The Ultimate Path to Peace

Am I the only one who tries very hard to preserve the great times and rush or speed through the times wrought with trials and tribulations?  Do you ever find yourself looking at an inspiring moment and wishing you could stay in that moment or state forever?  Then a moment of challenge arises and you pray to get through it as quickly as possible with minimal to no "damage."  What is it about human nature that we find ourselves running toward pleasure and moving away from pain?  From strictly an evolutional and instinctual perspective, I can see where running away from physical pain serves us.  If you didn't find yourself running away from a saber tooth tiger or the pain of a fire, you wouldn't be around very long, however does the same principle apply to emotional pain and suffering?  Are we pre-wired or pre-programmed to avoid emotional discomfort and suffering or is it a learned response? While I am still pondering that question as well as many others, I have come to a firm and resolute conclusion that running away from our emotional discomfort and suffering not only does not serve us, but it actually prevents us from moving forward to higher levels of spiritual and emotional evolution analogous to trying to move forward while attached to a bungy cord.  The more we resist emotional discomfort and suffering, the more restriction and friction we create in our lives.  I would contend that it is only primarily through the ebbs and flows of life; through the contrast in our experiences that allows us to integrate these experiences for the pure benefit of our emotional and spiritual growth into higher levels of beings.  It is through excepting the way things are exactly as they are, good and bad, that we may find peace and progression in our lives.  It is through constant introspection and integration that we begin to become one with what Carl Jung refers to as the collective unconscious.  It is through life's joys as well as life's jabs that we learn to integrate ourselves into a higher level of being where we become one with all that is and all that ever will be.  When we learn to accept, rather than fight; when we learn to love, rather than judge; when we learn to build, rather than destroy; when we learn to listen, rather than ignore or block out; when we learn to look at everything as part of a larger and more magnificent picture of life, rather than blind ourselves to the truth that we are experiencing every moment of every day whether that truth be enjoyable or painful, the more we can open up our mind and hearts to the miracle of life.  We can then learn to appreciate life for what it is rather than what we want it to be.  We begin to experience more joy because we start to appreciate exactly where we are and not where we wish we were.  We find more peace because exactly where we are is exactly where we are supposed to be.  How long will this path take to figure out? I'll let you know when I get there, but I wouldn't hold your breath.  I have a long way to go.