A Personal Encounter with the Great Buddhist Traditions
Peter Baekelmans
Fr. Peter Baekelmans, CICM, was born in 1960 in Brasschaat (Belgium). After
studying Comparative Religion (Lugano) and Catholic Theology (Leuven) in Europe,
he left as missionary for Japan in 1990. Strongly committed to interreligious
dialogue, he studied Buddhism at the University of Koyasan and made a doctorate
in Theology of Religion at Nanzan University (Nagoya). He is at present
parishpriest in Tokyo and is visiting professor inside and outside Japan.
At the age of twenty-one I had a dream. I found myself to be present at an African ritual. White and black people participated in it. All were descending a hill in long rows carrying their offerings to a big fire in the valley. Helped by someone else, I also carried a basket full of what I thought to be potatoes. But as we went down to the fireplace, I observed the basket of the people in front of me and started to realize that these potatoes where in fact human skulls of black children smothered with dried blood and sand. At the very moment that I realized which kind of offering I was bringing, I withdrew my hand from the basket and ran away. Yet standing at a distance from this disgusting happening and looking at it, I saw how everything went further on and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
When I awoke from this dream my eyes were full of tears. The sorrow and the pain I felt did not leave me until my Jewish master Henri van Praag explained to me two days later that the dream was an experience of worldly karma. Worldly karma is the pain and suffering which a given group of people -in this case the colonizing West- causes to another group of people -in this case the peoples of Africa. This shocking dream introduced me unexpectedly into the world of Buddhist philosophy. It confronted me with ideas such as universal suffering, karma, meditation and enlightenment. In this way I got fascinated by the life and the teachings of the Buddha himself.
a leaf of the Bodhi-tree
Life and teachings of the Enlightened One
The Buddha (5th century before Christ) is known today as the Enlightened One. Yet at the age of twenty-nine he was an ordinary human being like each of us; he was rather rich, though. According to the legends he was living in a huge palace with his wife and one child, a boy. They also tell us that his father went some day to a fortune-teller who told him that his son would become a great king if he stayed in the palace; however, if he left the palace, be it only for one moment, he would become a great saint. The fatal day came indeed, when prince Shakyamuni (the Buddha's real name) ordered a chariot driver to take him along on a tour of the city. What was meant to be a pleasant trip turned into a heartbreaking experience. The king first saw an old person, he then spotted a sick man, and finally a corpse. From that moment on he realized that life is full of suffering. Yet deep down in his heart he knew that there must be a way out of suffering, or at least a way to overcome the feeling of suffering which goes with old age, illness and the awareness that one will die some day. He wanted to find an answer to his own and others' mental and physical suffering - this is in fact what the whole story is about-, and to save himself and others from more suffering. He therefore silently parted from wife and child the same night, and joined a group of ascetics in the woods.
The ascetics were living in extreme poverty. As a matter of fact, they were oonvinced that fasting to death would bring eternal bliss and happiness at the moment of death. Shakyamuni believed this, went to the limit, and passed out. Fortunately, a peasant girl found him and poured some milk into his mouth. He recovered soon and realized the stupidity of such harsh ascetic practice. He left the ascetics and chose to lead a sober life avoiding extreme wealth and extreme poverty. He begged for a living, and was satisfied with what the people would give him, without asking for more. Later on, he will call this way of life the Middle Way.
Sitting under a peepul tree, Shakyamuni received enlightenment (bodhi) at the age of thirty-five through a meditative process of discernment ( buddhi). He thus became Buddha which literally means The Awakened One. This same story also explains why the peepul tree was later on called bodhi tree. From this place, now called Bodhgaya, he went to Benares, the holy city of India, and preached for the first time The Four Noble Truths in the deer park of Sarnath. This teaching is about human suffering and it is addressed to five of the ascetics he lived with in the woods. I visited the place which now attracts many pilgrims and I sat under many similar bodhi trees in the surrounding villages. Dressed in a dothi(Indian loincloth) I stood there in Sarnath, in the company of the statues of the five ascetics listening as it were to the first sermon of the Buddha. On my way to Japan where I was sent as a missionary, I again visited India. My twinsister and myself assisted for some time the sisters of Mother Teresa in their work for the poor in Calcutta. As a token of my relationship with India, its great teachings and sufferings, I brought a small bodhi tree from the slums of Calcutta to Japan. Shoots of this symbol have now found a beautiful place in a Zen temple near Okayama and in a Shingon temple near Nara. The Japanese Buddhist monks of these temples - we became good friends - are very happy with them, and so am I. Let us now explore the deeper meaning of the bodhi tree.
