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3. One More Piece
I want to put everything together into a single, unified narrative.
I want reasons that make sense of all that has happened and will happen.
I want to understand how each piece relates to the others and to the whole.
I want to know the full story — the story that completely explains and justifies the world.
Despite these desires, I am always discovering new pieces that resist explanation, that refuse to fit into the story. I am continually forced to revise the story or to create an entirely new one. Even then, there are pieces I must leave out to maintain the story’s coherence. Pieces that lack justification or are propped up by flimsy or fraught reasons. Pieces that do not seem to fit anywhere. Pieces that resist the very idea that a unified story is possible.
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2. Not To Turn Away
When I see suffering, I want to turn away. It is painful to watch another person suffer. It is doubly painful to watch suffering I feel I cannot do anything to eliminate or prevent. I want to help, but I cannot see what I must do. This is deeply uncomfortable, so perhaps it is no surprise that my inclination is to look away.
But this is a mistake. I cannot allow my own discomfort to distract me. It is by giving suffering my sustained attention that I gain the opportunity to understand it. This is not an easy task. It is not easy the first time, and it is not easy the hundredth time. I need not only to see but also to ask questions. I must investigate what is happening and why it is happening, but also what I am doing and what I could be doing. All of this is difficult, taxing, tiring.
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1. The Greatest Victory
The most important thing is not to give up. You have to keep going.
You have to keep observing, absorbing everything that happens, leaving nothing out. You have to keep asking questions and pushing your investigation of yourself and the world further, without end. You have to keep experimenting, attempting what has not been attempted, and going beyond whatever rules or beliefs you have accumulated. You have to keep going beyond everything.
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