Sermon 18: The Way To Make Peace

Not by enmity at any time
Are those with enmity allayed:
They are allayed by amity-
This is an ancient Dhamma.

(Dhp. 5)

Today, for the increase of awareness and wisdom, this famous saying of Lord Buddha from the collection of verses known as the Dhammapada, is as appropriate to our times, as it was to those far-off days when this verse of Dhamma was first uttered. While there is nothing that we can do about history, we are able to mould the present, at least to the extent of making our own lives peaceful. By doing even this much, we can bring happiness and peace to others and it is possible that we can do more for society than this. The way of the world would seem to suggest that many people believe that hatreds can be conquered by hatreds: that is, the force of revenge used with the idea that peace will result. But although people may hold this to be true, especially when they are angry, personal experience informs the intelligent person that this is never so and in fact that the reverse is true-that conflict breeds conflict. Now where does conflict begin? It is not found in organizations, in committees or even in armies, simply because all these bodies are made up of people. We should not consider the abstract 'Mankind' or 'Humanity' because abstractions like this would lead us far from the truth. We must consider ourselves, each one his own heart, for this is the source of conflicts. We cannot, in this case, "pass the buck" for we have all a share in the blame for conflicts.

When we consider ourselves, we must take note of the fact that we are unenlightened, or in the Buddhist expression, we are 'ordinary-people'. Now ordinary-people stand opposed to the state of those who have reached Enlightenment, such as the Buddhas or the Arahants. They have unfortunately hearts, which are stained in various ways, with desire for, revulsion against, and dull stupidity. As this world is made up largely of such ordinary-people, their actions determined by these stains of Greed, Aversion and Delusion, so we may expect a certain degree of conflict always to be present here. It is up to us to see that this inevitable conflict does not go beyond bounds and inflict upon many people all the different sorts of sufferings or dukkha. Among us ordinary-people, there are two sort to be seen, one being called the foolish ordinary-person and the other the excellent ordinary-person. The first is characterized by selfishness, for it is only his own well-being or that of his family or his group, that he thinks about, while for those outside his blinkered vision, he cares not at all. He makes little or no effort at improving himself and perhaps is not aware that he has any faults. Hence, instead of growing to maturity and of being endowed with many excellent qualities, he is liable to sink downwards, to deteriorate and in the process cause both himself and others much disappointment and unhappiness. When people of this sort come to hold positions of authority in the world, then we must expect that there will be an increase of evils and sufferings and a decrease in the practice of Dhamma. If we are going to lead really useful lives as human beings then we must see that this foolish ordinary person, who is not our next-door neighbor but someone much nearer to us, we must see that he is kept in check. The heart of the unenlightened person is always ready to slide into the condition of being foolishly ordinary whenever the mental stains get a really good hold. Only awareness of what is going on in one's own mind or heart will make it possible to control and restrain one's actions. Only such awareness makes it possible to aim for the state of the excellent ordinary-person. One such is called excellent because he makes an effort at his own development in Dhamma and because he is aware of the evils brought upon others by lack of control of the stains. These are still present in his mind and heart but he does not give them full reign and seeks to be aware of their arising and to ensure that they do not influence his words or bodily actions. While the foolish ordinary-person can scarcely be called human, perhaps subhuman would be the right epithet, the excellent ordinary-person lives up to human standards and besides having the body of a human being, has mind, speech and actions fully according with human status. At the very least, we should seek to maintain ourselves in the condition of excellent ordinary-people, thus ensuring a degree of peace and happiness both for ourselves and for others, For ourselves this happiness comes from restraint primarily of the mind, since by restraining the stains of Greed, Aversion and Delusion found in the unenlightened mind, an excellent peace may be found. This is done through what is often called 'meditation'. Others find happiness through us by our restraint of our speech and of our bodily actions. This restraint of what are called the 'three doors' of mind, speech and body was much praised by Lord Buddha as a necessary step in the training, whether one is a lay-person living much in society, or a monk or nun leading a more secluded life. Those who fail to restrain themselves in these three respects, fail in the Buddhist training. Since this training, called Dhamma, accords with what all wise people everywhere have praised as most eminently human, so it can be said that lack of restraint in these three essentials indicates failure as a human being.

The verse above: "Not by enmity at any time are those with enmity allayed, they are allayed by amity, this is an ancient Dhamma"-is concerned with the second of the three great stains: Hatred. But it is no easy task to disentangle this Hatred from the other two-Greed and Delusion and for this reason, in the above paragraphs we have dealt with the training away from the stains in a general way.

