For those not in the know the world is supposed to end – or at least start the process of ending – on May 21. This is the belief promulgated by a number of Christian groups, who claim the Rapture is to begin with the fiery destruction of the world and the ascendance of a goodly number of their kind into heaven. And here’s the thing: the apocalypse WILL happen. It already has many, many times. Just ask the dinosaurs…
Virtually all of us exist in a state of chronic, low-grade suffering or, as Thoreau put it, we while away our days in “quiet desperation.” It is the first and perhaps most important of the Buddha’s four noble truths, this idea of life as…