Volume 74. April 18, 2026
We interrupt our regular scheduled programming to bring you this special report from The Buddha Times.
News flash: They’ve killed Mr. Chaos!
Barely halfway through his second term, Donald Trump is generally considered the cruelest, most corrupt, and most chaotic president in American history.
The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, conducted by 154 scholars (including Republican and conservative scholars), ranked Trump dead last (45th out of 45 U.S. presidents).
Murdering peaceful protesters in the streets of Minnesota, enriching himself and his billionaire friends, embroiling the Middle East in a misguided war, assaulting democratic norms, perverting justice, covering up his involvement in the Epstein scandal — another day, another outrageous episode of presidential depravity.
His insolence is infuriating. But Trump is not dead yet.
There is another Mr Chaos, whose passing we note today.
To tell the story of his demise, we turn to Chuang-tzu, our special correspondent from the world of Taoism, who reports:
Once upon a time, before there was a world, there was nothing but primordial Chaos — the undifferentiated soup out of which everything came to be.
The gods met Mr Chaos, who treated them with immense kindness. Thereupon, the gods set to work creating the world. Having finished their task, they decided to show their appreciation to Mr Chaos, whose self-effacing help was essential to their work.
The gods supplied him with the same senses that they themselves enjoyed. They bored seven holes in him: eyes to see, ears to hear, nostrils to smell, and a mouth to taste, eat and breathe.
While the gods were congratulating themselves on the splendid results, however, Mr Chaos died.
The end.
What’s the moral of the story?
Mr Chaos symbolizes that pure state that exists before the division of heaven and earth, that pure state that exists, as it were, before our rational minds butt in and “create” the universe.
Buddhism calls that state of primal unity Buddha-nature.
We experience Buddha-nature when we let things be.
Why make waves? Why stir up trouble? Eat when you’re hungry. Drink when you’re dry. Sleep when you’re tired. Go about your day as naturally as water flowing down a stream. Let things be.
When we discriminate between this and that, we kill Mr Chaos.
When we meditate, we perceive the essential Oneness of life.
Even while watching a special report.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
The Buddha Times 