As a devotee of BBC Radio 4, I usually listen to Thought for the Day just before I get out of the car and get myself into the office, and today was no different. This morning was delivered by the writer Rhidian Brook and concerned the distribution of wealth. You can listen to it yourself here.
It’s a fairly well known fact that 90% of the wealth of the UK is in the hands of 10% of the population, which is a shocking state of affairs in my opinion. Of course it’s easy to be shocked when you aren’t one of the 10%, and it got me wondering whether I would be any more benevolent if I were.
Brook also relates the fable about the rich farmer who, having grown his crops, decided that he needed to store it somewhere safe, so that the peasants of the area couldn’t get their thieving hands on any of it. So he set about building a huge barn, and made it secure so it kept out the riff-raff. It must have taken quite a while to build it, but finally it was finished, and he was happy that his crops would now be safe.
Of course, there was far more than he could ever need himself, but he locked it all away and hoarded it for his old age. Ironically, the night the barn was finished, he died in his sleep. So the adage that ‘you can’t take it with you’ is anything but new. So I suppose the lesson from the story is, if you have enough of anything, money, food, whatever, you are fortunate. If you have more than enough, you are more than fortunate, and you might consider sharing some of it with others less fortunate.
As a lifelong Chelsea fan, I was distraught yesterday when Fernando Torres missed a guilt edged, 
Life is a journey full of choices, for which we have to make decisions, and for which in turn, we are all accountable. Wouldn’t it be marvellous if there was a What-If machine, which you could use to play out each possible choice, see which one worked out best, and then make that your decision? Sadly there isn’t, nor will there ever be. So it is left up to us to make the best decision at the time, and then live with the consequences.
I don’t know about you, but all this talk of world wide economic strife is starting to get me really worried. We know all about the stringent cuts that the government are pushing through here in the UK. The problem is that we all know we have to do something to reduce our deficit, but there seems to be a growing sense of, that’s fine, just as long as it’s not me that has to reduce my own standard of living.
When we are open and engaged, we experience the greater self. When we are closed off, we are exhibiting our lesser self. The lesser self is a deluded condition, whilst our greater self is synonymous with our Buddha nature.
With the news full of 
It may seem to be a strange thing to say, but our happiness, or otherwise, is actually a choice we make for ourselves. It’s basically tied to the way we view the challenges that life throws at us.
I guess that as someone with a good job, one that I really enjoy, I am one of the luckier people in today’s beleaguered society. Of course there are days when I would rather be spending time with my family, out walking by the sea, or enjoying the sights and sounds of the New Forest. But having work to do is, in itself a joy.
Nichiren states:
As we are all well aware, today is the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre towers in New York. At the time of the attack, I was working for an American company and vividly remember the shock and outrage at the devastation and loss caused on that fateful day.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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