Disclaimer: The statements and opinions made herein are those of the author and do not reflect those of $O$ as an organization.
In Star Trek, there is a famous test called the “Kobayashi Maru”. The point of the simulation is to test how a cadet responds in a no-win situation. The person being tested is put in a position where they have to rescue a disabled ship in a demilitarized zone. If they leave the ship there, the occupants will all die. If they go into the zone, the simulation is programmed to continually throw hostile foes at them until both the ship they are piloting and the ship they are rescuing are destroyed. It is literally programmed to be unwinnable. Of course, this being a TV show, the main characters find a way to win it because that’s just how these things go.
But the point of the test remains valid: to see how a cadet responds when there are no right answers. How do they handle it when no matter what they do, people will die? In a military organization, especially for someone in a leadership role, it is important to know that a person can handle making those decisions where there is no way to save everyone. Otherwise, they could break down under extreme stress.
Of course, most people don’t find themselves faced with instant, life-and-death decisions on a regular basis. However, we all will face situations where something goes wrong or doesn’t turn out our way and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. Pain and loss are inevitable. No one gets through life without hurting. The scale may not be the same for everyone, but no one gets out without scars of some kind.
At the very heart of Buddhism, when you strip away everything else and just get down to the absolute fundamentals, are the Four Noble Truths. When Siddhartha finally got up from sitting under that tree, the Four Noble Truths were the first thing he had to say. And the very first of the Four Noble Truths is that pain cannot be avoided. At some point in every life, a person will face their own Kobayashi Maru, where there is no way to win and no matter what you do, something bad will occur.
Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? That life is pain? Why would someone who is arguably one of the wisest people in all of history put that at the very core of his philosophy? Because it is the hardest lesson to learn. Because once you accept that there is pain in life, there is nowhere to go but up. It can literally only get better.
It is a lesson we take to heart here at $O$. We face tests like the Kobayashi Maru daily. There are so many people to help, and so few resources to do so. Helping someone today might mean we can’t help someone with a much greater need tomorrow. And even if we can, we are like Sysphius pushing his rock up the hill. There’s always another person in need. That’s why we don’t just work at the street level, but with the politicians and community leaders to change the system that creates the situations that cause people to be in need.
