So I've been reading, and meditating...
Even a good person sees evil so long as good ripens not; but when it bears fruits then the good one sees the good results.-- Words of the Buddha
Reminds me of a passage in my preferred source of ancient wisdom (paraphrase):
He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.-- Words of Yeschuah the Messiah (Matt. 5:45)
I realize they're not saying the same things, but they provide an interesting contrast.
In the first, Buddha says that a person's actions do not immediately bear consequence, and that a good action may not bear fruit for some time, but that eventually it eventually will. In the second, Christ is expressing the idea that we should love everyone, including our enemies, as our Father does. These essential ideas aren't really even related.
There is a similarity though: both express the idea that there comes a time when bad people experience good, and good people experience bad. It would seem that time is not fair, in this regard. I suppose the point is that a person should be able to cope with hard times and bad people with patience and perseverance, loving the bad people and keeping faith and hope through the hard times.
I get the feeling my friends think I'm better at this than a lot of others. Maybe they're right. I know that I have a lot of room to grow; when life gets tough, I can get grumpy, but I try to be patient with people anyway. I miss my times of prayer and meditation, as they seemed to help me maintain my sanity in these valleys of chaotic times in life, and as I get them so rarely these days, I wonder how much longer my sanity will last.
Tonight I have been blessed with a few moments of peace, in which I could calm myself and consider these things. ... Just enough to keep going for a little while longer, tiding me over until the next opportunity.
