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

oth political systems there are minority groups who dissent from the will of the majority. Thisis a prominent feature of modern politics, and though all reforms and lasting revolutionarymovements have been born of, and activated by, minorities, they have been, and are beingaccused of being “unpatriotic” and troublemakers. Their minority rights are suppressed bymajority legislation, enforced if necessary with armed might. The other point on which both failis that of imagining that happiness can be bought with material well-being. One ideology seeksthat objective openly as a part and indivisible content of its manifesto. The other, havingdiscreetly relegated “heaven” to the limbo of fairy tales, substitutes the welfare state here andnow.And dukkha grows apace!To the Buddhist student the cause is not hard to find. What is the cause, the arising ofdukkha? Craving is the cause, the arising of dukkha. What is the causal origin of craving?Ignorance, manifested through delusion, greed, and hatred, is the cause, the arising of craving.It is delusion first that has caused knowledge to outrun wisdom. Obviously, it would beabsurd to say ignorance was born of the industrial age, but equally obvious is the fact thatparadoxically the growth of ignorance has paralleled the growth of knowledge! There has beena corresponding decrease in wisdom with the increase in knowledge, and wisdom, notknowledge, is the antonym of ignorance. Without the profit motive, the primitive peopleadjusted the satisfaction of their needs to the requirements of the moment. There was noindiscriminate slaughter for “sport” or profit, no stockpiling of resources for gain ordomination. Delusion manifested itself in the worship of knowledge, as distinct from wisdom,and knowledge has led us to the stars—and to the brink of total annihilation! Where is thewisdom in this?Born of delusion and fathered by ignorance is that misbegotten child—greed. It has beengreed that oppressed nations and racial minorities; that has caused castes and class distinctions;that has caused, and is still causing, wars, pogroms, genocide, and racial strife; that is the trueincentive of the space race, for he who controls space, controls mankind. The conquest of space,of a lesser nation, or establishing the supremacy of an ideology, is a means to power, and thepossession of power, whether spatial, territorial, technical, or ideological, is a means to the endof greedy satisfaction. The problem of the industrial world is the ever-spiralling high cost ofliving. The worker demands and gets shorter hours and more wages. The employer grants itgrudgingly while adding the increased cost to the basic cost of his product. He then furtheradds his percentage to the higher cost, so that the more it costs to produce and distribute, thegreater his profit on the turnover. The result may be read in the annual reports of big businesswhere ever-increasing record profits are reported annually. On the other hand, no longer canthe worker earn food, clothing, and shelter, and provide the higher standard of education for hischildren that is demanded today, so he “moonlights” (takes a second job) and sends his wife outto work also. Greed is again the incentive of big business, and of the worker alike, and adelinquent generation of bad-mannered, and neglected children the result.It is not hard to follow the family-tree of these evils. Delusion, begotten by ignorance, begetsgreed, whose child is hatred. In both victor and the vanquished, hatred smoulders ready to flareinto violent action at the first opportunity. The gloating of the victor, his pride in hisaccomplishments, his sense of superiority, is hatred feeding the fires of greed while beingheated by them. Each new victory spurs him on in search of further achievements. Thevanquished bides his time, with rancour in his heart, ready to make a bid for freedom. Hishatred is as greed-based as the victors. It is mere force of circumstance that finds himconquered, and the will to conquer has not died within him. His very defeat has strengthened it.38