Peaceful coexistence
"whenever we find rather similar animals living together in the wild, we do not hink of competition by tooth and claw, we ask ourselves, instead, how competition is avoided. When we find many animals apparently sharing a food supply, we do not talk of struggles for survival; we watch to see by what trick the animals manage to be peaceful in their coexistence.
Peaceful coexistence, not struggle, is the rule in our Darwinian world. A perfectly fashioned individual of a Darwinian species is programmed for a specialised life to be spent for the most part safe from competition with neighbours of other kinds. Natural selection is harsh only to the deviant aggressor who seeks to poach on the niche of another. The peaceful coexistence between species, which results from evolution by natural selection, has to be understood as an important fact in the workings of the great ecosystems around us. It is also, surely, one of the most eartening of the lessons of biology. "

Love. When we were very young, we loved others beings unconditionally. If the other person did not return our love, we did not react with anger or hatred. Love was never associated with fear. It was spontaneous and arose from a pure heart. Love was not discriminatory. We loved the baby-sitter, the gardener, and our brothers and sisters simply as human beings. Again, somewhere along the way we lost that purity as a result of external influences. Then we began to love with discrimination.

In Sri Lanka, we often compare human life to a river. When river water falls down the hills, it creates a beautiful waterfall. When it crashes on rocks, white foam is created, expressing its incredible hidden beauty. When the river silently flows through the valleys, it becomes mysterious and magical. These different things that happen to the river water along its path are all manifestations of its beauty. So, too, if we are to make meaning out of our odyssey as human beings on this planet, we have to accept that whatever happens on our way adds to life's beauty.

What is my job on the planet" is one question we might do well ask ourselves over and over again. Otherwise, we may wind up doing somebody else's job and not even know it. And what's more, that somebody else might be a figment of our own imagination and maybe a prisoner of it as well.

Rarely do we question and then contemplate with determination what our hearts are calling us to do and to be. I like to frame such efforts in question form: "What is my job on the planet with a capital J?", or "What do I care about so much that I would pay to do it?" If I ask such a question and I don't come up with an answer, other than, "I don't know", then I just keep asking the question.

You can start asking this question any time, at any age. There is never a time of life when it would not have a profound effect on your view change what you do, but it may mean that you may what to change how you see it or hold it, and perhaps how you do it. Once the universe is your employer, very interesting things start to happen, even if someone else is cutting your paycheck. But you do have to be patient. It takes time to grow this way of being in your life. The place to start of course is right here. The best time? How about now?

You never know what will come of such introspections. Buckminster Fuller, the discoverer/inventor of the geodesic dome, himself was fond of stating that what seems to be happening at the moment is never the full story of what is really going on. He liked to point out that for the honey bee, ,t is the honey that is important. But the bee is at the same time nature's vehicle for carrying out cross-pollination of nature. Nothing is isolated. Each event connects with others. Things are constantly unfolding on different levels. It's for us to perceive the warp and woof of it all as best we can and learn to follow our own threads through the tapestry of life with authenticity and resolve.