Prayer

“Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” - Bruce Lee

This atypical advice from my karate hero, who was the inspiration for my delving deeply into the martial arts many full moons ago (’73), reminded me of the prayer chanted by the sage Kunti from the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata: “O Lord of the Universe, let those calamities happen to us again and again so that we can see You again and again; for seeing You means we will never see the cycle of birth and death again.”

While Bruce Lee wisely suggested praying for strength to better manage the surefire struggles of our human experience, the sage Kunti kicked it up a notch and explicitly prayed for the reoccurrence of difficult and calamitous situations to avoid becoming negligent or complacent in her daily adoration to the Divine.