The Eight Vicissitudes

According to the Buddha, we will experience these vicissitudes throughout our lives, no matter what our intentions or actions.

* Pleasure and pain
* Gain and loss
* Praise and blame
* Fame and disrepute

Someone suggested the image of these vicissitudes as winds that come and go. I like this because it says that like the winds, the coming and going of these vicissitudes have nothing to do with us as individuals. Imagine trying to stop the wind from coming or trying to make it come. This would only cause frustration. We just accept and try to adjust to the wind and so we should do the same to these vicissitudes (there has to be an easier word than this).