a buddhist perspective

It is easy to be lulled into a warm, fuzzy idea that Buddhism is just about sitting in meditation and being aware that we are supposed to be kinder people.

But Buddhism is more—much more—than that.

It is taking your fair share, but no more.

It is using what you need, not all that you want.

It is realizing that you are merely one of the almost seven billion people living in a closed world-system.

It is comprehending that you are now using the water, the air, the soil, the fuel that belongs to your children and grandchildren. We used up what belonged to us long ago. 

It is coming to terms with the fact that since you have money, and money is power, you are able to help drive the capitalist system. In this system, those with little money must raise the food and mine the resources to make the products that those with money want. Those with little money have no voice; they cannot be heard because the credit card terminals serving the wealthy drown them out.

To truly and wholly practice Buddhism means we understand that even innocent ignorance causes terrible suffering. But still worse is stepping out of ignorance and then deciding that we really don’t want to know the truth because it’s too uncomfortable, too difficult.

With wealth, and to a man in a third-world country working the land as his ancestors did anyone with a computer and internet connection is wealthy, goes a moral obligation.

Do we really want to cling to our lifestyle despite the knowledge that our indulgence has a terrible cost? People are starving because their land is taken by governments and multinationals who want to supply our desires. People are drowning because we are dumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, causing sea levels to rise and climate disturbances to intensify.

We are at the peak of vital resources: oil and natural gas, water, topsoil. Demand is increasing while supplies are declining. Going up the petroleum production curve took over a century. Falling down the other side could take a few decades.

But regardless of the speed of the fall, we have reached the end of cheap oil, cheap natural gas, and cheap water. As I write this, people in countries around the world are facing a terrible decision.  Do they spend their money on heating or on food? They usually opt for heat. It takes longer to starve than it does to freeze to death.

For those who have no voice, for your children and grandchildren, please learn to want less, to take less. If this is not done now by choice, in the future there will no longer be a choice. And our children and grandchildren, struggling to survive in a world terribly different from the one we now enjoy, will wonder what in G-d's name we were thinking.

We are wisely taught that we need to be concerned about all other’s welfare, with a mind of good will and without hate. So, we need compassion not just for the abused but also for the one who is the abuser. One who hurts others does not understand causality, does not understand that by doing this he or she will continue to be pulled back again and again into the cycle of inflicting and receiving pain. People who hurt others do not understand that the persons they are hurting had hurt them in the past. By retaliating now, they are just perpetuating this cycle of pain.

We need sympathy and compassion to understand how both the victimizer and the victim are caught in this cycle. Unaware of the cause and effect that has brought them to this point; they are unable to act wisely. This is certainly understandable. How many of us have learned about causality? We should understand what is really happening when negative things occur in our lives. But when such things happen, how often are we able to remain calm and react wisely?

If we are sympathetic to others’ welfare while maintaining goodwill, commiseration, and loving-kindness for all people, then we will not judge others. We will not say that this person is right and that person is wrong because we will come to understand that we do not know what is really happening, that we will likely mis­take falsity for truth. But if we are able to regard both friend and foe with sympathy and loving-kindness, we will then be able to practice the nonjudgmental, unconditional giving of love and thus wish for all beings to be happy.

We don't wake up in the morning and say to ourselves, “Today, I'm going to be selfish and inconsiderate. I’m going to ignore the feelings of others.” We don't consciously make the decision to do this. And yet throughout the day, we act selfishly in so many ways.

We don’t write that letter to a friend, even though we know he is looking forward to hearing from us. We again postpone that trip to the library to return that best-seller that we took out, even though we know someone is probably waiting to read it. We go shopping with one friend forgetting that we had already told another we’d go with her.

Neither do we wake up and say “Today is the day I'm going to make someone suffer.” And yet that’s what we do—cause pain.

We don't turn the heat down because we'd be uncomfortable if our home was colder.  So we contribute to global warming and people in Bangladesh who never used a light bulb are told their land is being eroded due to planetary warming from carbon emissions. We don’t visit our friend in the nursing home because we’re busy, and so they are alone and feel forgotten.

We get trapped by our habits, our personal inertia, and our wish for comfort.

We don’t mean to be selfish or unkind. But too often, we are.

If you see things with real insight, then there is no stickiness in your relationship to them. They come—pleasant and unpleasant—you see them and there is no attachment. They come and they pass. Even if the worse kinds of defilement come up, such as greed or anger, there’s enough wisdom to see their impermanent nature and allow them to just fade away. If you react to them, however, by liking or disliking, that isn’t wisdom. You’re only creating more suffering for yourself.

~ Ajahn Chah

A few years ago I was reading a review of a new book by Thich Nhat Hanh on Amazon. I was thinking of buying the book and thought I’d just check the first few reviews to get a better idea of what it was about.

The first reviewer wrote that the master repeats his ideas. A second, perhaps more experienced, reviewer commented that the master repeats ideas because we haven’t gotten them yet.

So repetition is necessary since it does take us many times to "get it."

Over the past eleven months, I have periodically happened to think of my mother’s last few days and of what she went through and said. Although she maintained her sense of humor amazingly well, there were a few times when her words caused me such intense sadness that I had to consciously put them away as I chanted "Amituofo."

We can accept, logically and emotionally, that our suffering is a part of our living. But watching someone we love suffer is different. It hurts. We want to end their suffering, but are helpless.

Last week I was preparing for a class by reading a book Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda’s book How to Live Without Fear & Worry. He was writing of suffering, something I often speak and write about. Suddenly, something shifted within me. And it was okay. The words I had read and spoken so often became an experience, and everything settled. I truly "got it."

So if you wonder why the masters keep repeating the same ideas, it’s okay. They know what they’re doing. They know that it takes us many times to "get it."