All life is suffering
Sitting under the bodhi tree the Buddha became more and more aware of the fact that all life is suffering (dukkha). The things we long for we do not receive, but we get what we did not ask for. We live with the beings we hate and we are separated from those whom we love. We are crying at our birth and we are still crying when we die. In face of illness and old age, we desperately search for a cure. Life seems to be one great experience of sorrow, sadness, grief, and pain.
This truth revealed by the Buddha seems at first sight nothing more than a platitude. Yet it is a profound religious insight. As a matter of fact, it is the most important truth of the Four Noble Truths. It summarizes all four of them. My dream taught me how to understand this. Parapsychologists call these dreams 'clear dreams'. One can view them as more real than reality itself. Whoever has experienced such a dream can no longer say that dreams are a lie (a very common belief in the West), nor deny that suffering does exist. The Buddha himself once said that man could not stand even for one second the experience of the suffering of the whole world. I truly believe this!
In Buddhism the first holy truth is linked to the teaching of 'impermanence' (aniccam). Things come into being and cease to exist, and all this happens beyond our will. Admiring a beautiful sunset, I often dreamt for a while that I could stop the time and enjoy the wonderful view for ever. Yet we all know that this is not real life. This awareness makes us sad. We have to lose friends, to grow old, to allow our children to get married and to leave home, and their children in their turn will do the same, and so on. All this may seem quite natural. Yet if it is all that natural why do we suffer so much from it? Is there no way out of this suffering?
The origin of suffering
The second truth affirms that there is an origin to our suffering. At the origin of Karmic suffering we find our desires, our attachments, our undisciplined thinking, and our impatience - in short, our egoistic lifestyle. People think, for instance, that affluence automatically means happiness. They fail to 'see' that being rich, one needs to worry about staying rich. One must defend oneself and one's property against thieves, etc. These same people also fail to 'see' that one usually acquires wealth by causing suffering to others. According to karma-theory this suffering caused to others will find its way back to the one who caused it in the same way as a calf always finds its mother back in a large herd of cows.
Buddhism calls the suffering we experience because of our own immoral and indiscriminate acts Karma. Until now I have not come across the word 'worldly Karma' in my Buddhist studies. However, I for myself believe that there must be something like it - Christian liberation theology calls it 'structural evil' - and that it can be related to the collective unconscious (Jung) of a given group of people. Looking at my own dream, I note however that not only white people were bringing the human sacrifices... The dream also taught me that justice will find its way, even when wrongdoings are not brought to justice. This is in line with the moral lesson of Buddhism.
In Christianity we are used to associate the reality of 'sin' with suffering. Of course, not all suffering is sin, neither is karma. One can consider sin a suffering for which one is consciously responsible, whereas karma is a suffering for which one is responsible but without being aware of it. Tragedy is the opposite of sin, and the opposite of karma is the suffering of the cross. The cross is the only suffering for which one is consciously not responsible. The stories of Jesus and Job exemplify this type of suffering. Christians are invited to take up their cross whereas Buddhists seek to become aware of their karma and to free themselves from it. A person who is not aware of the difference between the two might think she is taking up her cross, yet she is only acting out her karma. In this article the term suffering is always used in the Hindu-Buddhist context of karmic suffering.
unconscious conscious
responsible karma sin
not responsible tragedy cross
The aim of the teaching of the non-existence of a self(anatta) by the Buddha is to break out of the egoistic lifestyle. I have to become a greater person than 'poor little me'. I should enlarge my consciousness of my bodily existence and feel one with the world outside me. I therefore have to become "void" (sunyata) and let the world fill me. It is because people do notunderstand their real needs and longings that they seek and desire the wrong things. This causes suffering to others which returns to those who caused it in the form of karma because "everything is connected with everythings" (Pratitya samutpada). There are many forms of egoism and it is our task to discover them, even in the ways in which we express our faith. Hence the reaction of the Buddha against the idea of atman (self) in Brahmanism. He worked out the concept of anatman (anatta in Pali), not because the idea of atman was wrong, but because the Brahmanic priests were convinced that they were the only ones who 'owned' the correct expression of it.
