The late American stand-up comedian, George Carlin, in his paradox of our time, said:We have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways but narrower viewpoints, more degrees but less sense, more knowledge but less judgement, more experts but more problems, more medicine but less wellness. We spend more but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added yearsto life not life to years. That really reminds me of the Majjhima Patipada or middleway - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification prescribed by the Buddha. At the Deer Park near Varanasi, Buddha had said about two excesses to be avoided:These two extremes, monks, are not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the world. What are the two? That conjoined with the passions and luxury, low, vulgar, common, ignoble, and useless; and that conjoined with self-torture, painful, ignoble, and useless. Avoiding these two extremes the Tathãgata gained the enlightenment of the Middle Path, which produces insight and knowledge, and tends to calm, to higher knowledge, enlightenment, Nirvana.
Things haven't changed much, have they?
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