Now we may deal more particularly with this enmity or hatred. Our first impulse, as we are pleasure-seeking beings like all others, is to try obtain what we desire by means of Greed. The things desired may be gross as in the case of persons or material objects, or they may be very subtle in such mental states as fame, praise or attention. The Root of Greed employed may also vary a great deal from lust and attachment to material things to very fine attachments, which the meditator is bound to encounter. If through some reason we do not obtain what is wanted then another tack is tried and hatred is employed. This comes in so many varieties that it would be impossible to list them all. However, Hatred unlike Greed is never accompanied by pleasant sensations and always makes its appearance to the accompaniment of unpleasant feelings so that it cannot be the normal way of accomplishing desires for pleasure-loving beings. Once aversion towards another person has been given expression it is likely that he will retaliate in kind. It is sure in the case of the foolish ordinary-person, for he gives little or no thought to the future results of his actions. The excellent ordinary-person has here a chance to show his excellence by patience and forbearance, and all such virtues as are thoroughly grounded upon friendliness.

Now, the verse with which this exposition deals, mentions friendliness or Metta under the guise of amity, or literally non-anger (avera). , This is because no other one word can cover adequately the whole range of expression, which an excellent ordinary-person training himself in Dhamma may be able to employ. If very adept in Dhamma, his answer to hatred may be deep love and a helping compassion for those deluded enough to hate him. Not everyone, however, has developed such ability so that response instead may be a smiling friendliness or at least a refusal to become disturbed outwardly. All this is covered by the word 'non-anger', a seemingly negative term used here for its wide range of meaning. Now Lord Buddha states in this verse that all kinds of aversions, hatreds and angers can only in be cured by taking the medicine of non-anger. They will never be cured by swallowing more of the poison of anger.

People are always found who question the validity of this premise. They say that force must always, be met with force and that love, friendliness and sympathy cannot overcome hatreds and dissensions. Here, it is necessary to distinguish between persons. There are those who are able to overcome anger in others by the force of their own friendliness and patience-and there are others who cannot do this. The first kind of person is one who has become aware of the danger of this disease of aversion and therefore made efforts in himself that anger should be checked and understood. It is like the good gardener who has a particularly deep-rooted weed to pull up. He knows that if some part of the tap-root remains established it will spring up again. So with patience he burrows around the taproot, going further and further down. Those who wish to train themselves in friendliness have to do this, to dig down slowly and find the source of the Root of Hatred. Eventually, by those who are perfected, the Arahants, this root may be destroyed completely together with the Roots of Greed and Delusion, never to grow again. Besides the relationship of Hatred to Greed, there are also the links between Hatred and Delusion. This Delusion-Root is closely twined about that of Hatred and in those having much delusion, there is a consequent inability to see either their own aversions, or the dangers that these have for themselves and for others. Such people are most unlikely to comprehend the Buddhist way of training involving both the restraint of evil unwholesome tendencies and the growth and development in excellent, beneficial traits. Those who are prepared to try this training in both restraint and development upon themselves, will discover how well it works and restraining in themselves anger, hatred, aversion and even dislike, they will be able to develop in friendliness, love and compassion, thus seeing for themselves the truth of this utterance of Lord Buddha. This is emphasized in this verse by the word 'here' (idha-not translated) meaning in this world. This is not a matter to be left for some future life. One should not think, 'I shall aim for excellence and virtues in a future existence'. There is no chance of gaining anything in the future, for when that future comes round, after all it is just the present. There is only the present time in which one can practice Dhamma. So here in this world at least one should aim always to be an excellent ordinary-person and to abandon the low, unprofitable states of the foolish ordinary-person. This can be done by those who make the necessary effort. And this can be done is spite of the fact that our experience as beings is of what is called the sensuality-plane. Ourselves and all the beings which we can perceive with our five senses, all live with desires, and desires necessarily breed conflict, so that in our plane of existence, we must experience various kinds of unhappiness brought about by this conflict. Looked at as a whole, this human world together with the animal world can never be cured of conflicts, for the beings inhabiting these world shave within themselves the causes for conflicts. Only when one takes a practical view of 'What can be done?'-and sees that the only place where anything can be done is in oneself, only then is there any hope for the world at large.

It should not be thought that desires therefore are ultimately necessary. It is just that they form the muddled way of doing things, which is the unenlightened person. The Buddhas and the Arahants who are perfected, who have abandoned Greed, Hatred and Delusion, with ultimate wisdom know the real, know the truth and have done away with desires. They practice, without any effort, this non-hatred, this love, friendliness and compassion to all beings without any exception. They have discovered this "ancient principle" of which the last line ot this verse speaks. They are able to see as we cannot, that kamma has fruits, that these fruits of intentional actions or kamma vary accordingly-evil actions giving rise to unhappiness and beneficial ones to happiness, and that the doer does in fact reap the fruits of kamma made by him at an earlier time. The Buddhas and Arahants do not believe that kamma and the results of kamma are true, for they have seen in themselves this very truth. They see therefore that aversion, anger and hatred never produce beneficial results either for the doer or for others who have to suffer. While others may infer that ill brings forth ill, for this is not always and immediately obvious, they know that no good can come of these evil passions opposed to friendliness and love. This knowledge which they gain through wisdom at the time of 'Enlightenment, is just one aspect of what is called the Ultimate Truth of Dhamma. This is the really existent state of oneself and hence of the world which is not perceived because of the blockage caused by mental stains. When this blockage is done away with, then there is no further room for such pettiness as dislikes and hatred.