There is a way out of suffering
Karma is the origin of ever new suffering and of rebirth. Life is suffering, and we have to live as long as we have Karma. The third noble truth, however, holds that there is a way out of suffering, without further specifying how one can get out of it. This will be done in the fourth truth. One should however not underestimate this faith (sraddha) in the possibility to overcome Karmic suffering. It is, as a matter of fact, essential to spiritual life. It is also linked to another important idea: nirvana. When the Buddha found enlightenment under the bodhi tree, he entered into nirvana which is a state of bliss. Nirvana literally means 'extinction' and points at the annihilation of Karma, desires, attachments, ego. Even the desire to die or to live on is dissolved in nirvana. The Buddha lived and worked in this state of bliss for 45 years, until he entered paranirvana, a state of no-rebirth.
Buddhism lives by the idea that everyone can become a Buddha and enter nirvana. For a Christian it is essential to believe in the coming of the Kingdom of God and to make every effort to hasten it. A Buddhist monk will likewise renounce all worldly desires in order to enter nirvana. In Zen Buddhism one is even urged to forsake this last desire of entering nirvana through Self-Power Practice (jiriki) , in order to receive this sublime grace through Other-Power Attitude (tariki).
The Middle Way
The fourth noble truth shows us the way out of suffering (dukkha) and into joy (sukha) by means of the Middle Way, also called the Eightfold Path. We run into extremes because we are not aware of the origin of our suffering. We should therefore start by avoiding extremes of poor-rich, happiness-sadness, hate-love, and so on. One must try to walk in the middle and to meditate on the cause of one's suffering. Just look at the statue of the Buddha. The face shows a serenity which is beyond both laughter and sadness. Meditation is an exercise in finding first of all an equilibrium of mind and body which will eventually grow into a balanced lifestyle. Through meditation we also stimulate our power of discernment(buddhi) which helps us to distinguish right from wrong and good from evil, and to act accordingly. The insight acquired fhrough meditation thus called wisdom(prajna) in Buddhism.
A person who, through meditation, is able at a given moment to discern what is right and what is wrong becomes aware of his karma, and gets instantly rid of it. It is as if it were forgiven at that very moment. Meditation is therefore called the burning of karma. It thus offers a way out of karma. A person who is aware of his karma but goes on to do the same wrong things is committing sin. A child is not punished in the same way as an adult for the same offense! Going back to my dream which revealed to me the immense suffering of my African brothers and sisters caused by my Western lifestyle, I now realize that it was the result of a 'meditation' on the theory of Marx on impoverishment in the world. In my dream I left the offering for what it was. I no longer took part in the ritual. In the end I awoke not only from my sleep but also to a particular truth of injustice. Awakened to this truth, Icould no longer in all innocence drink coffee or eat bananas produced by exploited and oppressed people in poor countries. I had to do something! Exclusively consuming goods produced by cooperatives who treat their workers well was not enough. I choose to become a missionary, to adopt a simple lifestyle, and to be - with my confreres - at the service of the poor. I was sent to Japan where I don't have to face extreme cases of poverty. I nevertheless try to be faithful to my vow. I also.know that I cannot stop this kind of worldly Karma and that I will always be to some extent a sinner.
It is very unlikely that the Buddha was in bed when he got fully enlightened. He was most probably sitting in a lotus position under the bodhi tree. There are also pictures of him sitting as the 'Thinker' of Rodin. As a matter of fact, meditation can be done in any position as long as one respects what is essential: to make every effort to discern what one really needs, really loves, really wants to do in life, really believes in. To avoid the creation of new karma we have to use our power of discernment and keep right views, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. This is what the Eightfold Path is all about. In its simple form one can call it the Middle Path: avoiding extremes and trying to find unity. "Separation leads to suffering but unification leads to joy", the Buddha said. The Middle Way therefore gives joy at the beginning, it gives joy in the middle and joy in the end. This is the joyful message of Buddhism.
Different forms Of Buddhism
In the first section of this article I presented the essential teachings of the Buddha. This made us discover the Middle Way which avoids the creation of new karma. We also saw that meditation annihilates the existing karma and leads us into great enlightenment and nirvana. After the death of the Buddha different teachings on nirvana developed. Is it a personal matter and can it only be reached through personal effort without loving deeds of compassion? Or are the latter important? These questions were answered in different ways. In this second section I will try to describe the attitudes of different forms of Buddhism to the above mentioned questions and the reality they refer to. I will limit myself to the following great traditions: Early Buddhism, Buddhism of the Great Vehicle, and Esoteric Buddhism. The best way to encounter these traditions is to view them as three disciples of the Buddha. I will therefore present three of his most 'famous disciples' who can be considered eminent representatives of these traditions thus linking them to the Buddha himself. I will also refer to my personal encounter with these three 'worlds' of Buddhism. This may help the reader to discover the specific religious feelings of the followers of each tradition.
