Lottery

Life,it appears, is a complete lottery. You bump into somebody's shopping cart at the store, you end up happily married for fifty years. Or, you swerve to avoid the shopping cart, smile at the lady, and move on, never even meeting her...

Anyone not believing that life is a lottery feel free to ask a St. Louis Cardinal fan.

Then there's the expression "if its meant to happen, it will happen." You hear that one all the time, from nearly everybody. Is it true? Seemingly. Does it contradict the lottery of life? Seemingly.

That which appears contradictory is often complimentary. Facts which appear to be in mutually exclusive contradiction are in fact both true. In essence, Republicans and Democrats are both right.

The true plague of our times is not war, poverty, disease, or natural disasters. The true plague, my friends, is narrow minded thinking, wrong thinking, as a buddhist might say. Our civilization is the way it is because of the way we think.

Mind foreruns all conditions, mind is chief, mind made are they, says the buddhist Dhammapada.

When we think that both liberals and conservatives have good points, we succeed, it says here.

When one thinks or speaks with wicked mind, evil follows one, says the buddhist scripture. And when one thinks or speaks or acts with pure mind, happiness follows one, sayeth the same source.

Here, it says the universe is far larger than all human activity and truth. Here it says we should regard everyone's beliefs and opinions as having value, and we should think  no one's truth to be absolute and ubiquitous. And here, back here on the farm, it says we live in shockingly narrow minded times, and should strive to change that, before we strive to change anything else, such as violence, war, and poverty.

And it says here "amen to that".