A Peaceful Heart

A Peaceful Heart

The Buddha

In India, the equivalent of "peace" is "shanti," which means the state of inner tranquility. It also means the enlightened condition attained by Shakyamuni sometimes referred to as "nirvana." With respect to the state of inner peace, a Buddhist text describes this as follows: "Tranquility of mind comes from having successfully transcended greed, hatred and ignorance." As this passage makes clear, the Buddhist approach to peace starts from the fundamental act of surmounting these deluded impulses or inner poisons. The state of having brought these impulses under control, however, is not a static and private inner peace. Rather, it is limitlessness dynamic, expansive and evolutionary in its nature.

The thirteenth-century Japanese Buddhist Nichiren expressed this with the following image: "Burning the firewood of deluded impulses, we behold the flame of enlightened wisdom." In other words, through spiritual practice the energy inherent in our deluded impulses can be transformed in its entirety into the illuminating "flame" of enlightened wisdom. Thus, the three poisons can be subdued so that they no longer produce confusion and disruption; they can no longer drive us to act in a bizarre and destructive manner. It is for this reason that this transcendence of deluded impulses is known as inner tranquility.

In the state of tranquility, the light of enlightened wisdom shines brilliantly, unblocked and unhindered by the clouds of deluded impulses. If one surveys the Buddha's teachings, from the earliest scriptures through the subsequent Mahayana tradition, one can see that the core of Shakyamuni's enlightenment was his awakening to the "law of dependent origination." This concept has been expressed in various ways and was developed in great depth and detail in Mahayana Buddhism; its essence is the interdependence of all living beings and indeed all phenomena. Dependent origination teaches us that all things occur and exist only through their interrelationship with all other phenomena and that this fabric of relatedness is of infinite extent both temporally and spatially. Herein lies the basis for the principle of mutually supportive coexistence of all beings so central to Buddhist thinking.

Each human being exists within the context of interrelationships that include other human beings, all living beings and the natural world. In other words, each person is sustained by the interdependent web of life. By awakening to this principle we are able to expand instinctive self-love into an altruistic love for others; we are able to nurture the spirit of tolerance and empathy for others.

The doctrine of dependent origination also provides a theoretical foundation for peace. In terms of concrete action, it manifests itself as the practice of compassion. In Buddhism, compassion indicates the practical ethic of always maintaining an empathetic involvement with others. It means sharing their sufferings and unhappiness, working alongside them to overcome the deluded impulses that are the root cause of suffering, transforming these into happiness, benefit and joy.

Ignorance is considered fundamental among these deluded impulses precisely because it blinds people to the reality of dependent origination, the unavoidable and all-encompassing interrelatedness within which we live. This ignorance gives rise to the greed that drives people to seek the fulfillment of their desires even at the cost of the suffering of others. It also leads to the kind of uncontrolled rage that seeks the destruction of a situation in which one's desires are frustrated. It is for this reason that the deluded impulse of ignorance is considered equivalent to a fundamental ego centrism. It is a blind and finally self-destructive ego centrism because it violently severs the strands of the web of life that supports one's own existence.

The state of mind of one who ceaselessly strives to transcend this fundamental ego centrism is that of inner peace and tranquility. The heart of such a person is lit with the wisdom of dependent origination, and overflows with the spirit of compassion.