Why Were We Born?
By Ven. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
Why were we born ?
First of all, is this question a significant one for the average man? I think
we can take it that this question is one that everyone is interested in and
puzzled over. There may, however, be some who will raise an objection.
'The Buddha taught the non-existence of "the being," " the individual,"
"the self," "you," and "me". He taught that there
is no self to be born. So the problem "Why were we born?" does not
arise!"
This sort of objection is valid only at the very highest mental level, for someone
who himself knows Freedom but for the ordinary man who does not yet know Freedom
it is not a valid objection since it is not relevant, not to the point. A person
who does not as yet know Dharma thoroughly is bound to feel himself involved
in the process of birth and to have a great many problems and questions. He
has no idea for what purpose he has been born.
It is only an Arahant, one who has gone all the way in Buddha- Dharma, who will
really realize that there is no birth, and on "being" or "parson"
or "self" to be born. For an Arahant the question "Why was I
born?" does not arise. But for anyone who has not yet attained the stage
of Arahantship, even though he may be at one of the lower stages of insight
such as Stream entry, and in whom the idea of "self" and "of
self" does still arise, the question "Why was I born ?' very definitely
does exist.
So we are putting the question "Why was I born ?" and we are taking
it that this question is a relevant one for anyone who is not as yet an Arahant.
Now let us have a look at the different ideas that naturally come up in the
minds of different people in answer to this question "Why were we born
?"
If we ask a child for what purpose he was born, he will simply say that he was
born in order to be able to play and have fun and games. A teenage boy or girl
is bound to answer that he or she was born for the sake of good looks, dating,
and flirting. And an adult, parent, householder, will probably say he was born
to earn a living, to save up money for his retirement and his children. These
are the kinds of answers we are bound to get.
A person, who has become old and feeble, is more than likely to have the foolish
idea that he was born in order to die and be born again, and again, and again,
over and over. Very few people consider that, having been born, we shall simply
die and that will be the end of it.. Right from early childhood we have been
trained and conditioned to this idea of another world, another birth to come
after death, with the result that it has become well and truly fixed in our
minds. In any culture having its origins in India the majority of people, Buddhists,
Hindus, and others, adhere to this doctrine of rebirth after death. So people
who are too old and senile to be able to think for themselves are bound to answer
that they were born to die and be reborn.
Generally these are the kinds of answer we get. If we go into it in rather more
detail, we shall find some people saying they were born to eat because they
happen to have a weakness for food. And them are bound to be some, those who
are permanent slaves to alcohol and value nothing more highly, who will say
they were born to drink. Others were born to gamble and would part with their
own skin before they would give up their vicious habit. And there are all sorts
of other things, some of them utterly trivial, in which people become so wrapped
up that they come to regard them as the best of all things. Some people, usually
the so-called well educated ones, set a lot of value on prestige, they are very
concerned about making a name for themselves. Such people were born for the
sake of name and fame.
So some people consider they were born for the sake of eating, some for the
sake of sensuality, and some for the sake of name and fame.
The first of these, eating, is a necessity, but people carry it so far that
they become infatuated with taste and addicted to eating. At the present time
there is evidence of a general increase of interest in food. The site of increase
of newspaper advertisements promoting the art of eating would Lead one to conclude
that not a few people are obsessed with eating and worship food. These born
eaters form the first group.
The second group comprises those who were born for sensuality, for every kind
of pleasure and delight obtainable by way of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.
Most people when they have satisfied themselves with eating go off in search
of sense pleasures. Their subjection to the power of sensuality may be such
that they can rightly be described as slaves to it. Ultimately all the kinds
of infatuation we have mentioned so far can be include under sensuality. Even
ideas in the mind, the sixth of the senses, can be a sources of delight amounting
to infatuation. It can be said that such people live for the sake of sensuality,
for the sake of visual, auditory, olfactory. gustatory, tactile, and mental
things serving as objects of desire. They constitute the second group.
The third group consists of those born for the sake of name and fame. They have
been conditioned to worship prestige, to the extent that they would sacrifice
their very lives for it. Name and fame, whether the means employed for attaining
it bring benefit to others or only to the individual concerned, can still be
of considerable worth, and in terms of worldly values is not something to be
condemned. But in terms of absolute values, to go so far as to become a slave
to name and fame is a tragedy. It by no means puts an end to the unsatisfactory
condition (dukka).
So eating, sensuality, and prestige all lead to various kinds of obsession.
Among poorer people, we hear more than anything else of the need to earn a living
in order to get the necessities of life. For the poor man nothing is so important
or necessary as earning a living. This then is his major concern, and it can
be said that he was born to earn a living. He is all the time plowing his fields,
or attending to his business, or whatever it may be, so that this becomes his
one and only concern, and he can never have enough of it. In other words he
really feels he was born to earn a living, and has never regarded anything as
more important than this. The reason for this is that he has never moved among
spiritually advanced people, never heard Dharma from them. It is fairly certain
that he has moved only among his follow worldlings and heard only the talk of
worldlings. This is something well worth thinking about. Such a person considers
his way of life thoroughly right and proper and worthwhile; but in reality it
is only half right, or even less. The magnitude of such a man's obsession with
material things shows that he lives to get much more than just enough to eat.
