Recently, someone submitted a Dharma question for me to address: “I wonder what Buddha would say to us about the crises facing humanity, particularly the suffering of our own making?” I can’t know, but I dare to put some words in the Buddha’s mouth and then present follow-up questions.
Quicklinks to Article Content:
Confronting the Buddha about the Suffering in the World
What About Things That Are Unequivocally Wrong?
How Can We Relieve Collective Suffering?
Asking “What Should I Do about Collective Suffering?”
What Buddha would say to us about the crises facing humanity, particularly the suffering of our own making? In this episode I offer answers to that question which I hope will be helpful, or at least thought-provoking. Of course, I don’t know what the Buddha would say to us, if he somehow were able to be present in our time, but to make this discussion interesting, I’m going to dare to put some words in his mouth and then present follow-up questions. By doing this I don’t mean to suggest that the Buddha was a perfect and omniscient being who was always right, or that he was some ultimate authority to whom we should seek the solutions to all our problems. However, for the sake of this exploration, let’s think of the Buddha as an ideal human being – very wise, compassionate, and awakened. I’ve given the Buddha’s words a Zen flavor that those from the historical Buddha are unlikely to have had, but as a Zen teacher it’s difficult for me not to do so. Please take this as Zen-influenced Dharma exercise and not as a claim about how the historical Buddha might have expressed himself.
Confronting the Buddha about the Suffering in the World
So, imagine there are a group of us listening to the Buddha teach the Dharma. Almost everyone is nodding appreciatively. One person, though, seems troubled. At some point they seem to be able to hold back no more, and they raise their hand and say:
“Thanks for your teachings, Buddha. They are very helpful for relieving my suffering. But what about the state of the world? What about the immeasurable suffering, cruel exploitation, and senseless destruction occurring right now, caused by human beings? What teachings do you have to offer on addressing such things?”
The Buddha looks patiently, respectfully, and compassionately at the questioner. The Buddha can see the person’s sincerity and concern. After a few moments, he addresses the questioner by name and says:
“Your question arises from compassion for the world, and this is a good thing. However, let us examine more closely what you are asking. ‘What about the state of the world’ has many questions within it, including:
- Can you explain clearly, such that we can understand, once and for all, how everything got this way?
- Can you give us the understanding that will allow us to anticipate what’s coming and protect ourselves against it?
- Can you show us how to calculate exactly how much culpability we bear as individuals for the current state of the world, and what we need to do to relieve ourselves of that burden?
- Can you tell us what humanity should do to fix our situation and achieve peace on earth – so at least we can hold the correct and righteous opinion about what should be done, even if we don’t have much hope that things will actually be fixed?
“Such questions naturally arise, but what makes you think the answers to such questions exist? Does anything in your experience of life lead you to believe infinitely complex problems have definitive, graspable, right answers that you can rely on indefinitely? Longing for answers to unanswerable questions is a cause for the arising of dukkha – stress, dissatisfaction, and suffering.
“You may think that longing for definitive, graspable, right answers that you can rely on indefinitely is something you can do nothing about. You may think this is a human condition you must simply accept. However, a true practitioner of the Buddha way comes to realize that it is possible to live without attachment to such certainty.”
What About Things That Are Unequivocally Wrong?
The questioner listens carefully and respectfully but does not seem satisfied. They seem reluctant to challenge the Buddha but whatever is moving within their heart will not allow them to remain silent. They respond:
“I see, Buddha, how non-attachment to reliable answers can relieve my own suffering. However, my compassion for living beings moves me to disregard the state of my own body, mind, and heart for the sake of others and what is right. I can’t in good conscience settle into peace of mind while in our world there persists wars, violence, starvation, exploitation, oppression, racism, injustice, ecological destruction, and so many other things caused by human greed, hate, and delusion. When you counsel us to be unattached to certainty, are you saying we should cease identifying certain things as unequivocally wrong?”
With patient kindness, the Buddha responds:
“Why would you draw such conclusions from my teachings? Have I not laid out for you the Eightfold Path? From the beginning I have emphasized that the path of practice is based on a constant refinement of Right Discernment – the ability to see what actions of body, speech, and mind lead to suffering, and which lead to liberation. I have taught that anyone who wishes to have peace of mind must conduct themselves impeccably through Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. Killing, stealing, the misuse of human relationships, lying, and dealing in intoxicants are actions incompatible the path. A practitioner should diligently strive for clarity about all things through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Meditation.
“Surely it is clear that the path to a Buddha’s wisdom, liberation, and compassion is incompatible with actions based in greed, hate, and delusion, and that therefore it is necessary for a practitioner to be able to identify right and wrong in each moment of decision that presents itself to them.”
How Can We Relieve Collective Suffering?
The questioner’s brows are now furrowed as they absorb the Buddha’s response. After a few moments, they say:
“Indeed, Buddha, the path of practice you have laid out is one that leads to morality, compassion, and non-harming for those who embrace it and practice it diligently. However, even most of us who aspire to practice are imperfect in our manifestation, and much of humanity carries no such aspiration. This leaves us in a sea of suffering.
