The World is Aflame

From the beginning, the world has been filled with a succession of calamities, over and above the unavoidable facts of illness, old age and death.  In this month of January, we greet family and friends with wishes for a “Happy New Year”, and yet the year 2025 begins with suffering and devastation.  How do we come to grips with events like the tragedy in New Orleans and the devastating fires in Los Angeles?

These events cause great anxiety and a feeling of helplessness.  We assuage our concern with donations and thoughts that if we send good feelings to those who are suffering it will help.  Quite frankly these actions make us feel better but do little to ease the real pain and suffering experienced by those who are directly affected.

These words may ring shallow to those who lost loved ones, or those who have lost their homes and belongings, but it is the everlasting and unchanging rule of this world that everything is created by a series of causes and conditions, and everything disappears by the same rule; everything changes, nothing remains constant. 

During the time of the Buddha, he encouraged his followers to eliminate craving desires, that accumulating wealth, comfort and pleasure will result in suffering when we lose them.  Most of us will not and cannot give up the comfort of our homes and our financial security.  The only way to avoid the anxiety and suffering of loss is to embrace the truth of change.  When change does occur, we will cry, we will get angry and we will suffer, but I hope we will be able to see this as truth unfolding before us.

The Buddha said, “There are causes for all human suffering, and there is a way by which they may be ended, because everything in the world is the result of a vast concurrence of causes and conditions, and everything disappears as these causes and conditions change and pass away. 

Rain falls, wind blow, plants bloom, leaves mature and are blown away.  These phenomena are all interrelated with causes and conditions, and are brought about by them and disappear as the causes and conditions change.”

Gassho,

Rev. Hosei Shinseki