A little Buddhist philosophy

" Millions of people think that evil is cosmic.They believe that in the devil and pray not to fall in his clutches... The story of the Garden of Eden seems to tell us that human beings have already fallen into sin." Deepak Chopra Fire in the Heart

As humans we all see things and categorize them as good or evil. If evil was cosmic that would mean that a newborn baby is evil and so would other things. Evil is hard to pin down because everyone has a different opinion on what is evil and what is not. Evil could be everywhere. We could say pain is evil, but in reality some evil is necessary to make good things happen. People could say surgery is evil, but someone who needs an urgent heart transplant may think it's not evil at all.

Who gets to make the call on what is evil and what is not? "There isn't a force called evil; there are only situations where pain and suffering occur." So in a sense, we can fight evil and make it stop. We can't control everything that causes us pain and suffering, but we do have some power over evil. "Human nature can change through love. It may happen slowly, but pain makes all of us want to find a better way to live." When we see someone suffering we have the power to stop their pain. Pain does make us want to become better people. We all have different purposes in life and yes, we are all different but we all have one same reason; we want to be happy.

All material things give us happiness, but once we find something better we are no longer happy. As a teenager I see this a lot (way too much for my taste actually) people go out of their way to get the newest ipod, a month or two later they come out with another ipod with better features. Oh snap, would you look at that, now someone out there will have a better ipod, and you want the new features too. So what do you do? You work your ass off to get the newer ipod. We are never happy with what we have. We are always trying to find happiness through getting new gadgets, buying brand clothes, etc.

I am not saying you have to become an ascetic to be truly happy, but when you have money remember someone out there is starving there's always someone out there who needs the money more than you do. Material things don't guarantee happiness, true happiness lies deep beyond any material or even physical desire. True happiness is achievable but we try too hard to be happy, the key is to stop trying and embrace all the things you already have and love life for everything it has already given you.