Oneness, Irony, and Contradiction

Quick funny story:

On my lunch break this afternoon, I ran over to the local bookstore to pick up a copy of Shambhala Sun magazine to replace the one I'd lost — I hadn't finished reading a particular section on improving one's meditation practice before it disappeared, and I wanted to finish the articles to help keep up my motivation to sit more regularly.

As it turns out the issue I was looking to replace wasn't on the newsstand. But, lured in by an article entitled "Peace on the Street," and another, "Procession of Peace, " I ended up grabbing a copy of Tricycle magazine instead. ("No, I'm not a Buddhist, but I play one on TV...")

And since I was in the bookstore anyway, I then wandered over to the martial arts section, where I stumbled upon "Mediations on Violence," a new book that compares martial arts training with the dynamics of real-world violence. Oh, how could I resist?

With my contradictions in hand, I blissfully headed to the register.