Life is not fair.
- True?
Yes. It feels that way sometimes. I can find stories telling me it is true. I can find others who agree. - Sure?
No, not at all. I am applying an idea of “fairness” (as I define it) to life (as I filter it). I only find it here, in my own thinking, and not in life itself. - What happens when I believe that thought?
- I feel like a victim. I am a victim of life. I see others – and myself – as victims of life.
- I make myself right and life wrong. I tell myself I know better than life. I know better than the universe how it should run its business.
- I find and collect examples of how life is not fair, if I see fair as equal. Animals suffer. People suffer. Some are born into poverty and have little or no chance of getting out of it. Others are born into wealth. Some have a great deal of inner/outer resources, others have very few. Society is often set up to keep those born in certain conditions in those conditions. Some of my friends make more money than me, seem to have a more fun life than me, better health than me. And others have less money, an apparently less interesting life, poorer health.
- What am I afraid would happen if I didn’t have that thought? I wouldn’t care about social differences, or beings being treated in ways that trigger suffering. What is likely to happen? I would still care, maybe more because I am not bound by that story. It would be more direct. Beings + my heart.
- Who would I be without it?
More clear. Receptive. Less caught up in stories. More receptive to myself and others. Open heart. Engagement. Friendly towards life. More focused on working with situations as they are, finding workable solutions from whatever kindness and limited insights are here. - Turnarounds.
- Life is fair.
- Yes, I can easily find stories telling me that life is fair. And these can seem as real (or not) as the opposite. They are just two different perspectives.
- Life unfolds from infinite causes, so is fair in that way. We are all equal there. We all share ancestry going back to the beginning of the universe. We all share conditions working on us reaching out to the extent of the universe. The ways it unfolds here now, the differences visible, is a thin surface layer.
- Life is awareness itself. No matter its appearance, it is still made up of the same (no)thing. (Which I notice whenever I look, for instance when I explore the sense fields.)
- I am not fair.
- That is right. I am not fair when I tell myself that life is not fair, when I tell myself it should operate according to my stories. Who am I to say how it should function?
- I am fair.
- Well, I am when I believe a story, because I sincerely appear to believe it and live as if it is true.
- I am fair when I inquire into this story, finding what is more true for me.
- My thinking is not fair.
- Same. It is not fair if it tells itself it knows how life should unfold.
- It is not fair if it is taken as true.
- My thinking is fair.
- Yes. It is fair because it is just thinking. Just innocent questions about the world.
- It is fair when recognized as just innocent questions.
- Life is fair.