Knowing that we have this great
potential, we naturally aspire to freedom. But freedom comes
with responsibilities. Many people in the West are very proud
to say: We live in a free world, we are free! whereas in fact
- from my point of view - they are not. It is true that they
are given permission to think, speak and act as they wish, but
when such freedom is not supported by wisdom, human beings can
behave worse than animals. Although human beings are unique
and intelligent, when they lack wisdom, they often misuse
their so-called freedom for the wrong purpose. They abuse
their mind, their speech and their capacity to act. For me,
giving such so-called freedom to people who don't have the
right knowledge and the right training is like giving sharp
knives to children. What can a child do with a sharp knife? He
will either hurt himself or hurt others. According to my view,
such freedom doesn't really mean too much. You are legally
empowered to be free, but within yourself, you are not freeat
all!
Most people want to be
free but don't want to take responsibilities. But freedom is
inseparable from responsibility! If I have the freedom to
think, it is my responsibility to think positively. If I have
the freedom to speak, it is my responsibility to speak
properly and meaningfully. If I have the freedom to act, it is
myresponsibility to act correctly. Nobody else can take that
decision for me. If every human being could feel responsible
in that way, the world would be a better place. But most of us
do not take any responsibility for what we say, think and do.
We always find excuses for ourselves and put the blame on
others or on circumstances. It is of course easier to blame
others but, according to the Buddha's teachings, this will not
work, we are at least as responsible as the person we
blame.
In Buddhism, we talk about karma. Some
people do not want to hear that word and say they do not
believe in karma. But instead of calling it karma, we can just
call it cause and effect and the meaning becomes very simple.
If I punch somebody, he will punch me back. If I say bad
things about other people, they will say bad things about me.
Everything we think, everything we say, everything we do, has
consequences. It means we know that whatever we do will
produce effects that we will experience. It is like
cultivating a field. If we plant pure seeds, we will have a
pure crop, but if we sow weeds, we will produce weeds, not a
pure crop. We can only clean a field by going into it and
picking up the weeds one by one. We can only weed out our mind
by meditating and facing our negative emotions, no matterhow
painful the process may be.
When I look at what is happening these
days throughout the world, I wonder how people can ever trust
and believe someone else when they don't even trust
themselves, when they don't even know what's going on in their
own minds? They don't know themselves well enough. Many people
who are mentally not doing very well only talk about their
problems and pains, but the minute they get proper help and
feel better, they are afraid. Even when they could experience
some happiness, theyreject it because they think they do not
deserve it. Their ego pushes them in the wrong direction. If
one really thinks one doesn't deserve happiness, why then
worry so much about what happens, why complain and why not
allow oneself some happiness? Some people are completely
wrapped up in pain and suffering, but actually they don't want
to let go of that pain. They identify with the suffering. Most
people are afraid of introspection because they feel they have
so much unwanted information in their heads, so much
unhappiness, that they don't want to deal with it.
In this way, people project everything
onto others and never accept anything as their own
responsibility. They always find ways and means to put the
blame on everybody else. But practising Buddhism means taking
responsibility for ourselves, which means we cannot blame
someone else. And if we follow the Buddhist path for a while,
we may come to see that there isn't even any me in the first
place to experience such a pain. We solidify the I, and this I
then comes with pleasure and pain. How can we blame others if
there is no me? It is me, this big ego, who's making
judgements. Other people
are like mirrors. If we have no mirror,
how can we see our reflection? We cannot put the blame on
others or on circumstances and take no responsibility for
ourselves. This is very easy to understand and it helps us to
see the necessity of practice and meditation, of learning to
think, speak and act positively and meaningfully, of
developing our potential properly. Otherwise we become a crazy
and harmful race.
Looking back in history, Buddha, Christ
and all thegreat teachers recognised their potential and used
it. They took full responsibility in perfecting their
potential and now, 2500 years later, we are still benefiting
from their taking this responsibility. Other human beings had
exactly the same potential but used it the wrong way. It has
recently caused two World Wars, cost millions of lives and
brought misery to many more. We can clearly see the
difference. The former brought benefit, happiness and
everlasting knowledge to their fellow human beings. The
latter, misguided, ignorant and lacking wisdom, used their
potential to destroy life and we don't even want to remember
their names. In order to take full responsibility for our
actions, our speech and our thoughts, it is essential to see
that it's time for all of us to tame and train our body,
speech and mind. |