Life is a Science Experiment
Dear friends,
I have always found it interesting that religions tend to emphasize faith. Faith is—absolutely!—important, but faith that is far above your experience is presumption, not faith.
We learn lessons from experience. Mom can tell you one hundred times that touching a hot stove is a bad idea. But one touch of that stove is more impactful than dozens of lectures about it.
The problem with life is that the causality is often not clear. Suppose the pain of that touch did not occur for three days. Three days later your hand hurts, but you have no idea why. This is why we need the Teachings. It explains the web of causality.
But even then, we are not done because how do you know the Teachings are right? It's akin to doing a jigsaw puzzle. You may not see the missing piece but if the pieces around the opening are sufficiently clear, you have a pretty good idea what the missing piece looks like even if you have never seen it. But you need to have had enough experience, enough lessons, and enough of an open inquisitive heart to have filled in a good number of the surrounding pieces.
I always laugh at those Grade B science fiction movies. The scientist is doing an experiment. At the end he says, “Oh no! The experiment failed!" But experiments cannot fail if you are looking for truth. You just proved your previous idea was wrong. Great! You learned something!
You think more money will make you happy? You may get it and find... you are still you. This exploration process will almost surely take more than one lifetime... Reincarnation, anyone?
May we each approach life with the understanding that we are in a Grand Experiment. May we be open to learn from whatever we encounter and find the thrill of learning more than sufficient. The open heart, with a nose pressed against the window glass, makes the process much faster and more joyful.
Blessings,
David G., manager
For the staff at East West