'Mama, why does God let there be bad stuff?'

One doesn’t have to believe in a god to feel anxious about whether or not we live in a just and safe world. We imagine a just world where those who do good have good lives, and those who do harm are punished for committing injustice against others, or at least their hurtful behavior is not followed by great fortune. 

We are not guaranteed this type of justice. Charitable people can develop terrible illnesses, innocent children are abused, and corrupt business people and bankers enjoy an abundance of resources, luxury, and respect, while more than half the earth’s population lives with poverty and starvation.

So, is there any sort of regulating divine order by which our world functions? Never mind “divine” order, is there any order at all, that one can recognize and say ‘If I do right and good things, I will be safe’? We can do right and good things to increase the probability that we are safe and happy, but we cannot do anything to guarantee this security. So, what can we understand, or what can we tell ourselves, to reconcile this seemingly unfair and unreasonable aspect of life?

In The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh quotes the Majjhima Nikaya as follows: “This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not. This is like this, because that is like that,” (p. 28). In other words everything that exists, exists because everything else exists. Feces exist because there is sustenance. And since feces and other wastes exist and are broken down into soil, lovely smelling flowers exist. And, good exists because evil exists. Let’s look at an analogy to understand why trying to have all good without any evil is impossible, to see how each is necessary for the other to be.

Thich Naht Hahn uses the following example in The Heart of Understanding. Let’s say I have a branch, which has a left side and a right side. Suppose I only want to keep the right side, so I break off the left side of reality and toss it. My result will be a new branch that has a new right and left side. One side must be the left in order for the right side to be the right (p. 30). The left side must exist for the right side to exist. So it is with good and evil, fair and unfair, ect... So perhaps the world is not an unjust, unsafe whirlwind of chaos. Perhaps there is just chaos within the order, and perhaps chaos and order are interdependent, just like good and evil are interdependent, just like the right and left side of the stick.


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The Truth: Its Safe to Trust Your Version

Not a single human on this earth is the arbiter of truth.

Although powerful and compelling leaders of religion and conspiracy theories claim to have the truth about reality, where we came from, where we're going (or not going), and all other big questions, no one on this earth knows the truth with complete certainty, but many believe in a truth. Most fail to recognize the distinction between knowing something and having a belief. This is partly because the ego likes to be "right" and partly because it is threatening for the ego to accept that it does not know where it came from, nor what will happen when it dies. As a result, accepting one's religious or spiritual beliefs as the Truth, as knowledge, is a comforting haven.

At a Zen Center I used to attend, I had a discussion with a monk about areas of Buddhism I wasn't grasping. At the end of the conversation he told me that no one will ever be able to simply "tell me the truth" or hand it over to me in the form of scripture, a speech, or a book, that it will have to come from within me.

Interestingly, I stumbled upon a Bible verse with a similar sentiment. Luke 17:20, 21 Jesus replied "The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

My mother once told me that too many people look for happiness from some external sources, be it a person or thing, and that happiness does not come from the outside and go in, instead it comes from within and radiates outward. 

For peace, answers, or truth we should take the journey inward instead of relying people and things outside of ourselves. 

A Warm Anecdote

I once had a discussion with my family concerning the fate of non-believers, like myself. I tried to let them understand that it would be cruel and illogical for a supernatural intelligence to punish people with eternal anguish because of their beliefs, and that religious belief has no place in determining the fate of one's afterlife. That was my own ego at work, and so of course I failed. It was an emotional debate full of much frustration, much pain, and many tears. Later I prayed, to whatever intelligent mind that might be out there listening, to please give my mother, my best friend, a sign that we can both be in the same peaceful place together when we die.

About a month later she came to me one morning to tell me about a dream she described many times, as unusually vivid. The both of us were on a perilous journey down some steep stairs, but we both knew that at the end we would be in a safe place. At the end of the stairs was a bright and beautiful scenery and my deceased grandmother was reaching out for both of us to join her. I told her what I prayed for weeks ago and we smiled and embraced.

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The Anger Eating Demon

The Anger-eating Demon

Retold from an ancient Buddhist Story, by Nyanaponika Thera

Full Text on The Elimination of Anger by Ven. K. Piyatissa Thera.

Once there lived a demon who had a peculiar diet: he fed on the anger of others. And as his feeding ground was the human world, there was no lack of food for him. He found it quite easy to provoke a family quarrel, or national and racial hatred. Even to stir up a war was not very difficult for him. And whenever he succeeded in causing a war, he could properly gorge himself without much further effort; because once a war starts, hate multiplies by its own momentum and affects even normally friendly people. So the demon's food supply became so rich that he sometimes had to restrain himself from over-eating, being content with nibbling just a small piece of resentment found close-by.

But as it often happens with successful people, he became rather overbearing and one day when feeling bored he thought: "Shouldn't I try it with the gods?" On reflection he chose the Heaven of the Thirty-three Deities, ruled by Sakka, Lord of Gods. He knew that only a few of these gods had entirely eliminated the fetters of ill-will and aversion, though they were far above petty and selfish quarrels. So by magic power he transferred himself to that heavenly realm and was lucky enough to come at a time when Sakka the Divine King was absent. There was none in the large audience hall and without much ado the demon seated himself on Sakka's empty throne, waiting quietly for things to happen, which he hoped would bring him a good feed. Soon some of the gods came to the hall and first they could hardly believe their own divine eyes when they saw that ugly demon sitting on the throne, squat and grinning. Having recovered from their shock, they started to shout and lament: "Oh you ugly demon, how can you dare to sit on the throne of our Lord? What utter cheekiness! What a crime! you should be thrown headlong into the hell and straight into a boiling cauldron! You should be quartered alive! Begone! Begone!"

But while the gods were growing more and more angry, the demon was quite pleased because from moment to moment he grew in size, in strength and in power. The anger he absorbed into his system started to ooze from his body as a smoky red-glowing mist. This evil aura kept the gods at a distance and their radiance was dimmed.

Suddenly a bright glow appeared at the other end of the hall and it grew into a dazzling light from which Sakka emerged, the King of Gods. He who had firmly entered the undeflectible Stream that leads Nibbana-wards, was unshaken by what he saw. The smoke-screen created by the gods' anger parted when he slowly and politely approached the usurper of his throne. "Welcome, friend! Please remain seated. I can take another chair. May I offer you the drink of hospitality? Our Amrita is not bad this year. Or do you prefer a stronger brew, the vedic Soma?" While Sakka spoke these friendly words, the demon rapidly shrank to a diminutive size and finally disappeared, trailing behind a whiff of malodorous smoke which likewise soon dissolved.

— Based on Samyutta Nikaya, Sakka Samyutta, No. 22
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