What is Buddhism? Applications 9 - The Origin of Suffering and the Necessity of Bodhisattva Practices

    In the previous chapter of Applications 8, I briefly touched upon why I believe Kenji Miyazawa deeply understood the true essence of Buddha's teachings.

Furthermore, in Applications Part 3, I mentioned briefly why one needs to practice the path of a bodhisattva to become a Buddha and why it requires an incredibly long period. Now, I'd like to explore these topics further.

Firstly, let's examine the nature of "suffering." This time, I'd like to offer a more in-depth analysis than a general explanation.

Humans undeniably possess a sense of compassion towards other beings. However, in contradiction to this sentiment, to sustain the existence of "self," one inevitably sacrifices others constantly.

Even if one feels sorry for chickens, pigs, or cows, to sustain "self," one must sacrifice them. Even in the case of vegetarianism, crops like rice and beans are originally meant for their descendants, yet humans usurp them, essentially sacrificing these beings.

No matter how much one speaks of love, compassion, or empathy, people readily sacrifice other living beings without hesitation, citing hunger before their words about compassion have even dried up. If one were to say that those who fail to recognize this are simply insensitive, audacious, hypocritical, and selfish without empathy towards others, I doubt anyone would disagree.

If there were truly compassion towards others, one would immediately notice this fact, and for those who realize it, this fundamental contradiction should be nothing but unbearable suffering with no escape.

And this suffering is proportional to the degree of compassion towards others. Those with maximum compassion should experience the greatest suffering.

Those with no compassion should experience no suffering at all and can selfishly enjoy their happiness shamelessly.

The origin of suffering in Buddhism lies precisely in this fundamental contradiction, and to talk about the cause of suffering without addressing this fundamental contradiction is merely a skillful means to make it understandable even to those lacking such sensitivity.

The essence of life's suffering lies in the inherent contradiction between the desire for self-preservation and the feeling of compassion for others. These two conflicting notions perpetually clash, leading to existential anguish. Only by recognizing this perpetual conflict can we truly grasp the fundamental suffering from which there is no escape.

The relationship between desire and suffering in Buddhism is not a story of luxurious choices made by idle individuals solely seeking peace of mind, as commonly misunderstood. It is rather a path walked by those who keenly feel the fundamental contradiction and the unbearable suffering that comes with it due to their compassion towards others, and sincerely wish to address that state.

It is our duty as conscious beings to be aware of such things. And aside from those who are insensitive, bold, hypocritical, unsympathetic, and selfish, all compassionate people have no other choice but to face such facts with sincerity and consider how they can live without further sacrificing others.

What kind of way of life does Buddhism suggest? The ordinary state before entering the Buddhist path is, as mentioned above, a state in which one continues to sacrifice others for the sake of self-preservation. As long as this state persists, one must continue to suffer from the fundamental contradiction between this fact and the human emotion of compassion for others.

Trying to avoid this suffering, even if one try to stop living, unfortunately, as long as the delusion of "self" exists, one will be reborn into this world again due to the formative force of saṃskāra created by primordial ignorance which is the fundamental cause of delusion, repeating the same acts of sacrificing others.

Therefore, as long as the delusion of "self" exists, even if one tries to stop living, it will not lead to any resolution.

However, this delusion of "self" was not formed overnight, but has been accumulated and strengthened by countless selfish acts that have been repeated for self-preservation from the beginning of evolution as a primitive being through reincarnation to the present. Therefore, in order to neutralize such energy for self-preservation, one must repay all the "debts" accumulated through countless past selfish acts and the "indebtedness" of the vast number of others sacrificed.

In other words, the balance between the accumulation of selfish karma and the accumulation of altruistic karma must be reduced to zero.

To do so, we must accumulate as many or more altruistic acts as the number of beings sacrificed to us in the course of evolution. Altruistic acts refer to contributing to the enlightenment and happiness of others, in order to repay a debt from the past. This is the Bodhisattva practice, and only those who have completed this practice can become Buddhas.

Since the number of beings to whom we must repay our debts is enormous, we must spend a great deal of time performing altruistic deeds to achieve this. That is why it is said that the Bodhisattva practice takes an enormous amount of time, and no one has ever become a Buddha, no matter how long they continue to meditate in the same way as the Buddha.

As I have already mentioned many times, in order to become a Buddha, it is necessary to be at peace in the perfect state of the Middle Way.

After that, in order to continue to lead sentient beings to the state of enlightenment as a Tathāgata, it is necessary to have unlimited compassion for others.

To do so, one's altruism toward others must far outweigh one's attachment to oneself.

Otherwise, one's selfishness will outweigh one's altruism toward others, and one will not be able to continue to practice altruism.

While it is relatively easy to remove attachment to self, as in the practice of becoming an arhat, it is incomparably more difficult to continue the endless practice of altruism toward an infinite number of others.

To make this possible, as a Bodhisattva, one needs to accumulate altruistic deeds that far exceed one's selfishness.

That is why there are many people who have become arhats, but no one has ever become a Buddha except for Sakyamuni Buddha.

That is how difficult and time-consuming the Bodhisattva practice is.

However, Mahayana Buddhism may be trying to tell us that the best way to live as a human being is to live for the happiness of others while aiming for such an ideal image, rather than aiming to actually become a Buddha or a Tathāgata one day.

In reality, it is said that in the process of bodhisattva practice, by cultivating compassion for others and manifesting it in action, one gradually becomes aware of "self" and "others" without distinction, comes to feel the joys and sufferings of others as one's own, and eventually attains a sense of happiness that transcends distinctions between self and others.

The final goal of becoming a Buddha is to be completely liberated from the delusion of "self" and to reach a state of complete transcendence from the delusional world, yet as a Tathāgata, descends to the delusional world again, and become one with all beings, in which unlimited and perfect compassion is realized. Buddhism is the path to ultimately attain such perfect compassion.

So, what are some practical ways we can live our daily lives in order to come as close as possible to such a final goal of Buddhism?

#suffering #duḥkha #Bodhisattva-practice #Tathāgata #no-killing

#maitrī #karunā