The Three Basic Facts of Existence II: Suffering (Dukkha) - Buddhist ...

In the earlier days the worst calamities he faced were what the insurance companies termed“acts of God,” against which they refused cover, such as earthquakes, storm and tempest. Thesewith floods and famines, plagues and epidemics, were accounted as major disasters beyondman’s control or connivance. At times personal injury occurred while hunting, or more seriousnumerically in tribal wars which were usually fought on an economic or social basis—for foodor wives. However, while to a great extent we have relieved God of the responsibility for theaftermath of natural catastrophes, by earthquake-proof buildings, flood prevention, stormforecasting, food distribution, and the greater control of plagues and epidemics throughhygiene and medical science, man dies more frequently, and in greater numbers, due toaccident and wars. The numbers killed in plane, train, and traffic accidents annually is everincreasing. Wars are no longer economic or social, or even territorial. They have becomeideological, or racial, if pogroms and genocide may be classed as wars, seeing that they appearto be a feature of modern warfare. Nothing short of extermination satisfies if there is oppositionto the ideologists with the more destructive weapons and manpower, and war causalities arecounted by millions.Nor has the animal kingdom been more fortunate at man’s hands. It is not likely thatprimitive man was responsible for the extermination of the pre-historic animals whose fossilisedremains have been reconstructed by the scientists, but since the Christian era began more than200 species of mammals and birds have disappeared off the face of the earth. At present some 60species are in grave danger of extinction unless urgent action for their protection is taken—which seems unlikely. Not only the ever-pressing need for more space to live and land to till isresponsible for this, though the destruction of the natural habitats of wildlife to supply theneeds of man is a major contributing factor. Man’s greed for wealth and sheer love of slaughteris to be greatly blamed. Another cause of wholesale slaughter upsetting the balance of nature isthe widespread use of poisonous insecticides with a chain reaction, and the introduction offoreign pests to combat local pests, which also at times has resulted in wiping out more of theuseful fauna than the pest they were imported to control.Even the natural forests have suffered, and introduced orchards are suffering by man’sinsatiable need for room and food through a misuse of his thought-processes. Thousands ofacres and millions of feet of valuable timber were felled and burnt to make stock pastures, plantvineyards, and orchards, or for the cultivation of food crops. Today many of the orchards arebeing torn out where the excessive use of insecticides has so poisoned the ground that the treeshave absorbed the poison through their roots and via the sap veins have poisoned the fruitsthey bear.All this makes one wonder what has happened to man’s ability to think and reason to alogical conclusion. As an unused muscle or organ will atrophy and become vestigial, so itwould appear man’s reasoning power has became atrophied and lopsided. The initial balancebetween his needs and their satisfaction has been destroyed. His creative powers have outrunhis reason. What he has gained by knowledge is now jeopardised by his lack of wisdom.Theoretical knowledge alone will not dispel the darkness of “ignorance” in its Buddhist senseand meaning. Man has and is applying his theoretical knowledge very largely to add fuel to thefires of greed and hatred, which summed up is dukkha.This is what might be termed objective dukkha—generalized dukkha external to our ownconsciousness and mental reactions. We have allowed ourselves to become conditioned todangerous living till we accept it as the norm, for modern man is daily in greater danger ofdeath than ever were his primitive forefathers.One of the results of developing man’s creative powers, while neglecting the development ofhis wisdom, is another widespread form of dukkha—an increase in adventitious unease and35