Even an evildoer may see benefit
As long as the evil
Has yet to mature.
But when the evil has matured,
The evildoer
Will meet with misfortune.
Don’t disregard evil, thinking,
“It won’t come back to me!”
With dripping drops of water
Even a water jug is filled.
Little by little,
A fool is filled with evil.
(The Dhammapada, 119 & 121, third-century BCE. Gil Fronsdal, trans.)
It may be that I am partial to a member of my Scottish border clan, but I figure in a sport or enterprise where those policing it are asleep, you win however you can.
In Economics 101, not atypically in my day, they would present the small business of being a drug dealer as an example of someone needing to go through the same decision-making process as the the head of GE. You factor in the risks (including getting caught and going to prison) in determining your pricing strategy. It is all a risk and benefit analysis situation.
If Lance hadn’t “cheated,” he wouldn’t have been a winner. Some other “cheater” would have prevailed. If you want a ‘fair’ sport — or a banking system that won’t wreck the economy — then you have to have regulations that bite you if you try to go around them. You’ve got to keep the pit bulls on a chain.
Evil is only something a person should consider about his- or her-self, and even there you have to rid yourself of the idols of perfect purity and Satan. Outside yourself, there are all kinds of people, all of whom are pretty much just doing the best they can. They are not devils and angels, they are much like you, a splendid sack of dirt.
As for karma, I don’t think it is individualized. Some guys get all the luck; some guys get all the pain. But, truly, it’s only random chance that rains down on us all. Anyway. That’s what I think.
To me, it’s all interconnected: the sport lawmakers and enforcers, the thousands who line the roads (or, including myself, follow along in the media) to cheer on the leaders and buy their endorsed products, the companies who pay the winners millions to endorse their products, the teams and their management, fueled by ego and greed – those most human and dangerous of delusions – to win at any costs, the suppliers of drugs seeking a profit, the media kings and queens who interview the winners and losers to advance their own power networks … if we all continue to blithely circle in this whirlpool of insanity that we all have created, rather than use our awareness to stop the whirlpool, we will continue to drown in it. It’s the oldest, and least heeded, of our human lessons, and the cause for all of our suffering, individually and universally.
“Evil” is simply our collective delusion. “The Fool” is us when we blindly follow our delusions around the whirlpool. But we don’t have to drown. We can swim straight away, happy and free. It’s not chance, or fortune. It’s up to us.
Thanks very much for stopping by.