Having discovered the existential sufferings of human beings – illness, old age, death, etc. – Shakyamuni Buddha left his father’s palace. He followed the many teachings that existed in India in his time, but none satisfied him. So he sat in zazen, determined not to get up until he had the answer to the suffering inherent in the human condition, seeking to resolve the great issue of life and death.
It is this same question that we can ask ourselves: what can I do with my life, what can I give to my fellow human beings? This is what must determine the direction of our life. What can we give to the world?
When we see the madness of human beings, the anguish in which they live; when we see their choice to wage war, to massacre those who do not agree with them – we understand that what the world needs is peace of mind.
Everyone wishes for peace, Jews say Shalom, Christians say: May peace be with us and with your spirit, Muslims say Salam. You cannot give peace. It would be very arrogant to believe that you can give that which cannot be given. What you can give is the means to attain peace.
The teachings of the Buddha allow us, if we put them into practice, to attain peace. Peace is the absence of fear, the absence of hatred, the absence of greed. These are the things that human beings need most. That is why we say that of all gifts, the gift of the Dharma – the teaching of the Buddha – is the greatest.
Some people say to me: I prefer to give my life to science, I prefer to give my life to social success, I prefer to give my life to big business, to give my life to war. Why don’t you want to give your life to peace, to the teaching of peace, to the Dharma of Buddha?
If you practise only for your own personal comfort, it is a ‘pitiful’ thing, said Master Kodo Sawaki. Of all the gifts, the gift of the Dharma is the highest. It is what humanity needs most: to free itself from the three poisons (ignorance, greed, aversion), to enter the world with the Buddha mind at every moment.
Rather than devoting one’s life to the pursuit of profit and fame, everyone should devote their life to freeing themselves from the three poisons. Zen masters often say: I have nothing to give you. This nothing is the most precious gift: helping human beings to return to a pure mind, empty of all defilement, free of all limits.
At the end of the last chapter of the Shōbōgenzo, entitled Dōshin, the Mind of the Way, Dōgen writes: ‘Every human being should pray and do everything they can to spread the mind of awakening throughout the world.’
Taiun JP Faure, March 2025