Now what each one of us has to concern himself with, and examine, and come to
understand clearly is why we were born to earn a living and stay alive. When
we have come to understand property for what ultimate purpose we are here in
this life. we realize that this business of earning a living is something quite
incidental. It is subsidiary to another big and important purpose, the real
purpose for which we were born. Do we earn a living simply in order to stay
alive and go on endlessly accumulating more and more wealth and property ? Or
do we do it in order to achieve some higher purpose ?
For most people this endless accumulation of wealth and property does seem to
be the purpose of earning a living. Few people stop short at earning just enough
to satisfy their basic wants, to feed themselves and family, to provide the
necessities for a happy life free from misery. For most people no amount of
wealth and property is enough. Most don't know where to stop, and have so much
they don't know what to do with it. There are plenty like this in the world.
In terms of religion this kind of behavior is considered, either explicitly
or implicitly, to be sinful. In Christianity the accumulation of more wealth
than necessary is explicitly stated to be a sin. Other religions say much the
same. A person who goes on endlessly accumulating and hoarding wealth and property,
who has become in some way or other infatuated and obsessed by it, is regarded
as deluded and a sinner. He is not as much of a sinner as someone who kills,
but he is a sinner nevertheless. This then is how we ought to see it. We ought
not to live just in order to go on endlessly accumulating wealth and property.
We ought to regard it as simply a means to an end. We ought to acquire wealth
simply to provide for our basic wants, in order that we can then go in search
of something else. something better then wealth. And just what that something
is we shall discuss later on.
Now the man who lives for the sake of sensuality ought to give a thought to
an old saying: "Seeking pleasure in eating, sleeping, and sex, and avoiding
danger all these man and beast have in common. What sets man apart is Dharma.
Without Dharma man is no different from the beasts."
This is an old saying dating back to pre-Buddhist times, and no doubt also current
at the time of the Buddha. In any case it certainly accords with Buddhist principles.
Human beings normally feel the same way as lower animals towards eating, sleeping,
and sex, and danger in the form of disease, pain, and enemies, The lower animals
can handle these things just as well as human beings. Preoccupation with these
things, which any animal has access to, indicates a none too high level of intelligence.
And because those objects of sensuality have such an influence over the mind,
it is difficult for any ordinary being to recognize them for what they are and
break free from them.
To live for sensuality by way of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind will
never lead to Liberation. The average run of people are far removed from the
top level, the highest stage attainable in human birth. Having become obsessed
with sense objects, they have got stuck half-way along the road, mid-way towards
the goal. They are not to be taken as a model. If this sensuality were really
as precious as they seem to think it is, then they, together with their animal
counterparts, ought to be rated the highest of beings.
At this point we ought to mention that even celestial beings dwelling in the
"heaven of sensuality" (Kamavaca radevata) are in no way especially
well-off. They too are subject to suffering and anxiety. They too are impure,
constantly defiled by their inappropriate bodily, vocal, and mental actions,
Devatas of this type, whenever they succeed in elevating themselves, leave their
heaven of sensuality and go off in search of Buddha Dhamma and Sangha. Sensuality,
even in its highest form, is not by any means the highest thing for man, and
no man should maintain that this was the purpose for which he was born.
Now we come to prestige. For a man to think he was born for the sake of name
and fame is a tragedy. A glance at this thing known as prestige shows it to
be thoroughly insubstantial. It depends on other people's having a high regard
for one; and it may well be that, though no one realizes it, this high regard
is quite unfounded. When the majority of people are deluded, slow-witted, undiscerning,
lacking any knowledge of Dharma, the things for which they have a high regard
and to which they give prestige are bound to be pretty ordinary and average
things. In keeping with their ordinary and average sense of values. In their
eyes the things advocated and taught by spiritually advanced people will hardly
rate very high. In fact we invariably find that the more concerned people are
with name and fame, the worldlier are the things they rate highly. The person
who deservers to be rated highest is the one who is able to renounce worldly
values and promote the happiness of mankind; but in practice we find all the
prestige going to the people responsible for adding to the world's confusion
and distress. This is an example of prestige in the eyes of the worldling, the
man stuck here in the world.
To say that we were born to gain prestige is as ridiculous as to say we were
born to pursue sensuality or to eat. All these views are equally pitiful. They
differ only in degree of sophistication. In short then, there is no doubt whatsoever
that neither eating, our sensuality, nor prestige is the highest thing, the
objective for which a Buddhist ought to aim.
Now let us have a look at a saying of the Buddha which I believe may help us
to answer the question of why we were born.
Sankhara parama dukkha
Nibbanam paramam sukham
Etam natva vathabhutam
Santimaggam va bruhayeti.
