Category Archives: Buddhism

How long must we sing this song?

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Tetsunori Koizumi, Director

On Sunday, May 8, 2022, a subway station in Kyiv, Ukraine, became the venue for performance for Bono and The Edge, two aging members of Irish rock group U2. One of the songs they sang was “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” which was included in their album titled War, released in 1983. The song, which begins with the line, “I can’t believe the news today,” expresses the sense of horror the members of U2 felt about the bloody incident that took place in Derry, Northern Ireland, on Sunday, January 30, 1972, when British solders shot and killed unarmed civilians who were marching in protest against internment without trial.

Singing “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2022 serves as a poignant reminder not just to Bono and The Edge but also to all of us that similar bloody incidents are still taking place in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world today, fifty years later since that bloody incident in Derry, Northern Ireland. We can sense the pain and frustration of these Irish artists, knowing that that they are still singing, “How long, how long must we sing this song?” which is the third line of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” It is the sad reality of the world that the kind of violent incident that took place on Sunday, January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland, now takes place not just on Sundays but on any day of the week somewhere in the world.

During one week of this July, in 2022, the world was shocked by two violent incidents that took place in the US and Japan. On Monday, July 4, a lone gunman killed seven people and injured 47 others when he opened fire at the Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. Needless to say, the Fourth of July is a festive occasion for Americans as they celebrate their Day of Independence with parades on city streets and picnics on municipal parks. That festive mood was abruptly broken by the violent act of this lone gunman. On Friday, July 8, another violent shooting by a lone gunman took place—this time in Japan—when Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister, was shot to death at one of his election campaign stops in Nara. What is shocking about this incident to the Japanese as well as to the people around the world is that it took place in a country where the gun ownership is strictly controlled. As a matter of fact, the lone gunman who committed this violent act used one of his self-made guns, for he was able to collect enough information on the Internet to make his own guns.

Where does the human impulse towards these violent acts come from? In Buddhism, greed, hatred, and delusion are often cited as the root causes of violent acts and misconducts. For example, this is how the Buddha instructs his lay followers: “Kalamas, a person who is greedy, hating, and deluded, overpowered by greed, hatred, and delusion, his thoughts controlled by them, will destroy life, take what is not his, engage in sexual misconduct, and tell lies; he will also prompt others to do likewise.” (Anguttara Nikaya, III.65) Unwholesome actions of greed, hatred, and delusion—known together as the Three Poisons (kilesa)—appear often in the Buddha’s talks to his lay followers. As another example, consider the following statement by the Buddha: “Greed, hatred, and delusion of every kind are unwholesome. Whatever action a greedy, hating, and deluded person heaps up—by deeds, words, or thoughts—that too is unwholesome.” (Anguttara Nikaya, III.69) The Buddha makes explicit here that unwholesome actions of greed, hatred, and delusion are committed by deeds, words, or thoughts.

There is no question about the harm done to others when unwholesome actions take the form of bodily deeds. However, as the Buddha makes it clear, unwholesome actions of greed, hatred, and delusion also stem from words or thoughts. Indeed, considering how an unwholesome thought hatched in the mind can lead to bodily assaults or verbal attacks, we need to pay special attention to delusion as the root cause of all unwholesome actions, as the Buddha describes the danger of a deluded person as follows: “Whatever deed a deluded person performs by body, speech, and mind is also unwholesome. When a deluded person inflicts suffering upon another under a false pretext—by killing, imprisonment, confiscation, censure, or banishment—thinking, ‘I am powerful, or I want power,’ that too is unwholesome.” (Anuguttara Nikaya III.111) What is disheartening about the Buddha’s message here is that his warning about the danger of a deluded person with power is as relevant to the world today as it was to the world in his day.

How do we live in the world full of unwholesome actions of greed, hatred, and delusion? The Buddha’s advice to us is quite simple yet very clear: “Of such a one, pacified, released by proper understanding, calm is the mind, calm his speech and act.” (The Dhammapada, 96) What the Buddha is telling us is that we need to develop proper understanding of the way we tend to be overpowered by greed, hatred, and delusion by fostering wholesome actions of our body, speech, and mind. Only when we—and the people around us—develop such understanding, Sunday becomes, as it should, the day of rest and relaxation for all of us. Otherwise, U2 will have to keep singing: “How long, how long must we sing this song?”

