No Hope For Buddhists

The chief virtues in Christianity are Faith, Hope and Charity. Buddhism has some parallel with Faith in the virtue of Saddha (Shraddha - Sanskrit), which means 'placing the heart on' and indicates the aspiration to tread the spiritual path. Charity is also present in Buddhism in the virtue of Chaga or Dana, which means generosity and letting go of attachment to things.

But there is no such virtue as hope in Buddhism. This is because the Buddhist vision of reality is based on the law of conditioned co-production. What this means, simply put, is that everything in existence arises in dependence on conditions. When this is applied to the spiritual path it means that if the conditions are in place then the progress will naturally follow and there is no need for hope.

Applying this to the moral life of the individual, it becomes the law of karma, which states that all actions have consequences; skilful (kusala) actions have beneficial consequences and unskilful (akusala) actions have the opposite effect. Skilful refers to the states of mind of love, generosity and wisdom. Actions are of body, speech and mind. So when we act, or communicate or think with a mind that is free from hatred, greed, and spiritual ignorance we will experience positive consequences. This law of karma means that if we make the effort to be skilful in our thoughts, expression and actions then our spiritual progress is guaranteed and we have no need of hope. So there is no hope for Buddhists!

Revolution

The revolutionary rhetoric of the 1960s and 70s was replaced by the pragmatism of the 1980s and 90s. And the pragmatism of the 1990's has had to give way to the onslaught of the media environment, which has such an influence on many people's concerns. This is an environment of ever shifting sands.

Violent extremists have monopolised the language of changing the world and the rest of us have to make do with finding solutions to a management problem. Use of resources, people-capital, creating opportunities, are the tasks now. The idealists are anti-global, anti-capitalist, anti-vivisection, anti-war, anti-consumerist, anti-technology. But where is the coherent vision for a better life. Perhaps there is one or perhaps nobody is naïve enough to put forward a political answer to everything, since the communist experiment was such a disastrous failure. I think it is reasonable to be sceptical about any great political or social solutions to the world's problems. I don't believe it is possible to change the world by political revolution. I agree with the Irish poet, W.B. Yeats:

“The Great Day

Hurrah for revolution and cannon-shot!

A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot.

Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again!

The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on.”

But I do believe it is possible for human beings to change. In fact I know from experience that it is possible for human beings to change, to evolve. Therefore I see it as a noble and generous thing to try to provide conditions for as many human beings as possible to change. The first thing I can do is to try to light the fire of faith (shraddha) in the hearts of others by letting them see the fire in my own heart. The second thing I can do is come together with like-minded individuals and create a network of friendships, a spiritual community, which has a momentum of energy to carry the message of the Dharma, the Truth, down through the generations, spreading a benevolent influence throughout the world, touching hearts, transforming lives. For that to happen I don't necessarily need the language of revolution, but I think something of the fervour and passion of revolution is needed. This is a great, awesome, all-encompassing vision and it is not going to be brought to life by half-heartedness or timid goodwill. It needs energy, passion, fire. Initially that energy has to be channelled into transforming ourselves; changing our self-centredness into generosity, changing our ill-will into energy for the good, changing our resentment into confidence, changing our blaming of others into activity for the benefit of others, changing our narrow self-interest into a broader perspective.

As we change and others around us change, we gradually become, together, a vibrant spiritual community and then our real altruistic Bodhisattva work can begin in earnest, as we co-operate with each other to embody the message of the Buddha for the sake of all beings.

Refuge

“Many people, out of fear, flee for refuge to (sacred) hills, woods, groves, trees and shrines. In reality this is not a safe refuge. In reality this is not the best refuge. Fleeing to such a refuge one is not released from all suffering.” (Dhammapada, Verses 188 and 189) Here we are introduced to the image of refuge, the metaphor of going for refuge. It goes on to say: “He who goes for refuge to the Enlightened One, to the Truth, and to the Spiritual Community, and who sees with perfect wisdom the Four Ariyan truths - namely, suffering, the origin of suffering, the passing beyond suffering, and the Ariyan Eightfold Way leading to the pacification of suffering - (for him) this is a safe refuge, (for him) this is the best refuge. Having gone to such a refuge, one is released form all suffering.” (verses 190-2) A true safe refuge is something we can rely on, something dependable, something that won't let us down. A false refuge is something that we can't depend upon, that will let us down.

To go for refuge to something means it gives meaning to our lives, we live for it, we organise our lives around it, we give our energy and attention to it. To go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha means to put the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha at the centre of our lives, to organise our lives around them and to give our time and attention and energy to embodying them in our lives. But as the text says, many people, out of fear, flee for refuge elsewhere. For us it may not be sacred hills, woods, groves,, trees and shrines. We may put something else at the centre of our lives. We may give meaning to our lives in other ways; career, family, lover, money, children, possessions etc. but all these things will pass, none can be completely depended upon.

