World Free Of Conflict In recent years, our world has become beset with adversities and our lives filled with increasing unhappiness. As time goes on, these adversities will become more and more severe, more and more frequent. Someone asked how the compassionate Buddha and Bodhisattvas help all sentient beings to be free from pain. They do this by teaching us to overcome greed, anger, and ignorance so that our minds will no longer be deluded, but awakened. By teaching us the Law of Cause and Effect. To end our suffering, we first have to know what causes it. As human beings, we undergo the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death. We suffer hardships, the inability to attain what we seek, separation from those we love, and association with those whom we resent or even hate. We are surrounded by all of these with no apparent way of being truly free.
We need to understand that catalytic conditions or circumstances have to exist for a cause to generate an effect. By controlling these catalytic conditions, we can have some influence on our consequences. We need to practice good deeds during our lifetime to generate good karma. Then we will truly appreciate that living a happy and fulfilling life is the karmic result generated from a good cause and a good condition, and this is the way to attain liberation from suffering and to attain happiness.
Today, many of us feel the weight of our negative karma as we witness the unhappiness and suffering around us. They are caused by our selfish and erroneous behavior, by our choosing to benefit ourselves at the expense of others. How do we remove this negative karma? How do we prevent further occurrences? By dedicating ourselves to helping and benefiting society, by not protecting ourselves while harming others.
Most of us have the sub-conscious desire to control other people, animals, even inanimate objects. But by letting go of this attachment, we can be liberated. Awakened beings live their lives with great ease. They fulfill their responsibility of advising and educating sentient beings by explaining to them the true reality of life and the universe, the Law of Cause and Effect by explaining that every cause, every thought, word and action has a result.
Whatever people decide to do, it is their choice, their consequence. We simply accord with the condition as we educate them and then leave the rest up to them. By doing this, our minds will remain serene, as it generates the concentration and thus the wisdom to effectively interact with people, matters, and objects. The benefits that can be derived from such practice are infinite and boundless. Not only can our present suffering be resolved, but our negative karma accumulated over infinite life times can be eliminated as well.
Why then are we unable to realize the true benefit? Because we are obstructed by our own negative karma, unable to see what is right be before our very eyes. We are constantly reminded by the images of awakened beings. Constantly prompted by our reciting the sutra, impelled by our daily chanting and listening to Dharma talks. Yet, we still are unable to truly comprehend the teachings, still unable to apply the principles in our daily lives.
We cannot blame the Buddha and Bodhisattvas for not helping. The fact is they are trying to; we are not paying attention. We have a wondrous and rare chance that is about to slip by us. To be born as human beings who are able to hear the teachings is an unbelievably rare opportunity, not encountered for millions of years. It is as rare as a bubble rising to the surface of a vast sea and breaking the surface of that sea within the one wreath of flowers that is floating upon it.
Allowing this to happen will be a tragic mistake that is entirely of our own making. To prevent this from happening, we need to reflect and feel remorse for our mistakes. This is a learning process that will enable us to overcome our afflictions and bad habits and thus to remove our negative karma. How do we do this? By feeling deep regret for our mistakes and vowing to not commit them again. Daily practice will help to decrease our negative karma. It is to practice in the midst of society, not to be separated from it. Our goal is the mind of sincerity, purity, equality, compassion, and awakening. Only with this mind will we be able to solve all problems. They cannot be solved by physical force, by war. They are solved with gentleness and loving-kindness toward all other beings, animate and inanimate.
It is in our best interest to be rid of the desire to control, for it will only result in our committing further transgressions, thus increasing our negative karma. No one can truly control another. History provides us with many examples of countries that tried to use force to control another country; Hitler's invasion of Europe, the Japanese invasion of China, the Russians in Afghanistan and the United States in Vietnam. All failed.
Instead of those countries spending huge sums of money on warfare, they could have spent the money on caring for and supporting people who were suffering hardships. In this way, they would have peacefully won them over. Or they could have used the money to educate their own citizens, to help them become self-sufficient; to pay more attention to internal needs instead of constantly interfering with external affairs.
Our every thought needs to be of benefiting all sentient-beings. Not only in our behavior should we never hurt any sentient beings, but also we should never give rise to a single hostile thought or say anything that can cause distress to others. If we can truly follow this teaching then in our daily lives no matter what we do, there will be great goodness, great gentleness. This is the way to truly influence people, with loving-kindness and compassion. Using physical force to try to solve problems will not only create enemies but will also generate the cause to be born into the hell realms. By practicing in accordance with the teachings, we will achieve results for in this way we will transform our minds. Since everything is a reflection of our minds, everything can be transformed by our minds. When we accord with the teachings, our thoughts will change; our actions will be proper and correct.
We would do well to let go of selfishness, to only have thoughts that benefit others. Instead, we are wrapped up in our own concerns, thinking only of protecting the interests of ourselves, our group or our country. This way of thinking has led to quarrels between people, feuds between families, and wars between countries. It has led to massive damage on both sides; the tragic loss of lives, the excessive monetary cost, the disastrous destruction of land, the final destruction of friendships and peace and the grave consequences incurred due to the Law of Cause and Effect.
Our complete lack of concern for plants, living and non-living creatures of our natural environment has resulted in the destruction of our environment. Ultimately, we are the ones who suffer from this negligence and lack of compassion. We are all one entity, one being, all interrelated closely with one another. Everything, including us arises from the coming together of causes, so to harm others is to harm ourselves. Once we truly comprehend this, we will have no more problems. Being overly concerned with our own interests and those of our group and country, is the root cause of all misfortunes and adversities. Taking care of this problem solves everything else. When we practice accordingly, with proper and caring behavior, we will see an increase in our good karma and a decrease in our bad. In turn, our suffering will be reduced or eliminated and we will experience a favorable change in our circumstances.
When we give rise to one single bad thought of inequality, we turn a favorable situation into an unfavorable one. However, with one single good thought of equality, the Buddha realm will appear in that moment. When we give rise to one single thought of holy beings, the Heaven realms will appear in that moment. Likewise, with one thought of greed, anger, or ignorance, our daily lives will become unsettled and unmanageable. However, with one thought of purity, our lives will become harmonious and peaceful.
