Sending Metta...

... this morning to that young boy who is the sole survivor of that airliner crash in Libya. His body is mangled, his brain as yet incapable of accounting for what happened to him. He has not yet been told that his parents and his brother perished in the crash. He has inevitably much suffering ahead of him. May he in time be restored to happiness in his life...

And, in widening circles, sending metta to all those recovering from accidents in the world, and to all those recovering as a result of violent crime, social unrest, and war. (I think of Thanissaro Bhikkhu, now visiting in Thailand at the moment when the civil unrest has turned bloody...) May they all find true happiness in their lives.

And thinking these thoughts, I find myself struggling with the attempt to fit all this in with the concept of karma. Many of the people suffering in this way are the innocent victims of circumstances beyond their control--at least in this life, and I have a really hard time taking past lives into account. The laws of cause and effect make good sense to me in almost every aspect of our lives, but how do we apply them to the case of that nine-year old boy who narrowly escaped death in a plane crash, and who will suffer from the trauma of it for the rest of his life?

It's a tough one to wrap my mind around. In the meantime, it does make sense to send metta...