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?”