In a few days, May 26, the full moon of May (Vesakha month) will come to us, to commemorate the birthday of the 7th Buddha of our globe, who was born 2,600 years ago in Nepal, near the Himalayas. This year, we celebrate His Birthday in the situation where the world is facing a deep crisis. With the increasing tension in the Middle-East, if Israel fails to apply self-restraint, there is a potential where the Arab world and the USA might be involved in a war; and then, China, Pakistan, India might also get involved. The involvement of all these countries, with their nuclear capability, might lead to a complete destruction of life and civilization on this earth. Humanity is living in a sense of helplessness as the diseases such as "greed", "hatred" and "ignorance" has widely developed in the mind of all parties concerned.

As the crisis is largely related to the Muslim world, it is not possible to overlook the influence of religion behind the present conflicts. Dangerously, all parties concerned (including the Bush administration) are those who have strong religious faiths, and these faiths make them more discriminative, separate, and difficult to reconcile with each other. Although religions praise Love, in the history, all except Buddhism, have been actively involved in bloody religious wars. Buddhism was once a victim, in the 12th century, when Muslim armies killed many Buddhist monks and destroyed Buddhist educational institutions in the Indian sub-continent, including India and Afghanistan. However, there has never been any revenge from the Buddhist communities. Is it true that Buddhism has something to offer, to assist its followers living peacefully with others, to assist humanity to live in harmony?

According to Buddhism, the world suffers because of the three basics, “Greed”, “Hatred”, and “Ignorance” (lack of wisdom). In which Ignorance is the root of all three.  Lack of wisdom to clearly see the true nature of things, man has confusing thoughts and actions causing suffering for himself and others. The Buddha reminded us to penetrate many truths which have more convincing power than moralities in conducting a “right living”. Among these truths, the following three can be applied as the principles to establish a peaceful world:

1) The first truth, also the foundation to derive other truths, is the “Law of Cause-Effect” (also known as “Law of Kamma") which has a cyclic nature (cause->effect->cause). This truth is the principle of changing of all things in the universe.

"All things (dhammas) are derived from conditions,
they cease to exist when the conditions cease to meet"

 This is the truth from which no one, including powerful celestial beings can escape. Subject to this Law of Cause-Effect, when we are sick, we go to the doctor or hospital to find the cause of sickness and its remedy. We do not pray for a cure (even praying may cure by some reason, it is not an acceptable solution because its effectiveness may not exceed 1% of the cases). Based on this Law of Cause-Effect, civilized societies creates justice systems, which is not based on religion for any judgement. This “Law of Cause-Effect” clarifies that “It is one's own thought and action that determines one's happiness or suffering, not from punishment or reward from any Savior”. If we do bad things, we will suffer bad consequences. If we do good things, we will reap good rewards. Understanding this basic truth, a Buddhist never uses the Buddha or any other celestial being to justify his action in causing inflictions upon others.

The Buddhist also receives thorough instruction about the Law of Cause-Effect on loves. In simple cases, when we offer happiness to others, others will bring happiness to us. If we create suffering to others, others will bring suffering back to us (or to our family, our country). In this relationship, the Buddha taught:

"Using enmity to revenge enmity, enmity will continue to accumulate,
Only when using love to respond to enmity, enmity will cease."

"Love" has the capacity to eradicate "Enmity" as water has the capacity to extinguish fire; this follows the Law of Cause-Effect. Understanding this, the Buddhist does not think of revenge, because it will only lead to continuing suffering, that is not the action of the wise.

The Buddha’s teachings also include many examples of forbearance of the Bodhisatvas, to remind the Buddhists of the value of love. Because it has the capacity to create happiness, for each one of us in all situations, much better than any other gemstones in the world, the Bodhisatvas (wise beings who will become Buddhas in the future) always maintain their loving-kindness as the rich protect their wealth. Even in extreme pain threatening their life, they always pray for the well-being of their enemies, never let the animosity and hatred degrade their love. When love could be developed at such high level, no one can cause suffering to us, and we would be happy in all circumstances (similar to a rural peasant, because of his love, he always sees his poor country the most peaceful and happy place on earth). That is why the wise layman knows that by loving his enemies, not only he can transform them but can also create immediate happiness for himself.

2.  Everything in this world is "impermanent". That is the second truth, which the majority of Buddhists understand. By knowing impermanence is unavoidable, the Buddhist readily accepts any loss occurred to him, with less suffering and less hatred. Because of this truth, the Buddha taught us not so attached to anything in this world, including His true Teaching: "My teaching is like a raft which should be left behind once you reach the other shore". His teaching is the teaching for "liberation", not for "attachment". He never declared "I am the Way, I am the Only One". In contrast, He advised: "Burn your own torch". That’s the reason why Buddhists are not fanatic, knowing all perceivable things in this world are not permanent, seeing all values, right or wrong, good or bad, are only relative, conditional and temporary, and thus, they are easily accommodating, living harmoniously with other schools of thought.

