CHISELED BY OTHERS

CHISELED BY OTHERS

…you are like the stone that must be chiseled and fashioned before
being set in the building…Some will chisel you with words, telling
you what you would rather not hear; others by deed, doing against you
what you would rather not endure; others by their temperament, being
in their person and in their actions a bother and annoyance to you;
and others by their thought, neither esteeming nor feeling love for
you.
You ought to suffer these mortification and annoyances with
inner patience, being silent for love of God and understanding that
you did not enter the religious life for any other reason than for
others to work you in this way, and so you become worthy of heaven.
(St. John of the Cross)

The day you make up your mind to smile, you will see that everything
seems to conspire to try to make you cry! That is life. The day you
make up your mind to be patient and forgiving, it will seem that
others suddenly become harder to get along with. That is life. We
are often crucified by others, but their meanness should not affect
our resolutions to be kind. Let others pursue their way; you be
bigger and adhere to your way.
(Paramahansa Yogananda, `Journey to Self-Realization' )

Thus the wise man, indifferent to himself, is the greatest among
them, and taking no care for himself, he is nevertheless preserved.
By being the most unselfish he is the most secure of all.
(Lao-tse, ` The Adepts in the Eastern Esoteric Tradition')