LESSONS FROM MASTER SURVIVORS

MARK MATOUSEK has spent decades studying how obstacles morph into strengths. He shares what he’s learned from master survivors.

- MARK MATOUSEK

BEING ALIVE IS A RISKY BUSINESS. No matter who you are, where you live, or how much privilege you enjoy, insecurity is the price tag on human existence, with suffering, danger, and loss close at hand in the best of times.

These mortal hazards have only intensified in our age of pandemic terror. Yet, while contemporary dangers have multiplied on many fronts, the perennial questions stalking the human race have hardly changed at all.

How can you live in a world where all things end? How can you love, knowing that you will eventually lose? How can you “turn the obstacle upside down,” as the Stoics recommended; find the opportunity in catastrophe; and use adversity as fuel for self-discovery, compassion, resilience, humor, and excellence?

I was diagnosed with a fatal illness in my late 20s, fled my life, and spent 10 years on the road as a dharma bum, seeking teachers and wisdom to prepare me for what lay ahead. I would not have chosen this experience, trust me, nor could I deny that it gave me my life. I’ve spent the past 35 years as a memoirist, seeker, teacher, and survivor, exploring this pivot between living and dying and how our greatest obstacles morph through practice into sources of strength.

Suffering isn’t worthless. Bitter times bring a quality you can also use to wake up. Terror is fuel; wounding is power. Darkness carries the seeds of redemption. Authentic strength isn’t found in our armor but at the very pit of the wounds each of us manages to survive. As one widow put it to me in my book,