical pleasures to dictate your actions.
Pain is loneliness, isolation, and struggle.
Pain is the inability to master your mind.
Pain is not taking action when you know you should.
Pain is staying where you feel comfortable.
Pain is not taking risks.
Pain is conforming to societal expectations when you don’t even want to.
Pain is feeling dead even when you are alive.
Pain is when you say yes even though you mean no.
Pain is when you lie to yourself.
You must suffer through the pain.
Respect and acknowledge the negative seeds in your mind so that they become weaker. Cultivate the positive seeds often and water them.
A fire is spreading within you because you allow it to. You decide for how long the fire burns.
the importance of choosing the right timber
You choose the logs onto which the match is dropped.
Your pile of wood is your foundation. If you have not taken the time to carefully select each stick in your pile of logs, your suffering will be slow and severe.
While acting after the fire has been lit is necessary, picking the right wood is the best preventative measure to making sure the fire is contained.
Cultivate positive characteristics that enable you to effectively extinguish the fires that exist in your life. Carefully select your individual logs so that your pile of timber becomes incombustible.
When you do, no match dropped onto your logs shall cause a fire so great that you can’t put out.
solid timbers, solid mind
All fires are a production of the mind.
Solid timbers - a strong mind - repel a great fire.
Your mind is the foundation.
A strong mind:
rationalises and studies the external match carefully.
exercises control of the fire at all times.
identifies the logs that caused the fire and removes them.
seeks knowledge, truth and understanding.
puts everything into perspective.
zooms out and appreciates the stability of the entire forest.
takes action when the flame is burning.
knows and accepts that nothing is permanent.
is honest and aligned with its owner.
seeks discomfort and refuses to remain in the same place forever.
Don’t be the person who sleeps while their house is burning and only realises there’s a fire once it approaches your bedroom door. Don’t allow the flame to grow and scale to a magnitude where it becomes inextinguishable.
Pain is unavoidable, but the extent to which pain causes suffering is up to you.
It’s your responsibility to choose the right logs and manage the fires in your life.
Your fires are only as powerful as the logs on which they burn.
You will suffer as long as you decide to.