War and dictatorship are usually caused by a man misusing his power to force others to follow his desires. If his desire is prevented, he could easily become angry and could sometimes become cruel, destroying the feebles without hesitation. The Buddhist, understanding the truth of impermanence, knowing that no power can last forever, and by abusing his power, he is preparing for his own suffering in the future. That is not the action of the wise. In addition, even if he can get what he wants, one day it will be lost, and he will suffer anyway. Thus, when seeing his desire may cause suffering to others, the Buddhist easily drops that desire. The wise action is: when we can, we should use our capacity to help others. That is the way to prepare for us a long lasting happiness, a long lasting power, because it does not contain any "destructive seeds".  This explains why religions (with true loves) last longer than any “super power” on this earth.

3. The third truth is the most important truth to completely end personal suffering and the conflict between groups (countries, religions). That is the nature of "Non-self” (insubstantiality) of all things. It means that the so-called "Ego" (the self) is only an illusion, not a real existence. This is hard to believe, to penetrate, because it goes against the phenomenon of "Self" as we see in daily life. It is difficult to believe this fact, as difficult as in the old time, when Galileo declared to the Pope that "the earth revolves around the sun", while everyone perceived that "the sun revolves around the earth" (rising in the east and setting in the west).

However, with perfect Buddhist wisdom, there are two ways to see the so-called "self" as really not a self: a) it is created from and cannot be separated from the "non-self". We would not exist without the existence of "non-self" parts (such as water, sun, etc.); b) it is a collection of 5 components: materiality, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. These 5 components are not created by us, nor unique to us. There is no boundary separating our materiality and the materiality of the universe. That is why although we do not want to be old, our body still degenerates; although we do not want to be sick, our body is still subject to sickness; we do not want to loose our memory, it is still fading with time.

In the absolute meaning of liberation from suffering for each individual, it means that we are not of any thing.  We are external to everything, and that is why we have the ability to see everything. In fact, we should say that: "We see the pain but we are not painful, we see the suffering but we do not suffer", we were never born and thus have nothing to die (not born, not ending). That is the total liberation from the power of wisdom, right in this life, not waiting for the after-death as in other religions. However, it is not easy to get out from the attachment in order to penetrate the wisdom of "Non-self". People always asks "Thus, where are we?" because deep down inside, we always look for some place to hang on, from deep-rooted consciousness of the illusion of the so-called "self". It is similar to a person who has been living for long time on his land, his eyes are used to see the scenery of his country (eye consciousness), his ears are used to hear his country's language (ear consciousness), his tongue is used to his country's food (tongue consciousness),..., his mind is used to think according to the culture and religion of his country (mind consciousness), and thus, it is difficult for him to leave his attached country.  If he happens to go away, he usually has a tendency to come back (rebirth), and thus the attachment keeps on and tighter.

For a practical and easy application to contribute to the world peace, the truth of "Non-Self" means that the discrimination between countries is "ignorant" (not according to the truth) and thus, creates suffering. That discrimination stems from the "selfish" consciousness in human mind as the earth actually does not have any boundary separating territories. Rightly, everyone must be a "Citizen of the world". If we are not criminal, we must have the right to travel anywhere on earth. The United Nations (UN), with agreement of its nation members, must, at least, issue this "world citizenship" to all scientists, businessmen, well-known former country leaders who do not have any racial discrimination, as they have worked for the benefit of humanity. If the UN has a "Supreme Advisory Committee" consisting of those capable and well respected members, the United Nations would gain more power than now.

If the country leaders have this wisdom of "Non-Self", their selfish nationalism would diminish, and they would not abuse their power to suppress other countries. They would love and wish happiness and peace to their neighboring people as if to their own people. It would be easier for them to work together for a common government of the whole humanity, create sufficient power and capacity to restraint the powerful countries, the populous countries who intend to exploit the weaker ones. When the powerful countries cease to be greedy, then the smaller ones cease to be hateful. The costs of war, of maintaining the army, could then be used for other beneficial purposes. Different races will work together to maintain and develop human Wisdom (for less ignorance). The decrease in Greed, Hatred, Ignorance would lead to the elimination of war, starvation, disease, and thus would establish a "Heaven on Earth" for all races. That is the source of happiness which country leaders could establish for future generations, more significant, more lasting, and greater than any type of "hegemony" built on suffering and hatred toward other countries.

In the urgency of the critical situation in the Middle-East, although all parties are devoted faithfully of different religions of love, the true love cannot exist if we are too attached to our "self" (this also holds true in the marriage). In the Diamond Sutra, the Buddha clearly taught that: "A Bodhisatva (the one who has wisdom and love) is not a Bodhisatva if "Non-self" has not been penetrated". In fact, when the self still exists, there is still discrimination, still greed, still conflict, and still difficult in accepting the goodness of others and still easy to abuse the power. If Israel and Palestine understand this principle of "Non-self", it would be easier to throw away their own self, so that they can work together to build a common country, more powerful, more praise worthy, with much brighter future for many generations to come. That is also the re-building of their warm family when they were still brothers from the same father. If this can be realized, the whole world will be joyful, will do the most for the well-being of this “sacred” nation.

On the celebration of the birth of Sakya Muni the Buddha, may humanity remember the priceless teachings of the Enlightened!  May Israel and Palestine live in love!  May the whole world will be truly united in this century!

Homage to our Teacher, Sakya Muni the Buddha.
Your opinions to this article are greatly appreciated.

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