Daily Meditation: Saturday, January 15, 2005

World suffering - concerns people less than their minor personal problems

01/15/2005

In their everyday lives, people worry very little about the lot of their fellow men. When they see images of devastation, famine and massacres on television, then, of course, they are moved for a few minutes, and sometimes tears even come to their eyes. But they quickly forget, and the next moment they return to their usual subjects of dissatisfaction: a boss who exploits them, a rival who has taken their place, the neighbour who is encroaching on their land, their husband, their wife, their children, their mother-in-law…and all the miseries of the world are somewhere far away! I’m not suggesting that personal problems be neglected. I am simply pointing out that people are more preoccupied with the little problems of daily life than with the disasters that befall others. When these occur, more often than not people are content merely to tell themselves that the world is an evil place.