by Nikkyo Niwano

The main reason that the teaching of Buddhism often seems not to be a religion in the usual sense of the word is that Shakyamuni Buddha did not admit the existence of a transcendent god controlling human destiny. The Buddha never preached belief in a god who created this world and presides over the workings of nature--an absolute being by whom people are saved if they pray to or worship him.

The Sanskrit word buddha means "awakened" or "enlightened." The teaching that the Buddha preached can be understood by anyone who has a high enough degree of reason. It is not something visionary that only an inspired person can perceive, nor is it something bestowed by an absolute being in whom one simply has faith.

Shakyamuni Buddha did not regard this universe as God's creation or his conquest, but as resulting from the relation of cause and condition by which all phenomena are produced (engi, or dependent origination). Causation means a cause (in) and a condition (en) combining to produce an effect (ka) and a recompense (ho). In this world, there is nothing unchangeable or fixed in form. All things have a direct cause. When this comes into contact with an opportunity or condition, the result of this conjunction appears as a phenomenon (effect). This effect leaves behind traces (recompense): thus Shakyamuni Buddha interpreted all things in the world.

THE THREE SEALS OF THE LAW. The combination of a cause and a condition leads every action to have an effect and a recompense. When a primary cause is annihilated or when, even if it exists, it does not come into contact with a condition, it does not produce an effect and a recompense. Therefore, in this world, there is nothing existing in an eternal, fixed, and unchangeable form. This is the law "All things are impermanent." Is there nothing at all unchangeable in this world? Yes, there is one immutable thing--the truth that presides over the existence, the working, and the changes of all things. Only this truth alone is unchangeable.

Shakyamuni Buddha also taught the truth that nothing in this world has an isolated existence, without any relation to other things, but that all things exist in relationship with one another and are interdependent. This is the law "Nothing has an ego." At first glance, there does not seem to be any relation between the earth on which we stand, the sea stretching to the horizon, and the clouds far above in the sky. But when we consider how clouds are produced, why seawater is salt, and how the earth receives moisture, we soon understand the close relationship of earth, sea, and sky. We know that clouds are produced by water vapor that evaporates from the earth, sea, and rivers; clouds precipitate rain or snow that falls on the earth and moistens it; and seawater is salt because river water dissolves salts contained in the earth and carries them to the sea, where the concentration of salt becomes stronger through the evaporation of water. This is an example of how nothing in the universe has a completely isolated existence.

Of course, Shakyamuni Buddha did not preach the formation of the universe as a science or a philosophy. He preached it to cause all people to understand thoroughly how people should live and what human life should be. His teaching always concerned humanity and humanism.

How should we put the universal truths that all things are impermanent and that nothing has an ego to practical use in our daily lives? It was to answer this question that the Buddha preached the law "Nirvana is quiescence."

We undergo various sufferings in life because we are swayed by changing phenomena and are influenced by immediate gain or loss. If we come to have the spirit of perfect freedom, being detached from these temporary and superficial considerations, we will be in a spiritual condition of peace and calm even when we are in a situation that others consider to be very painful. This is the state of "Nirvana is quiescence" in relation to the law "All things are impermanent."

The reason for our inability to succeed in something, for having a conflict or dispute, or for feeling displeasure, often comes from the fact that we lack harmony in our relations with other people and things. The earth revolves around the sun. The moon revolves around the earth. The innumerable stars twinkling in the night sky have the same kinds of relationships. The sun, the earth, the moon, and the stars all move according to the law of gravitation. They move without colliding because the force of gravitation is balanced, creating a harmony among them. If this harmony were destroyed, the sun, the earth, and the moon would collide. If this kind of thing took place with all planets and stars, the universe would be destroyed.

Human life is the same. Each person is a constituent member of the universe; if one maintained harmony in one's various relationships with other people and things so that a balance were maintained among them, dispute and trouble in this world would disappear. But such a state cannot be realized in this world. Why? Because each person has his or her own small "ego." People differ in their interests and feelings, and are out of harmony with each other because too many people are self-centered and are concerned only with their personal profit, welfare, and comfort. If all human beings abandoned their own small "egos" and devoted themselves to respecting and helping one another, a great harmony would be generated among them and true peace in their daily lives would come about. This is the state of "Nirvana is quiescence" in relation to the law "Nothing has an ego."

These three laws--"All things are impermanent," "Nothing has an ego," and "Nirvana is quiescence"--are the fundamental principles of Buddhism and as such are called the Three Seals of the Law (sambo-in). It is no exaggeration to say that all the teachings of Buddhism are derived from these three laws.

How should we practice the Three Seals of the Law in our daily lives? The answer to this question is found in the doctrines of the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Law of the Twelve Causes, and the Six Perfections.

In the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha taught first that people must realize that their existence is suffering and must recognize this actual condition of suffering (the Truth of Suffering), not evade or deny it. However, people cannot alleviate their suffering just by recognizing it. So the Buddha taught that one must go further and investigate the cause of suffering, reflecting on it and clearly discerning it (the Truth of Cause). The original cause of suffering is ignorance, as shown in the doctrine of the Law of the Twelve Causes.

Once one has been able to discern the cause of one's sufferings, the Buddha taught, if one can remove one's ignorance as the original cause of suffering one's suffering will be extinguished (the Truth of Extinction). Lastly, the Buddha showed that the way enabling people to be led to the Truth of Extinction is the practice of the Eightfold Path and the Six Perfections (the Truth of the Path).

Here let us review the doctrine of the Eightfold Path, the eight ways of daily life, consisting of right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

First, we must thoroughly analyze the word "right" because this word may be misunderstood if it is considered according to the index of today's morality. Briefly, the word "right" means "in accord with the truth." For example, if a person looks at things from a narrow, egoistic viewpoint, one cannot possibly discern the real state of things and one's judgment of them will not be well balanced. When we get rid of our egoistic viewpoint and prejudice and look at things with a clear mind, we can see the real state of things. This way of looking rightly at things is based on the wisdom of the Buddha.

