A
wild bird nesting in the deep forest needs no more than a single branch;
a wild animal drinking from a river takes no more than its fill.
(Chuang Tzu)
Stress
Frustration causes
stress: you want something but you are blocked; events beyond
your control are preventing you from proceeding.
You lack the money, you lack the time.
Your neighbour is noisy and will not be quiet.
Somebody scratched a line down the side of your car last night.
At work, you are treated like a resource and nobody cares about you so long
as you do the job.
You want to buy a house but find that you do not earn enough money to
qualify for a mortgage.
Selfish
Frustration occurs when we feel thwarted by external events.
At the root of this problem is the fact that people can be extremely selfish
and many do not
care about one another.
Our
world has been destroyed by greed and
commerce; people live in poverty and poor health,
animals are hunted to extinction or treated
abominably whilst alive.
The Western world has become a world of adult-children, bored,
restless, overworked - addicted to
food,
television and videogames.
Business and media have not necessarily created the situation but they have
exploited it.
Equity
People like to be treated with fairness and respect.
Some want more than this:
They want to feel
special, important, above other people.
Their insecurity leads them to abuse: they take more than they need, they
demand recognition, prestige.
This behaviour has consequences; it affects everything
else, it creates an imbalance that spans the world.
When people only look after their own wellbeing and think nothing of others
or the future, they make life difficult for others.
Page created 2 October 1999