All living beings, be happy, be at peace, be at ease." ~Listen to the words of the Buddha

All living beings, be happy, be at peace, be at ease." ~Listen to the words of the Buddha

145. Never do anything so vile as to incur the condemnation of other men of knowledge. All living beings, be they happy, peaceful, or at ease.

147 Be happy every living being, whether visible or invisible, whether living far away, whether already born or desiring to be born.

Hajime Nakamura's translation of Buddha's Words, "I. The Serpent Chapter, 8. Compassion, p37"

The verses we will be reading are two selected from the "Compassionate Verse".

Today I would like to use this verse as a clue to share not so much the Buddha's thought, but rather my own thoughts after traveling abroad last year and seeing the ethnic conflict zones of Israel and Bosnia.

Now, of the Buddha's words,"Let every living being be happy."The following is a list of the most common problems with the

What I think is important here is that the Buddha said, "May all be happy.Instead of stating "I don't bother with theLet all living things be happyI'm just saying, "I'm not sure how to do this.

There is a weakness in "Let all be happy."

In most cases, some secret word is surreptitiously inserted into this sentence.

That's what it means to be a "within our population.The word is "the" word.

In other words, the phrase "let all people be happy" is actually inevitable.'Be happy for all (in our collective).'This is the case.

Our "in-group" can take many forms, be it a family, a group, a nation, or our own happiness.

Although there are various forms, when you get down to it, the distinction between inside and outside of one's own group is inevitable.

Because there is only a limited amount of it in the world.

There is a limit to the number of money, water, food, land, resources, advanced knowledge, and everything else.

If we could share it equally, there would be no problem. But as is obvious, things don't work out that way.

No, how can we share what is overwhelmingly inadequate for the number of people in the first place?

If we can get that land, our lives will not be troubled... Now let us come together for our peaceful and happy life."

That is how conflicts arise.

The result was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the disastrous consequences of the Bosnian conflict.

Of course, neither Israel nor Bosnia is a simple story of a battle started to get what is lacking. But people will always fight in such a way to create an inside and outside of the group, devoting themselves to their own happiness and to the cause of peace.

And even if we say that it is important to share equally with all people in the world, why should we unconditionally share what we have in the land where we live with people we do not know? Even though we know that it is important to live equally, such a question inevitably arises when we look into the matter.

That's right. The more we think about it, the more we are stuck in the ditch.

What would you do if your loved ones were to be cruelly killed by foreign enemies if you did nothing?

What if you were to concede to them, and for the next 50 years, you would have little or no access to water or food? How would you feel if you watched your loved one deteriorate day by day and starve to death with nothing to eat? What would you do to save that person?

I no longer know what to do about it. No matter how hard I try to avoid it, there are some problems I cannot avoid.

What did the Buddha think of such an ugly world of human conflict? In a world where we would be oppressed and killed if we wished for the happiness of others, why does the Buddha go beyond that and say, "Let all living beings be happy.

The Buddha is not a man who simply speaks in pretty words or theoretical theories.

Rather, he tries to face reality in an extremely realistic manner.

It is more natural to assume that there is some kind of meaning in it.

So I imagine that the circumstances of Buddha's birth may be relevant here.

Before the Buddha was ordained, he was a prince.

That is right. The Buddha was a man who would have been a king if he had remained as he was.

However, he left his position, fled his country, and through a terrible and grueling ascetic practice, opened the door to Buddhism.

The country where the Buddha was born was a small country in the northern part of the Indian continent.

Nearby is the powerful country of Causala.

Buddha's father, the king, had hoped from an early age that the brilliant Buddha would succeed him in his position as king.

By doing so, they hoped to put the country's strength on a firm footing and to bring peace and prosperity to the country.

But Buddha refused and abandoned his home and country.

And if you look at the results, after the Buddha left the country, he was swallowed up by the great Kosala nation.

Is this the Buddha's fault? Could this fate have been avoided if Buddha had been there?

No, I don't think so.

Even if Buddha had become king, that fate would have been inevitable. The power of one king alone would have been extremely difficult to fill a gap in power that was too enormous.

I am sure that the Buddha felt this painfully from his princely days.

The strong prey on the weak and enjoy peace. (Happiness is within us.)

The world is fundamentally cruel and full of evil and suffering.

The Buddha's basic worldview is clearly expressed in his teaching of "all suffering.

"All that is in the world is suffering."

In the eyes of the Buddha, the ultimate realist, everything in the world is just a source of suffering.

The Buddha was painfully aware of the realities of the world.

That is why we do not say, "Let all be happy.

The Buddha must have sensed from his own experience that the words contained dangerous poison and fatal weaknesses.

It is precisely because the Buddha faced the human nature of "fighting with others for our own happiness," did he not inevitably search for a way to overcome it?

Peace is important. War is not. I agree with that very much.

But why do wars happen in the first place? Unless we think this through, we are bound to repeat the same thing in different forms.

I believe that listening to the teachings of the Buddha can give us clues to this.

In fact, the phrase "Let all living things be happy" in this verse is generally said in the context of "Let us cherish all life, including not only human beings but also animals and plants.

However, I have dared to speak from a different perspective this time.

I could not tell you why "all living things should be happy" goes beyond the logic of "all people should be happy.

No, I must confess that I am not ready to talk about it.

The human absurdity I felt in Israel and Bosnia.

It is a tragedy that our very desire for our own happiness results in the mistreatment of others.

I strongly remember feeling so much pressure in each place that all I could do was stand there in rapture.

We may have no choice but to spend a lifetime thinking about this issue.

I myself have listened to the words of the Buddha and hope to continue to learn from them.

This is a heavy subject for this issue, but that is all for today.

Thank you for staying with us today until the end.

Next Article.

Related Articles