Good morning!
We are having rainy season like days recently. So, we have abundant lush greenery
and beautiful flowers. A recent “Meet the Legend” program on TV Japan featured a
biologist who became an environmentalist, heading an organization. He said,
“Animals struggle for survival, even killing others. Humans are exceptional among
living beings in that they change the natural world. Human actions cause natural
world reactions. Then, humans react. Thus, environmental problems arise. We must
solve this spiral problem.”
Humans have developed their heads and hands, sciences and technologies, changing
the world to the sixth mass extinction with global warming, nuclear disaster, etc.
These problems arise from human karmas driven by the triple poisons of craving,
hatred, and delusion, which have originated from karmas. The artificial pyramidal
civilization craving for matter and power, bought by money, must be changed to the
natural cyclical culture of cultivating mind and life, brought by awakening in nirvana,
windless of karma conditioning.
Recently in our class we came across this verse in the Dhammapada, on the
fragrance of morality:
Sandal, tagara, lotus, or even jasmine, of these kinds
of fragrance, the fragrance of morality is the highest.
The Dhammapada, 55
The fragrance of morality is penetrating and permanent, beyond space and time,
transcending karmas and conventions in the karma world. Sitting and stilling
karmas embrace morality – no killing, stealing, lying, etc.
The triple learning of sīla (morality), samādhi (concentration), and paññā
(prognosis) is the countermeasure for the triple poisons, stilling bad karmas in
nirvana and awakening. The four holy truths tell us the truth or reality of suffering,
origin (craving), cessation (nirvana), and path. The eightfold holy path is the concrete
way of attaining nirvana – stilling karmas coming from craving, thus stopping
suffering – and awakening (bodhi, paññā ). The true treasure is the Buddha
(Awakened), Dharma (Norm), and Sangha (Community), not me-ism, materialism,
militarism, money-ism.
5/10/15