Early Buddhism
The first disciple of the Buddha who was famous for his wisdom is Sariputra. The search for wisdom is at the center of Early Buddhism (Theravada Buddhism). Knowledge (vidya) makes an end to suffering caused by wrong understanding (avidya). Early Buddhism is the religion of monks who take vows and strive for personal liberation through personal effort. Out of respect for their eminent predecessor they call themselves arhat - and not Buddha - when they become enlightened. I believe one can say that their lifestyle was very close to the one which is nowadays common in Zen Buddhism, although - strictly speaking - Zen Buddhism originated in the Great Vehicle (Mahayana Buddhism).
When the Buddha received enlightenment he sat in the lotus position under the bodhi tree. Zen monks call this way of meditation zazen which literally means sitting-meditation. Zazen is a daily exercise for them. It usually lasts several hours, at times even the whole night. I regularly take part in zazen in a temple near Okayama. In this way I experience the 'suffering' they endure to overcome suffering. During summer time we are sitting for many hours in the humid heat. Mosquitoes try to get us out of our posture while our backs are streaming with sweat. Winter is hard too. Parts of our bodies are freezing and this makes us think only of the cold. Not exactly the 'refreshing' experience one would spontaneously look for. Yet, through these exercises, combined with the work in the Zen garden and the recitation of sutras in early morning, body and mind are strengthened in order to control the ego that wants to jump and to think like an ape. The Zen master helps the disciple to face his or her egoistic lifestyle in order to master the ego. This is done through the assignment of tasks which fill most people with aversion. Cleaning the toilets is one of them. Mystical dialogues (mondo) or seemingly illogical questioning (koan) are used to overcome ego-centered thinking. In the Middle Way there are no likes or dislikes, neither is there dualistic thinking. The middle consists in the union of the extremes.
The most important feature of Zen and Early Buddhism is mindfulness. Always be aware of what you do! The temple in Okayama is known for an unusual story which illustrates the importance of mindfulness. Long ago, a Zen teacher scolded his disciple because he threw waste water in the gutter instead of using it to water the plants. Even one drop of water deserves to be rightly spent, not because water or plants are expensive or scarce, but because water and plants also have 'the right to exist'. A mindful attitude leads people to mystical experiences. Some experience the universe as being one and see themselves as part of it. They go as far as to experienoe the suffering of a neighbor as their own suffering. Is this not loving one's neighbor as oneself?
During the dialogues in Okayama with Zen master Shodo Harada who also takes part in spiritual exchange programs with Christian monks, the issue of the aim of Zen was raised. He likes to describe it as coming to your own point. The moment you have found this point, formal zazen exercises come to an end, but zazen continues. The person is free to live and work in the world because zazen has become interiorized and the ego has been overcome. I told the master that in Christianity we try to overcome our egoistic tendencies by loving and serving our neighbor. In this way we discover our own vocation. Vocation is the will of God for each of us in contributing to the building of his Reign. A believer who has discovered his or her vocation will go on with works of charity but will no longer do so 'indiscriminately'. He or she is now aware of his or her special task in the world and is ready to carry this cross. I think that we can translate the Buddhist idea of 'finding your point' into the Christian idea of 'finding your vocation'. The master agreed. This was a source of joy for both of us. We found unity in diversity.
The idea that one should be actively involved in the world after a long practice of meditation will be further developed in our study of the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle. This form of Buddhism focuses on the presence in the world.
Buddhism of the Great Vehicle
The most beloved disciple of the Buddha was his nephew Ananda. Ananda loved his master and was loved by him. In the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle (Mahayana Buddhism) the love for and of the Buddha became central. As Early Buddhism emphasized self-effort, Buddhism of the Great Vehicle stresses the love and the grace of the venerated Buddha. Meditation on the manifold expressions of the Buddha lead the monk as well as the lay person to the experience of universal love which is personified in the Buddhist goddess of mercy: Amida. The philosophical expression of this same experience is called sunyata, meaning 'void' or 'emptiness'. At first sight the concept may seem rather distant and cool, yet, if rightly understood, one will view it as a deep and warm-hearted idea. Sogyal Rinpoche describes it as follows:“Before I knew what was happening, my master did something very unusual. He suddenly hugged me and lifted me up off my feet. Then he gave me a huge kiss on the side of my face. For a long moment my mind fell away completely and I was enveloped by a tremendous tenderness, warmth, confidence, and power.“ A similar experience was granted to me by the Hindu master Sri Ganapati. He called it a ‘Jesus-hug’. A parallel description of‘emptiness’from a Western point of view can be found in the book of Rudolf Otto, Das Heilige(The Sacred). He calls it a numinous ideogram des Ganz Anderen(of the Wholly Other).
