“If we all do a little more than our share, then there can be abundance.” - Kyogen Carlson, Zen teacher and late abbot of Dharma Rain Zen Center (Portland, Oregon) “I’ve worked my @$$ off for everything I’ve got!” - a random, proverbial “Small Business Owner” The two quotes above express practically diametrically opposed views regarding the origins of prosperity. The first, like the second, while also emphasizing the importance of individual effort, nevertheless implies a lightly held expectation regarding any personal rewards.

“If you want peace, prepare for war.” Τhis aphorism from a classical Roman military text purports to express a dubious sort of truth that is more nearly the opposite of reality. Naturally, though, this does not prevent it from being a favorite chestnut of reactionaries everywhere. The broader truth, though, is that holding low expectations of others is a great way of assuring that they sink to them – or worse.

In many varieties of Mahayana Buddhism, there are said to be six distinct “realms” or planes of existence for sentient beings. They are: the God realm, the Angry God or Demon realm, the Human realm, the Animal realm, the Hungry Ghost realm, and the Hell realm. Whether taken literally or metaphorically (it is sometimes said that a person can pass through all six in the space of a single hour!), these realms figure prominently in many accounts of Buddhist theology.