When thinking about things with a self-centered mind or with a selfish aim, we are liable to fall into mistaken ideas that are not in accord with truth or are even directly opposed to truth. For instance, suppose that someone has the following idea: "To increase the prosperity of our own country, it is all right to sacrifice the people of other countries," or "You must make allowances for our deceiving or injuring others for the sake of our personal welfare." It is obvious that these ideas are wrong when applied to other people. But when a person thinks about things on the basis of his own country, or oneself and one's family, one adopts such selfish ideas without compunction. There have been many instances of this way of thinking throughout history; in fact, there are innumerable examples today.

When people look at things not from a selfish standpoint but from a much greater standpoint--from the same standpoint as the Buddha--we can view and evaluate all things on their own merits. The word "right" applies to this way of looking at things. When we view things according to a partial viewpoint, we cannot see the truth. If we put on red-lensed glasses, the whole world appears red. If we put on green-tinted spectacles, everything looks green. We cannot have a right view till we look at things without colored spectacles.

When we perceive the things of this world through our five sense organs or think about them with our minds, they seem to be differentiated. To look only at the differentiated state of things (temporality, ke) appearing externally and not the equal state (emptiness, ku) existing originally is the superficial way of looking at things of ordinary people. That all things in this world are originally equal (emptiness, ku) is the important core of the Buddha's teachings, but to view only the original equal state of things and to disregard the differentiated state appearing in external forms is also a one-sided way of looking at things. A philosopher who studies the fundamental principle of things may well be unhappy in his or her personal life and a failure socially. This may be the result of his or her lopsided view of things.

To take a right view of things in the true sense, it is necessary to refrain from viewing things exclusively as either temporality (ke) or emptiness (ku) but to combine these two viewpoints. This third way of looking at things is called chutai, or the "truth of the middle"--a truth that is almost the same as that of the Middle Path (chudo). The Middle Path means not to be one-sided, but it does not imply to take the middle position on every issue, leaning neither right nor left. The Middle Path preached by Shakyamuni Buddha does not mean a rigid path existing exactly in the middle between two extremes. Because it is one of the most important teachings of the Buddha, the truth of the Middle Path will be discussed here.

At the time that Shakyamuni Buddha lived, there were numerous religious teachings in India. One religion insisted that because people's various desires are natural to them, to seek to satisfy them is the way of emancipation from the bonds of illusion and suffering. Another religion preached that an ascetic life strictly suppressing all desires is the only way to lead people to freedom from the bonds of illusion and suffering.

Asceticism was very rigorous at that time in India. Ascetics tried to suppress completely their carnal appetites and their desire for comfort. There was even a school of naked ascetics who regarded wearing clothes as forbidden. Other ascetics mortified their bodies by all kinds of painful practices, including living in a tree for days at a time, burning the skin with fire, slashing themselves with knives, or sitting on sharp stakes driven into the earth. The most extreme group insisted that a person who is free from the bonds of illusion and suffering must eat nothing, and considered death by starvation as the supreme joy.

Shakyamuni Buddha, who was not attracted to the hedonistic extreme, first tried to pursue enlightenment by means of asceticism. He visited two famous ascetics in succession, and after practicing their teachings under their guidance, he completely mastered them. Though he was earnestly asked to remain by each of these two ascetics, he found their teachings insufficient to enable him to attain true enlightenment, and turned away. Next Shakyamuni tried ascetic practices by himself. He underwent such extreme austerities as eating only one grain of rice and one sesame seed a day.

Such ascetic experience may not have been useless, but when Shakyamuni eventually realized that asceticism was not the right way to lead him to enlightenment, he abruptly gave up such practices. He then went to the Nairanjana River and cleansed his body. Then he drank a bowl of milk gruel that a village girl gave him, and gradually regained his strength. He proceeded to a place near the village of Bodhgaya by way of Mount Pragdodhi, and sat down under the Bodhi tree. There, sitting quietly alone, he entered into deep meditation and finally attained enlightenment.

After that, he went to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares), where were gathered the five ascetics who had accompanied him in his austerities. The teaching that he preached to these five ascetics in his first sermon included the doctrines of the Four Noble Truths, the Middle Path, and the Eightfold Path.

Shakyamuni Buddha said to the five men: "Monks! In this world there are two extremes that you must avoid." The two extremes are those of hedonism and of asceticism. The Buddha, who rejected these two extremes as unreasonable, proclaimed the following: "By avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata has attained full enlightenment--the Middle Path." It is significant indeed that the Buddha preached the Middle Path in the very first of as many as eighty-four thousand sermons.

Then Shakyamuni preached the following: "What is the foundation of the Middle Path? It is the Eightfold Path: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation. This is the Middle Path, which the Tathagata has realized. It opens people's eyes, gives rise to right wisdom, and leads them to mental peace and quiet and, further, to nirvana."

As shown plainly here, the Middle Path realized by the Buddha has the following meaning: To lead a life of extreme hedonism or to practice extreme asceticism is just like looking at the world through red- or green-colored glasses; it is not the way of looking rightly at all things in the world. It is, so to speak, the way of a viewpoint covered with the clouds of illusion. This is not the way to reach nirvana. People must not take such a biased and fixed position but must view things, and act, according to the truth.

The word "right" that is prefixed to every word in the doctrine of the Eightfold Path has the same meaning as "middle" in the doctrine of the Middle Path. "Right" means to be in accord with the truth, as mentioned above, and also indicates the idea of being in harmony with the truth. Following is a parable related by the Buddha to explain this idea.