Why is this form of Buddhism called the Great Vehicle? It invites everyone to go aboard the ship which is crossing the sea of suffering so that all may jointly enter the harbor of nirvana. Early Buddhism, on the contrary, emphasizes personal liberation. Buddhists of the Great Vehicle therefore call it Buddhism of the Small Vehicle (Hinayana Buddhism). The Mahayana Buddhist postpones his own nirvana by working in the world as bodhisattva. Even the Buddha accomplished countless works to liberate the people. In this way he was a bodhisattva for many lives. I had the opportunity to meet a contemporary bodhisattva in Taiwan. In the place where she lived I experienced the authentic spirit of the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle: a spirituality which is very close to that of Catholic charity organizations.
Master Cheng Yen, a Buddhist nun, is the founder and head of the nationwide Tzu-Chi Buddhist Compassion Relief Organization in Taiwan. Several experiences - among them the miraculous healing of her mother attributed to Amida to whom she had been praying with great fervor, and an encouraging encounter with three Catholic sisters - made her feel that she was called to comfort the suffering and the needy. With her five disciples she started making small collecting-boxes of bamboo. She then distributed them to thirty housewives in the neighborhood, asking them to put each day 50 cent in the box they received. With the collected money she wanted to help the poor families. "Would it not be easier to donate once a month 15 dollar?", a mother asked. "No", Cheng Yen replied, "because if you donate once a month, you experience the goodness of giving once a month only". This story illustrates a basic issue of her teaching good actions not only benefit those for whom they are intended but also those who perform them. They enrich the heart of the latter. This is the experience of the three million members who joined the organization. Master Cheng Yen is a mother Teresa in Buddhism.
I met master Cheng Yen one day, when I accompanied her and her disciples on a visit to the sick and the poor in the huge Buddhist hospital she built for them. One of the characteristic features of this hospital is that mainly volunteers are taking care of the sick. As we entered the hospital, I was struck by an impressive mosaic. I first thought that it was a picture of Jesus Christ. Yet it represented the Buddha curing one of his disciples. The nuns grow vegetables, and sell self-made candles and peanut flour in order to support themselves. As a matter of fact, all donations are exclusively spent on works of charity. I was allowed to stay there for two weeks and to earn with them my 'daily rice', also on Sundays.
In a conversation at the end of my stay in her convent, I asked master Cheng Yen about the most essential teaching in Buddhism. She told me that compassion is the most essential teaching. It is as important as the teaching of universal love in Christianity. The consistent practice of compassion is not as easy as one would imagine. My own lack of it put me several times to shame. Some day, sitting in the temple I crushed a mosquito. I was surprised by the amount of blood spilt on the floor. The nuns stared at me with questioning eyes. They thus made me understand the shamefulness of my act. Another day I was working with a number of young nuns in the garden. I proudly showed them a big worm I dug up. They already knew how dangerous I was! One nun promptly came to the rescue of the worm and lovingly buried it in the ground. I again felt ashamed because of my failure to show compassion. The Great Vehicle teaches that Great Compassion should be extended to all living beings. In Japan, however, the practice of universal compassion is often reduced to the organization of costly funeral services which are supposed to guarantee peace to the soul of the deceased.
Esoteric Buddhism
A third form of Buddhism is found in Tibet and Japan. It is often called Lamaism by Western observers. Its leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, is universally known and respected. The people who practise it call it Esoteric Buddhism (Vajrayana Buddhism). Like the followers of other forms of Buddhism, they also assume that a disciple of the Buddha is at its origin: Maudgalyayana. He was known for his magical powers.
The followers of the other two forms of Buddhism do not speak of Esoteric Buddhism, they rather call it corrupt Buddhism. They believe that the Buddha did not allow the use of magical powers. However, some recent studies seem to disagree with this point of view. In Japan, the priests of Esoteric Buddhism still go further. They are married, eat meat and drink alcohol. They even take pride in their rather lax observance of the Buddhist rules. Yet Shingon sect is also known for the hard ascetic practices it imposes on its candidates for the priesthood. Why this paradox?
