can the world be improved

The awkward interface where the metaphysical intersects, interacts, and intermingles with the material, where the subtle meets the obvious, and where the extraordinary meets the mundane. Like the shoreline where ocean meets land, the intangible and the tangible bump up against each other at a boundary where we experience both, perhaps venturing out upon the ocean, but usually returning to the land.

Historian Howard Zinn believed in the longevity of the human spirit, our basic goodness and heart. On the other hand, novelist Kurt Vonnegut delighted us with the dim view of humanity. He was the consummate curmudgeon, but did so with a wry sense of humor and appreciation for the absurd

Human beings are hard-wired to try to seek pleasure and avoid pain. In the Buddhist view of life on earth, experiences in the material realm (through our senses and bodies) are impermanent and ever-changing, including the certainties of illness, aging, and death. Our ignorance and attachments are illusory reactions that amplify and exaggerate our suffering, even though it seems all too real to us. That’s being caught in what Buddhism calls “the Wheel of Samsara.”