Compounding is utter misery,
Nirvana is highest bliss.
Really knowing; this truth.
One is on the Path to Peace.
To understand the first line of this quotation, we have first of all to understand
property the word "sankhárá". This word has several
meanings. It can refer either to the physical, the body, or as in the present
case to the mental, the mind. Literally "sankhárá" means
simply "compound" (both noun and verb), that is, the function we refer
to as "compounding" (and the compound that results there from).
Following this definition. then, compounding is utter misery, thoroughly unsatisfactory
(dukkha). But it is not being stated that compounding is in itself misery, a
cause of human distress and suffering. The world "compounding" implies
no rest, just continual combining leading to continual "rebirth."
And the things responsible for this compounding are the mental defilements (kilesa).
These are the compounders. With the arising of ignorance, stupidity, infatuation,
the root cause of the other defilements, greed and hatred, compounding takes
place. They are responsible for the compounding function of the mind, causing
it to grasp at and cling to one thing after another, endlessly, without let-up.
The word "compounding" as used here refers to grasping and clinging
with attachment (upadana). If there is no attachment, if contamination by attachment
does not take place, then the term "compounding" is not applicable.
Sankhárá parama dukkha - All compounding is thoroughly unsatisfactory.
This means that involvement which has reached the point of craving and attachment
is nothing but misery. Without this kind of compounding there is freedom from
the misery of the unsatisfactory condition. It is this very compounding that
is referred to as the Wheel of samsara, that cyclic process with its three aspects:
defilements, action based on those defilements, and results of the action. The
defilements, producing satisfaction with the results of our actions (or karmas),
prompt us to further action -and so the cycle of defilements, action, and fruit
of action goes on endlessly. It is this process that is called compounding:
and it is this endlessly repeated process of compounding that is referred to
in the statement that all compounding is thoroughly unsatisfactory.
Now the second line: Nibbánam paramam sukham. This has become a household
maxim. It refers to Nirvana (nibbána), the precise opposite of the compounded
condition, in other words, freedom from sankhárás. At any time
when compounding ceases, there is Nirvana. Complete and final freedom from compounds
is full Nirvana, momentary freedom from compounds is momentary Nirvana, just
a trial sample of the real Nirvana. Anyone who has come to know fully the true
nature of compounding will have no trouble in understanding by inference the
opposite condition of freedom from compounding. The word "Nirvana"
can be translated "extinction," or "cessation," or "coolness,'
or "freedom from distress." All these meanings are consistent with
the idea of stopping, of not compounding. Compounding is nothing but constant
worry, trouble, distress, misery. "Nirvana" implies the antithesis
of "sankhárá," that is, freedom from this process of
compounding.
Now the next part of the quotation: "Really knowing this truth, one is
on the Path to Peace." This means that the realization of this truth leads
one to seek the path leading to peace or Nirvana. Nirvana is sometimes called
peace (santi), that is, stillness, coolness. They are equivalent terms. So this
realization prompts us to do everything possible to move in the direction of
peace or Nirvana.
From this we can gather that the Buddha wished us to know about the unsatisfactory
condition (dukkha), to know about freedom from the unsatisfactory condition,
and to set out on the path leading to this freedom from the unsatisfactory condition,
in other words to Nirvana. If a person has no idea of the possibility of Nirvana,
and does not realize that Nirvana, being the absolute cessation of the unsatisfactory
condition, is something to be valued above all else, then he will have no wish
for Nirvana, and will never set out on the path towards it. As soon as a person
recognizes this present condition as thoroughly unsatisfactory, and loses all
wish for anything but the very opposite condition, he will start taking and
interest in Nirvana and will set out on the path towards it. What he has to
do is have a good look at his own mind and subject it to a deep and detail scrutiny,
to discover whether or not it is in the compounded condition.
When a person under the influence of defilements performs some action (karma),
especially when he performs some action considered evil, such as drinking, killing,
adultery, stealing. or the like, then he is compounding. Compounding is based
on ignorance, delusion, stupidity. It goes on until it produces feelings of
pleasure and satisfaction in the mind of the doer. When he experiences the unsatisfactory
result of his actions, he attempts to deal with it by further action...which
only makes matters worse. The result is that compounding goes on more than ever...
until the time comes when he recognizes this as an unsatisfactory state of affairs
and determines to put a stop to it. He then has a look around for something
that is not unsatisfactory, and so is able to get free from his evil ways.
Now let us have a quick look at the man who does good, the sort that abstains
from evil acts and performs only acts of the type usually called good. Such
a man gets all the fining results of his so-called good actions. He my get wealth
and prestige, and all the things a good man could wish for. But if he were to
examine his mental condition, he would realize that he is still subject to worry
and anxiety. He experiences the suffering that always goes with wealth and prestige.
A man rich in fame is usually caused distress by that very fame; and the same
goes for wealth and children. Whatever one happens to be attached to and finds
satisfaction in is bound to be a cause of distress.