To drift or to steer—

which will we choose? 

Due to our karmas in past lifetimes, we have set the course of our current life.

But that course isn’t fixed. We have the ability to change it through the many choices we make every day. It’s like adjusting the flow of a river. By placing enough stones on one side or the other, we can alter what had seemed inevitable. To accomplish this depends on how many stones we choose, their size, and where we situate them. Dropping them haphazardly, we might re-direct the river toward nearby houses. Positioning them wisely, we could guide the water toward a field in need of irrigation.

Why not just let the river take its course? Because we get precious few opportunities to consciously direct it and, thus, make things better. For the vast amount of time we are too caught up in suffering, or in very rare instances too immersed in enjoyment, to understand what is happening.

And so we get swept along, unable to save ourselves, or others.