Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
Life Isn't Fair........Thank goodness
I received a wonderful poem from Gregg Krech, Naikan therapist of the Todo Institute, by an author by the name of Ho Sen. Ho Sen writes a beautiful poem with a message that I would like to reflect on with all of you. The poem goes as follows:
Life isn't fair.
No, it isn't fair at all.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness.
For in a fair world, my fate
would be frightful.
But in an unfair world,
I am supported by the kindness of this
and the service of that.
Life isn't fair. It's true. It's true.
--Ho Sen
This is a most striking poem. How many times in our life have we said to others in times of bitterness, disappointment, even in times of tragedy, "It isn't fair! Life's not fair. I didn't deserve this........"
You might have been in line for a promotion at work. Perhaps you had dreamed of that position. You worked overtime, gave your blood, sweat and tears for the company for that position. You thought you had it in the bag, but to your dismay the position was given to someone else, someone that you felt was less worthy, less qualified for that position. For whatever reasons, office politics, favoritism, or maybe even racial prejudice, you didn't get that position. In bitterness and disappoint-ment, you might have uttered, "Life isn't fair."
There is a cute commercial on tv right now about a teenage girl and her mother who are arguing about the girl's overuse of her cell phone for text messaging. The mother is upset about the high phone bill and takes the phone away from the girl. The young girl then responds, "That is so unfair!"
I can remember going to my daughter's basketball games, seeing her drive into the lane, get clobbered, and then be shocked to see the ref not call any foul. "That's a foul! That's not fair!" I would exclaim.
Throughout our life, we are confronted with what we feel is unjust, or unfairness in life. This poem by Ho Sen makes us really stop and think about that statement.
"Life isn't fair. No it isn't fair at all. Thank goodness. Thank goodness."
When Ho Sen makes this statement, "Thank goodness. Thank goodness", it is like a slap in the face by a Zen Master trying to awaken us. What a shock this statement is. How could anyone in their right mind say, "Life isn't fair.....thank goodness."?
Let me use one example that helps illustrate what Ho Sen is trying to say.
Take for example the food that we eat daily. Recently I officiated a wedding and attended the reception. It was a buffet, and first I took salad, a roll, sauteed vegetables, rice, and then came to the entree station. There was chicken or prime rib. I couldn't decide what to take, so I took both! Think about the lives of the plants and animals that were involved in that meal. There were lettuce and carrots, peppers and zuccini, then of course chicken and a steer. You could say that these beings gave their life, or were sacrificed so that I could have a meal. That is of course just looking at it from my standpoint, that those plants and animals "gave their lives" for my meal. From the standpoint of the plants and animals, they didn't give their lives, their lives were taken from them. They were killed, all for the sake of me.
If life was fair, shouldn't I repay them somehow? If I took the life of a chicken, shouldn't I give my life so that a chicken could have a meal? Isn't that fair? A life for a life. If a steer gave its life for me to have a steak, shouldn't I repay the steer? I can't repay even one chicken, much less all the other vegetables and animals.
And that is only one meal. Add up what we consume, three meals a day, seven days a week, fifty two weeks a year, for years and years. How many lives of countless beings have I taken in my lifetime? How fair is that? To make matters worse, I consume those meals without so much as a thought as to what was sacrificed for me to have them. I might even complain that the steak was tough, or that the chicken was dry. The audacity of me to say such a thing, in light of the chicken or steer whose life was taken.
Think about what you have received from your parents in the course of your lifetime. Food, clothing, a home, love and guidance, discipline and education.... Can you repay your parents for all that you have received? It is not possible, even if you do end up taking care of your parents for many years.
Think about what you receive from the company that you work for in the course of your lifetime. Yes, you have given them years of work and service, but think about what you do in terms of what you are paid, in terms of the benefits you have received like health insurance and other things. Life isn't fair. We receive so much more than we are able to give. We should look at our monthly paycheck and say to ourselves, "I don't deserve this. They pay me too much."
What Ho Sen states is so true. "In an unfair world, my fate would be frightful." If this were a fair world, I should have been dead long ago. If this were a fair world, I shouldn't be entitled for another meal for maybe a hundred years. If this were a fair world, I should be suffering now from the anguish I have caused others. But in an unfair world, I continue to receive food and nourishment. I continue to receive kindness from others.
Shin Buddhism is trying to awaken us to this very point that is so beautifully illustrated by Ho Sen. The world of Namuamidabutsu, is a world in which we see that we live because of the kindness, because of the sacrifice of so many others. It awakens us to want to do something, even in a small way, that contributes to the world around us. It awakens us to the deep debt of gratitude that we owe the world, a debt that we can never truly repay, but a debt that at least we must come to sense in our life.
Life isn't fair......thank goodness.
Namuamidabutsu,
Rev. Marvin Harada
June 2007
