Thoughts on the Suffering Across the World

I was going to begin by stating I've come to believe that nothing in life is without purpose. As the words scrolled through my mind, however, flashes of undernourished orphans and mangled victims of relentless war came into focus behind the forming sentence. Within that instant, my entire karmic life perspective turned on its head. What possible rationale is there behind the suffering of the innocent?

I almost feel, suddenly, as though my borrowed idea that "everything happens for a reason" is one rooted in luxurious western culture. As I sit within my heated apartment, safe from the potential severity of nature, surrounded by tens of thousands of dollars worth of shit I don't actually need, I attempt philosophy? Upon consideration, I think it almost ignorant for one who has not experienced the extremes of this world to offer any sort of suggestion for the way in which this universe functions.

I intuitively feel as though we are here to experience the happiness potentiated by a human form. It's my uneducated belief that we are eternal souls, having a human experience. But where does that leave those born into a world of violence, inequality, and inopportunity? For what reason have they been handed a situation wherein it's impossible to realize their true nature as vibratory perpetuity? I'm having a difficult time understanding the function of tragedy in this world.But even upon writing that last paragraph, I have to question whether my perception of misfortune is one of ethnocentrism. Is it not condescending for me to view the war-stricken lives of western Cambodians as anything less than perfect? Any sort of inadequacy I assign to their situation is only in comparison to an ideal erected from what I would someday like to achieve; is this not a biased perspective? I'm not sure if there's any eternal definition for evil, or if evil - as an entity - even truly exists. It may only be our collective misinterpretation of destiny.