After all, it 'I' who dislike, hate, become angry or take revenge and only when the sense of 'I' is very strong will it be possible to do this. But 'I' is only a useful fiction and cannot really be found anywhere among either the bodily processes, which are ever changing, or among the mental-emotional processes, which change at an even faster rate. When there is deep and direct knowledge of the non-existence of a separate 'I' or 'self', then there is no basis any more for the arising of desires or aversions. Delusion too is combated by wisdom for the knowing of things as they truly are, the truly so, or the thus-ness of things, destroys all deluded tendencies.

These are the heights of discovery and penetration, which await those who practice Dharma, but from these heights, which have not yet been experienced, we should return to the practical matters of every day. The state of the world has very little altered in essentials since the days of Lord Buddha. In those days, as in our own, humans were subject to the various diseases of Greed, Hatred and Delusion, and then as now there were those who strove to throw off the perverting influences of these maladies. Then as now, lay life was full of responsibilities and laypeople are recorded as telling Lord Buddha that they have "many works". He taught them to practice as much of Dhamma as they were able but did not try to regulate their lives with any elaborate code, knowing that this would be impractical. He did not consider that the world as a whole, as it contained so many who had no intention of practicing any good, could be brought to enjoy a Golden Age in which there would be no hatred. In our days too, is quite evident that this world, containing as it does so many who are bent only upon foolishness and selfishness, cannot be made into some sort of Utopia.

Therefore, Lord Buddha established the Sangha or Community of Buddhist monks and of nuns which would be so ordered that a kind of Golden Age could be realized by those who volunteered to strive as monks or nuns along the Path of Dhamma. In the Sangha, monks by constant training, by the presence and example of their venerable Teachers, can bring about in themselves and hence in the community in which they live, a society where it can be plainly seen and demonstrated that hatreds, angers and even dislikes are not displayed, are not used, for the good monk endeavors to be one who lays aside the rod in respect of all creatures. He tries, and sometimes succeeds, in making his life of no harm to any beings at all, human or otherwise. Wherever Dhamma is practiced to its fullest extent it will indeed have this effect. From this follows happiness. Happiness is the natural result of non-harming and non-hurting, while unhappiness must always be expected from every sort of violence.

So the Sangha, which is practicing the Dhamma well, is an example, a model for the rest of the world to follow. However, no one can be forced to follow and it must be the decision of every individual to take whichever path they think best. Many of course, do not consciously decide for in this life they are driven on by some kamma-fruits, which give them little or no intelligence. Their practice of a good path must wait for a future birth. Meanwhile, those who can decide to practice a good path, any good path mapped out by any religion or cultural tradition, should do so, for now, here in this world, it is the time and place to do so. There can be no excuse for non-practicing, such as lack of time or opportunity, for good religious practice is never seen only in churches and temples but also in ordinary everyday life. If one should say, "Well, you Buddhists say that the world cannot be made a better place so what is the use of trying?"--then it would be like the boy who argues against washing his face by saying that it will only get dirty again tomorrow. This is a matter for the practice of every individual who wishes to do so.

You desire peace in the world? Start work upon yourself and to begin with find peace within.

In the course of this exposition of Lord Buddha's teaching of non-hatred and non-harming, we have mentioned these points: That we, ourselves are the source of the conflicts in the human world; that we are called 'ordinary-people' from the stains which discolor the purity of our hearts; that ordinary-people are of two kinds-those who make an effort in development and those who do not; that restraint in thoughts leads to our own happiness and restraint in speech and bodily action lead to the happiness of others; that aversion, anger, hatred and dislike is bound up with similar ranges of both Greed and Delusion; that curing oneself of the disease of aversion must proceed from the treatment called the Development of Loving-kindness; and that this can only be done now, as only now exists; that there are those examples of people who are cured to be seen here in the world and that in the Ultimate Truth discovered by them, there is no foothold at all for any sort of anger. All this has been shown by the Greatly Compassionate One when he spoke this verse:

Not by enmity at any time
Are those with enmity allayed:
They are allayed by amity-
This is an ancient Dhamma.

(Dhp. 5)

EVAM

Thus indeed it is.