The art of life under tough circumstances involves finding a way to live with the pain and losses that cannot be avoided, finding a way to cope with or even transform the fears and stresses that inevitably come, and finding out whether in the midst of the pain, loss, fear, and stress, anything of value–anything that enriches life–may also come out of all this hardship. The teaching of the perennial philosophy is that out of pain and hardship some of the greatest gains in life can come.
