Daily Meditation: Monday, October 5, 2015

Misfortunes - of some are the joys of others

10/05/2015

When people suffer misfortune, others may say how sad they are to hear of it, but very often, those who can will make sure they take advantage of their misfortune. A shopkeeper goes bankrupt? Good, they will be able to cash in on the custom. Or two countries go to war? Wonderful, they will sell arms to both of them, and so on. You just have to observe how humans are: both their personal life and their collective life are full of this kind of scheming. If many more people truly cared about the wellbeing of their fellow human beings, they could bring about so many improvements. But they merely note anything that is negative and say yet again, ‘How is that possible? How can such things happen? How terrible!’ But if conditions allow, that does not stop them from taking advantage of the situation. Yes, ‘one person’s joy is another person’s sorrow’, as the saying goes, and that is the sad truth. And that is why evil still has so much to keep it busy and to be delighted about in this world.