i despise the unfairness in life

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The problem.

Nothing ever goes right for the right people. Bad people get away. Bad things go on and on, and it will never change. I despise the unfairness in life.

The Zen understanding.

You might expect a Zen Buddhist to say that life is fair, and you get what you deserve. After all, karmic law can be extrapolated logically. However, karmic law is not complete. We think of it this way: if you always got what you deserved, then what are you really doing to deserve it? You would be getting what you deserved because you deserve it, which is a choiceless cycle. 

A Zen Buddhist believes in the Middle Way, the avenue between choice and no-choice. To explain it simply, you have limited choice. A Zen Buddhist always endeavors to make the most compassionate choice, among the choices. Sometimes, it's hard. People have different gifts, different intelligences, and experience different situations. This is simply the way it is. But whether something is fair, not fair, lucky or not lucky, it doesn't really matter to a Zen Buddhist. Terms such as superiority, inferiority, and even equality often get in the way of reality, which is a mixture of these things. 

What's important to a Zen Buddhist is to make the most of your every moment: to live compassionately for others. For a Zen Buddhist, the ultimate choice is a non-choice: the attaining of non-attainment, buddhahood.

Be at ease because
That moment will come for you
When you understand too much
And love too much
To choose anything besides buddhahood
And so you will live as a buddha and be

The Zen application.

Things are fair and unfair, and really it's pedantic to worry about it. And why? Because no matter the situation, a Zen Buddhist is concerned with their own choices, what they themselves can control. It's okay to admit that we cannot change the world. However, we can change the world around us by behaving with compassion. And slowly, it does spread.

If the whole world quit being kind all at once, imagine the horror. If the whole world quit being hateful all at once, imagine the bliss. Neither will ever happen, probably, but a Zen Buddhist always strives for bliss. There is no nobler quest.

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