Two Asymmetries in the Three Marks of Existence

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Tetsunori Koizumi, Director

Usually translated as “Three Marks of Existence”, the Buddha’s teaching on kilesa appears in a number of suttas. In Samyutta Nikaya, for example, it appears in SN22 and SN 35. In Anguttara Nikaya, we can find the most succinct yet clearest teaching on kilesa summarized in the following words of the Buddha: “Bhikkus, whether Tathagatas arise or not, there persists that law, that stableness of the Dhamma, that fixed course of the Dhamma. (1) Sabbe sankhara anicca (All conditioned things are impermanent). (2) Sabbe sankhara dukkha (All conditioned things are suffering). (3) Sabbe dhamma anatta (All phenomena are non-self).” (Anguttara Nikaya, III.136)

Though the Buddha often discourages this, a critical reader with scholastic bent will easily notice two asymmetries by examining the words used in these three statements. The first asymmetry has to do with what the three marks refer to. While “impermanence” and “non-self” refer to the true nature of reality, or “how things really are”, in the Buddha’s philosophical vision of the universe, “suffering” does not. Doesn’t “suffering” rather refer to the state of mind regarding how we respond to “impermanence” and “non-self”? If that is the case, why does the Buddha include “suffering” as one of the three marks of existence? The second asymmetry has to do with the use of the word “dhamma” in the third statement. Why does the Buddha use “dhamma” here, not “sankhara” as he does in the first two statements?

As for the first asymmetry, Thich Nhat Hanh goes as far as stating that putting “suffering” on the same level as “impermanence” and “non-self” is an error: “To put suffering on the same level as impermanence and non-self is an error. Impermanence and non-self are ‘universal’. They are a ‘mark’ of all things. Suffering is not.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, 1998, p.21) What Thich Nhat Hanh means is that “suffering”, as the word referring to the way we respond to “impermanence” and “non-self”, is not a “mark”, or a “characteristic feature”, of all things that exist in the world around us. Indeed, it takes the authority of somebody like Thich Nhat Hanh, widely admired by his disciples and lay followers alike for his accessible expositions of the Buddha’s teachings based on the solid scholarship of the Buddhist canons, to declare that the Buddha’s second statement is an error.

While it may not be a mark of all things, there is no question about the importance of “suffering” in the Buddha’s teachings. We may recall the Buddha’s First Sermon in which he teaches “suffering” as the First Noble Truth and tanha, whose original meaning is “thirst” but is usually translated as “craving”, as the Second Noble Truth. What is “craving”, then? Is it not one of those mental formations we develop in our minds? If so, “craving”, too, is subject to “impermanence”. As a matter of fact, the Buddha talks about the “impermanence” of every one of the Five Aggregates in another sutta: “Bhikkhus, form is impermanent, feeling is impermanent, perception is impermanent, mental formations are impermanent, consciousness is impermanent.” (Samyutta Nikaya 22.12) Later on in the same sutta, the Buddha provides us a hint to remedy the asymmetry: “Bhikkhus, form (feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness) is impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering.” (Samyutta Nikaya, 22:15) When we connect up these lines, we can see that what the Buddha is telling us is: “All conditioned things are impermanent,” and “What is impermanent is suffering.” It follows, therefore, that “All conditioned things are suffering.”

What about the second asymmetry regarding the use of “dhamma” (dharma in Sanskrit) in the third statement instead of “sankhara” used in the first two statements? Zen Master Sheng Yen provides us this answer: “Dharmas include all phenomena, whether physiological, psychological, social, internal, or external.” (Master Sheng Yen, Zen Wisdom: Conversations on Buddhism, 2001, p.34) While the word sankhara, as the composite of san (derived from sam “together”) and khara (“to make”), refers to all composite entities, or formations, the word dhamma applies to all phenomena, including such a key concept in the Buddha’s teachings about paticca-samuppanna dhamma (dependently arisen phenomena). If so, it is not difficult to see why the Buddha uses the word “dhamma” in the third statement.

With our questions about the two asymmetries in the Three Marks of Existence satisfactorily answered, what is left for us to do now is to get down to our business, that is to say, our practice. And The Dhammapada does include the Buddha’s words about the importance of the Three Marks of Existence as “practice”, or “path”: “When through wisdom one perceives, ‘All sankharas are impermanent,’ then one is detached as to misery. This is the path of purity.” “When through wisdom one perceives, ‘All sankharas are suffering,’ then one is detached as to misery. This is the path of purity.” “When through wisdom one perceives, ‘All dhammas are non-self,’ then one is detached as to misery. This is the path of purity.” (The Dhammapada, 277, 278, 279)