Here's a Buddhist parable about the inevitability of death. A woman, angry that her son had died, demanded that the Buddha restore him to life. He agreed to do so on the condition that the woman find one person in the village who did not know the sorrow of death. She undertook her mission, determined to find that person, but weeks later returned, exhausted after visiting every house, finally understanding that no one is untouched by death and grief. There are those few who have been…

By now we've heard the standard New Age explanation of our many mis-steps and foibles as we swim through this life: "We are not humans learning to be spiritual but spirits learning to be human."  This can neutralize our need for self deprecation when we say something we think we shouldn't have, make a decision that wasn't perhaps the wisest, hurt someone else without malicious intention.  Yet in many ways we are harder on ourselves than we are on others when we find ourselves…