Page:The Praises of Amida, 1907.djvu/25

though there were no danger at all. But shut our eyes to the danger as we will, the fact remains that a house on fire is a house that is being burned; we cannot rest easily in it, and our life is always full of discontent. I, you everybody,- we are always desiring something that is outside of us and beyond our reach, and yet, when we get it, it is rarely quite what we thought it would be. And even when the realization meets our expectations, it is of no real use to us, for it is but a shadow in our Vision. Hence it comes that each one of us has his own cause of discontent, and is troubled by care, despondency, anger, hatred, or envy, that he cannot agree with others, nor avoid being distressed by bickerings and strife. Thus, though men shut their eyes to the fact that they live in a burning house, yet the pains of the conflagration make them writhe and quail. In spite of all this, we go on insisting that we are not in error: we flatter ourselves that things are right, we boast that our views are the Truth, and our doctrines the Way. Can we avoid the