Karma in the kitchen

My teenage son, my husband and I all stood in the kitchen chatting, as families now do, about the state of the world and what needs to happen.

We covered everything from Jeff Bezos to the spread of Buddhism after the Chinese invasion.

My take was (and is) that we need to figure out the cause of the itch we’re trying to scratch. Continuing to mask our issues with consumerism and entertainment will not get us to where we need to go in order to heal. We need to start asking questions about human nature and the bigger story.

My son’s take was that we are born, live and then die. End of story. We try to live as long as we can because this is it.

“What about the person who developed insulin injections?” he asked. “Wasn’t he just trying to extend the lives of people with diabetes?”

“I believe he was working to find an antidote to a specific suffering,” I replied. “I believe that’s the human condition: constantly striving to find the antidote to suffering.”

The problem is:

We don’t understand the true causes of suffering.

If you’ve read my books (or really anything I write), I’m all about the mystery of life.

Equal and opposite reactions.

Karma.

The laws of nature or the universe.

Unrealized potential.

We need to pick up the ancient thread that weaves all of life into being.

I believe it is a far simpler life that truly nourishes the human spirit. But it also includes nourishing every human body and mind.

What conversations are you having in your kitchen these days?

“How are we to guard our mind? We should use attentiveness to watch our thoughts and mindfulness to judge whether we are acting correctly. With these two we have the means to annihilate all adverse conditions.”

H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama