Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

This book is a memoir, a self-help book and a psychology manual and has become a classic. This book tells
the chilling and inspirational story of eminent psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz and other concentration camps for three years during World War II. Immersed in great suffering and loss, Frankl began to wonder why some of his fellow prisoners were able not only to survive the horrifying conditions, but to grow in the process. "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how". What alone remains is the last of human freedoms--the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.
"Don't aim at success-the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run-in the long run, I say!--success will follow you precisely because you have forgotten to think of it."
Viktor had an American visa and was ready to leave Austria.  His old parents were overjoyed because they expected I would soon be allowed to leave. The question beset me: could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, sooner or later to a concentration camp, or even to a so-called extermination camp? I pondered this problem and could not arrive at  a solution; this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for "a hint from Heaven" as the phrase goes. It was then I noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home. His father explained it was a part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. (the largest Viennese synagogue was burned down by the National Socialists). His father explained the letter engraved on the piece stood for one of the commandments. Which one? Honor thy father and mother was the reply. At that moment Viktor decided to stay with his parents and let his visa lapse.
WOW!
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him, mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.It is this spiritual freedom--which cannot be taken away--that makes life meaningful and purposeful. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete. The way in which a man accepts his fate and the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity, even under the most difficult of situations, to add a deeper meaning to his life.
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected of us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead think of ourselves  as those who were being questioned by life-daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk or meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks it constantly sets before each individual. These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment.
When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden.
Well, I need to quit tonight. As you can tell, this is a very intense book. I am just now reading about the issues they faced with their liberation.....more later...