Racing

When I was growing up the science text books had the Law of Conservation of Mass and the Law of Conservation of Energy. The Law of Conservation of Mass stated: The mass in an isolated system can neither be created nor be destroyed but can be transformed from one form to another. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed - only converted from one form of energy to another. This all changed with Einstein's contribution. As stated by AI:

Einstein's contribution to the concept of conservation of energy is his famous equation, "E = mc^2" which demonstrates that mass and energy are interchangeable, meaning that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa, thus unifying the laws of conservation of mass and energy into the "law of conservation of mass-energy" where the total amount of mass and energy in a closed system remains constant; essentially stating that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed from one form to another.

We humans are raw energy encapsulated in form. Our souls and spirits are expressions of this energy and since we know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed we know there is more to this existence than one lifetime. We come into this material existence with nothing but our karma and we leave the same.

Have you ever watched a sailboat race? Life is a lot like a sailboat race. The start line and the finish line are the same. We start and finish in essentially the same place. We race out to a marker buoy, around the buoy and then back again. If the wind is against us on our trip out, it will be at our backs on the return trip to the finish line. If we turn around before the marker buoy, we are disqualified, lose this race and have to start from the beginning again, having lost any gains we might have made during this race. We cannot control the wind, the waves or the weather and we can choose to improve or destroy the vessel that we are racing on.

There is no shame or guilt in any part of the course, as long as we do the best we can with what we have been given. Winning isn’t as important as running a good race.