Book excerpt: EVERYTHING WE DO MATTERS In a land and time very distant from us, two men encountered one another. One was a Brahmin, a Hindu priest. He realized that the man he was look­ ing at was no ordinary being and so he inquired: "Are you a god?'' "No, Brahmin." "Are you an angel?" "No, Brahmin." "Are you a spirit?" "No, Brahmin." "What are you then?" "I am awake," replied the Buddha. By his own assertion, the Buddha was not a god. He was an ordinary man living in a world engulfed in greed, anger, ignorance, and delusion. Twenty-five hundred years ago, when the Buddha was teaching what he had awoken to, his world was similar in many ways to our world today. There were great centers of culture, and there were lands of stagnation. There were rulers with great power who thirsted for even more, and there were oppressed people who only wanted to live in peace. There were men who said that they alone held the key to spiri­tual secrets, and there were those who searched for different answers. There were people who had great wealth, and there were those who had nothing. There were people who said we must change, and there were those who denied there was anything wrong. Perhaps that distant land and time is not that distant after all. Greed, anger, ignorance, and delu­sion are still very much with us. In the world today, we hear so much about con­flict: Economic conflict between the developed countries and third-world countries. Cultural conflict between the East and the West. Sectarian conflict in the Middle East. Ethnic conflict in Africa. So much pride and arrogance, so much hatred, so much pain. When even government leaders cannot peacefully resolve the world's problems, what are we supposed to do? How can we, individuals without power or influence, hope to accomplish anything positive in the face of such fury and intolerance? ...