“As we cultivate Right View and seek to relieve suffering, should we not ask, ‘What principles are operating in the world that will allow us to relieve collective suffering and counteract the forces of greed, hate, and delusion at a scale beyond that of our personal lives? In what ways are we as individuals contributing to the suffering in the world, and how can we stop doing so? How can we improve the state of our world?’ Are these not important questions for the Buddhist practitioner to contemplate? Does the Buddha not have edifying words to offer on them?”
By the end of their statement, the questioner is speaking quite passionately.
The Buddha takes several deep breaths and responds calmly, looking deeply into the eyes of the questioner:
“A moral and compassionate person rightly asks, ‘How can we decrease the suffering of humanity as a whole?’ Such a question is similar to a parent asking, ‘How can I raise a happy, responsible child?’ Or to a farmer trying to figure out how to maximize their crop yields, or to a leader finding the best way to influence the people they are responsible for. Do you expect the Buddha to offer practical advice on all such matters?
“The Buddhist path has one purpose: The production of liberated individuals. Individuals can be liberated from stress and suffering, and from greed, hate, and delusion. Liberated people are better able to make wise decisions and work for the well-being of others.
“Moment by moment, the liberated person asks and answers one question, and one question only: What should I do? You cannot influence anything except through the choices you make. There may come a time when you choose to contemplate how to decrease the suffering of humanity as whole – when that activity seems like the most beneficial thing to be doing. However, it is possible to get lost in rumination about abstractions and miss the opportunities right in front of you. A parent may often ponder how best to raise a happy, responsible child, but it is more important that they are mindful and careful when they interact with that child.
“It is like the parable I have offered about the arrow. A man is shot with a poisoned arrow but refuses medical attention until he is told the caste of the man who shot him; the name of the man; whether the man was tall, medium, or short; the man’s home village, town, or city; whether the bow used was a long bow or a crossbow; whether the bowstring was fiber, sinew, hemp, or bark, and whole host of other details about the bow and the arrow.[i] The man would die before he got the answers to all of these questions.
“Similarly, we may neglect to practice or take appropriate actions until we arrive at satisfactory answers to unanswerable questions. This is regrettable. Rather than worrying so much about what you think, ask yourself, ‘What am I doing?’ After all, how much has the world benefitted from your righteous views alone?”
Asking “What Should I Do about Collective Suffering?”
Our questioner now looks a little desperate, like they need a few weeks to get their mind around the Buddha’s responses. However, they have one more concern they need to get off their chest:
“Thank you for your teaching, Buddha, I will take time to contemplate it. I understand that the sphere of my influence is limited to the choices I make, moment by moment. However, if I focus only on what I can do as an individual, it seems like I am denying any responsibility to address atrocities being committed in places far away from me, or systemic problems like racism, violence against women, poverty, global exploitation, the climate and ecological crisis. It seems like I am adopting a view that I am more or less powerless when it comes to anything beyond my direct relationships and my choices as a consumer and voter. This feels conveniently comfortable for me as an individual and makes me despair for the future of humanity. If no one takes responsibility for humanity’s collective problems, what hope is there for us?”
At this, the Buddha smiled broadly and said:
“When you hear me tell you to ask, ‘What should I do?’ you make many assumptions about the nature of this ‘I.’ You imagine it bounded by your skin, or by all that you consider ‘yours,’ or by what you can perceive in your immediate environment, or by the time span of your lifetime. You imagine the moment-by-moment choices navigated by this ‘I’ are constrained by the limits of your five senses. You imagine those choices will be determined merely by the flow of karma unless you are clinging to a righteous view.
“Have I not taught that your unexamined view of self is based on delusion? It is your own limited mind which draws an arbitrary boundary at your skin, or around all that is ‘yours,’ or around the duration of your lifetime. It is your own limited understanding which causes you to think moment-by-moment choices are small things with a tiny sphere of influence. It is your own lack of intimacy with the workings of your mind which causes you to imagine the only way to avoid being impelled by karma is to construct and cling to elaborate views of right and wrong.
“In Reality, you are a temporary manifestation arising because of karma, behavioral cause-and-effect. You generate karma and leave an inheritance of karma. The original source of greed, hate, and delusion – the three poisons at the root of all suffering – cannot be found. The flow of karma is not limited to your human body or to one lifetime or to your conscious choices. However, you have the opportunity to change that flow at critical points in the process by challenging your own ignorance, by learning to allow attraction and aversion to arise without having to manifest them in grasping and rejection, and by learning to recognize and do what leads to ease and happiness versus what leads to stress and suffering.
“When we answer for ourselves, moment after moment, What should I do? our decisions are based in an ever-expanding awareness of the true nature of Reality. Of interdependence. Of the fact that we are not separate from one another, from nature, from the universe. Of the ways we constrain our own understanding and responses because of fear. When you truly open up to Right View, you will cease to make distinctions between self and other, near and far.”
Endnote
[i] “Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta: The Shorter Instructions to Malunkya” (MN 63), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.063.than.html.
