world events blah blah blah

Hi,

The 'peace in e-sanga thread' got me thinking about Zen and world events, wars, politics, religions etc. I guess we all think about them and even get angry about them from time to time, but what would be a 'Zen' take on things if there ever was one?

If we are trying to be more in the moment, rather than past or future, how do we relate to them?

Luckily, for most of us they don't exist other than in the media. For those of you perhaps in the forces somewhere or who have been effected personally how is it reflected in your thoughts?

Sometimes I seem to end up in this reducing spiral of nihilist thought that says if I really do 'just be' then I can't do anything or shouldn't do anything until it directly effects me right here and now. But that seems to be an 'I'm alright Jack' attitude, not exactly compasionate and a bit wishy washy.

Now may be if everyone did that then there wouldn't be the problems but then we would all have to revert to hunter gatherers etc and (for all it seems tempting) it doesn't seem like an answer.

mmm.... it's human nature to refer to the past for lessons and look to the future and plan, plan, plan, that's why we're where we are now (reading on a computer) because of dreamers/planners/non-in-the-moment-thinking.

If we plan to try to resolve whatever the 'issue of the day' is, we are doing it from a perspective of 'rightness' aren't we? We are hoping to change events to suit what we think is 'fair', but thats' not very Zen is it???

Kev????..... zzzzzzzzz should be in bed!