Everything
that Man has made began as an idea in someone’s
mind. The world is made up of ideas, many of
them wrong and silly, and it is from such ideas
that most of our suffering flows.
If we
treat only the symptoms but leave untouched
the underlying causes of suffering, our efforts
will, at most, have palliative effects. The
causes must be discovered and dealt with, so
that the symptoms can no longer arise.
Our problems
originate mainly in the mind, through wrong
or incomplete understanding. It is not because
we are sinful or evil that we perform bad or
antisocial deeds, but more because we are blind
and stupid and do not see our place in life,
do not understand how much we depend upon others
in so many ways.
Not long
ago, on a bus, I heard two mindless twits talking
loudly and denigratingly about Japanese people,
and I wondered if they had ever stopped to think
about who had made their watches, TV’s,
cars, videos, cassette-players, and so on. We
cannot do without other people, and could not
count how many people work for us every day
so that we can live as we do. If we understood
this, it would certainly modify and improve
the way we think about others.
Just
as darkness can be overcome only by light, so
Ignorance can only be overcome by Knowledge.
If we know the causes of suffering, it is possible
to do something about it. |