According to the Dhammapada, the only safe refuge, the only thing that can be completely depended upon, the only thing that can really give full meaning to your life is Enlightenment, Nirvana, the state of Buddhahood. One thing that is very noticeable about the Dhammapada is that it doesn't put in any qualifications, no “ifs” or “buts”. It just says this is the truth, this is the way things really are and you are left to make of it what you will.

Questions

There is an opportunity to answer a lot of questions between birth and death, but you have to ask them first.  

Life is a question.

Questions beget questions.

Questions are your best teacher.

The most profound questions are often the simplest. The most profound answers are often the simplest, too.

What happens when you die is not the question; the question is what happens when you live.

Conditioning

We are very influenced by the world around us. The views and attitudes of the time and place in which we live pervade our lives and it is extremely difficult to step back and see things from a higher or bigger perspective. We have been influenced since childhood by various views, attitudes, beliefs and conventions. Sometimes we are more under the sway of past conditioning sometimes we are more under the sway of present conditioning.

Monogamous marriage based on personal emotion is an example of a recent historical convention that has a huge impact on us and on what we conceive of as normal. The internet and social media are examples of current conditioning factors that have a huge impact on us and our sense of identity. Credit cards, advertising, nationalism are all relatively new phenomena which have had and continue to have a huge impact on us. Often we are unconscious of this and we are also often unconscious of the more personal conditioning and conventions of our upbringing which continue to influence our behaviour, attitudes and ideas; the impact of our relationship with our father and mother, the impact of any religious conditioning and so on.

All of these things are influencing us all the time and these influences will sometimes be at variance with the Buddha's teachings about skilfulness and unskilfulness. That is why it is important to become aware of how we have been and are being conditioned and influenced. Reflection, meditation and time spent alone all help with this.

Enlightenment

 

Enlightenment can be talked about in many ways. One very common way is to talk in terms of the perfection or consummation of Wisdom, Compassion and Energy. But of course we are swimming in very unfamiliar waters when we dive into the topic of Enlightenment or Nirvana. We need to come to the surface and indeed come back to earth and ask ourselves, what is the relevance of all of this to me and to my life now.

There is plenty of hatred, conflict and polarisation in the world and if we are to help to alleviate some of that we need to become aware of and deal with our own inner conflicts, which often manifest in our lives as conflict with others. There is a great deal of unhappiness, dissatisfaction and mental ill-health in the world and if we are to help we need to become aware of and learn how to deal with our own unhappiness and dissatisfaction. There is plenty of greed, craving, addiction and consumption in the world, which is leading us into more suffering. If we are to help we need to become aware of and deal with our own craving, greed and addictions. This is something of the relevance of the Buddha and his Awakening to our lives. But really we each need to individually ask ourselves the questions about what our life is for and what we want to do with our period alive and also to look with objective and kindly eyes at what we are actually doing with our lives. Self deception helps no-one.

Influence

The whole universe is interconnected and that of course includes us. There is no such thing as an isolated individual. We may experience isolation on a social or psychological level but real isolation from the rest of the living universe is not possible. We eat food which we buy in a shop where we are served by people and the food was put on the shelves by others and delivered by others and harvested and grown by others and the soil was prepared by others and the seeds provided by others and the plants grew because there was sufficient light and moisture and space. All of these things connect us to vast numbers of people and to the sun and the climate and the earth’s atmosphere and the solar system, the galaxy and beyond. We cannot be isolated from life. Even when we are dead our body returns to the earth and nourishes the plants and worms.

We are also connected to other people by virtue of influence and effect. The influence they have on us and the effect we have on them. Virtually everything we know, all our knowledge, comes from somebody else. We learn from books, from other people, parents, teachers etc., and it is a completely rare event for anyone to have an original thought and even when that does happen it is in relationship to all the thoughts others have had previously in a particular area, whether it is art or mathematics or science. We have imbibed influences since birth and we continue to imbibe them. To a large degree we are made up of influences whether from other people or the climate or the environment we live in. All these things form and shape our consciousness, affect our thoughts and emotions and are very much who we are. In a sense all we are is interconnection. There is nothing solid or substantial or fixed that we can point to and say that’s me, completely unaffected by any influence from elsewhere.

The other side of this is that we are always having an effect. We are always influencing. Some people are referred to as influential people, but, in fact, everybody is influential. It is not possible to have no effect on anybody or anything. By eating food you have bought in a shop, you have had an effect on the shop and those who work there and the whole chain of supply. I read an interview in a magazine with the CEO of Tesco’s. The point was put to him that a huge store like Tesco has a lot of power, too much power even. He said that from where he stood all the power was with the consumer and he had to be constantly attentive and sensitive to what shoppers wanted or didn’t want. Otherwise even the biggest business could collapse quite quickly. There is obviously a lot of truth in that. But more immediately than that we have an effect on people we come into contact with. We can never know how much of an effect we are having. Sometimes we say or do something quite small and it has a big effect on someone. Perhaps a little act of generosity where it was not expected or a sharp word or a flippant remark.