Esoteric Buddhists believe that one can acquire through ascetic practices the magical powers which are needed to guarantee the effectiveness of rituals. They firmly believe in the existence of supernatural powers which allow one to walk over the water, to heal the sick, to make it rain or to appease a storm. The miracle stories about Jesus - often explained away in modern theology - are absolutely convincing in their view. Moreover, the Buddhist sacred texts as a whole are saturated with miracle stories about the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas. Of course, many Western scholars of Buddhism said that these were not the original texts. In their world view there simply was no place for miracles.
It took quite some time before I dared to encounter this form of Buddhism. Like many other Westerners I was seduced by Buddhism as a sophisticated philosophical 'atheistic religion'. I was impressed by its metaphysics and could not understand how Tibetan Buddhism with its pantheon, its magical, supernatural, shamanistic, and tantric elements could fit in it. Ten years ago, I still feared to encounter this complex world. A providential meeting with the young Hindu master Sri Gurumayi in Koyasan, an old center of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan also called Shingon sect, changed my understanding of Buddhism. She introduced me into what I now see as the essence of Esoteric Buddhist teaching (cf. Euntes-Studies, n'l7,1994,p.57-62). Before this experience, I thought that it was very unnatural to meditate with one's hands in a strange position(mudra). I now experience it myself as one of the most natural things in life. Five years after the encounter with this highly spiritual lady, I am studying at the university of Koyasan in order to better understand this form of Buddhism. I hope that I will also be able to discover in which way it may contribute to a more intense Christian way of life.
More specifically, I would like to study their understanding of magical powers. What is their place in the process of meditation? I believe that it is worthwhile to examine the role magical powers played in meditation from the era of Indian yoga philosophy until the present time. I think it is safe to assume that magical powers occur in meditation, yet they are not necessarily linked to its ultimate aim: nirvana. At least, this is in line with the preaching of Kobo Daishi, the founder of the Shingon sect. According to him it is allowed to use magical powers in religious practices like the recitation of prayers which make it rain, heal the sick or bring peace to the souls of deceased human beings and animals. Yet the master insists that magical powers should first of all serve another purpose: to help people find illumination in this life. I hope that my study will help me to better understand these teachings and the corresponding practices in the life of Esoteric Buddhists.
In order to understand the other really well, one should not only study his or her patterns of thought, but one should also share, at least for a short time, his or her life. I therefore plan to join a group of Esoteric Buddhists for some time in the mountains(the place by excellence where to get involved in hard esoteric practices). I do not yet feel at ease with the idea. I am still a little afraid. Especially the fact that I will have to shave my head frightens me! It will take time and a lot of practice to overcome these smaller attachments in order to experience the greater ones. In spite of these fears, I will give it a try because a Shingon priest from Nara Yugen Yamanouchi is willing to help me. He renovated a meditation hut on the hill of the temple and I am free to use it as often as I want to. In the hut there are a lot of Nepalese tankas and a secret Tibetan Buddhist image. The renovation of the hut as well as everything it contains was paid for with the offerings of the people. I will try to make the best out of this in-depth encounter with the faithful of another religion, remembering the words of St. Paul: "try everything and keep the good".
Conclusion
There is a unique truth behind the teaching of the 'Four Holy Truths' in Buddhism: our suffering has its origin in our own thoughts and deeds. We cannot blame others for it. We first have to take up our karma by accepting this kind of suffering. We can stop the creation of new karma by performing good deeds while walking the Middle Way. Last but not least, we have to undo the remaining Karma through meditation. If all this is accomplished we come to our 'real being', our 'Buddha nature'. This 'real being' does not change. More than 'real being'(essence) it is pure 'activity'(existence), equal to nirvana. We then no longer create any new karma, but we follow our dharma - our true activity - which is naturally in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha. Here, the tears of our old eyes are drying and thus new eyes are born. The nightmare comes to an end and the world is seen as the fullness of the void. Non-attached to the world, we live on, not afraid to die nor to live. Enlightened to this unique truth we become true members of the religious community around the Buddha: the Samgha. Every Buddhist believer therefore always vows to take refuge in the 'three jewels' of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma and the Samgha. I experienced the beauty of these three jewels - explained and lived so differently - in each of the great Buddhist traditions. Interreligious dialogue enabled me to encounter personally a number of 'living Buddhas' who embody the sublime preaching initiated by their common teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha.
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(A Japanese translation of this text is also available in this homepage, made by my Buddhist friend, Shingon-priest Yugen Yamanouchi.)