HARMONY - August 2013

Growing up, I was exposed to a wide variety of music ranging from Jazz and Classical to Rock and Reggae. One theme that is common amongst all types of music is Love. There have been millions of songs written about love; losing love, finding love, missing love, searching for love, the list goes on and on…glorifying romantic love as a means to bring us absolute happiness.

Whatever your taste in music, one thing is certain, The Beatles were a great band. Their music was popular and insightful. In 1967 they had a number one hit with a message they felt could be understood by all nationalities “all you need is love”. Now the song is playing n your head, isn’t it?

Yes, it is true we all need love. It is an emotion that we all share; it is part of being human. But is that really all that is needed, especially in the context of peace and happiness? Just love? If it were that easy, then why are we living in such troubled times, and if all you need is love, then love for whom? How is that love defined?

Burt Bacharach wrote the song “What the world needs now is love”. Again, good message, but I would take it one step further and add compassion. What the world needs now is love and compassion. Why stop at love?

What we really need is more people being more compassionate toward their fellow human beings. It is sometimes hard to feel compassion for people we don’t know or who aren’t in our immediate environment. But since we are all connected, that doesn’t have to be the case.

What is stopping us from feeling the pain and anguish or even sharing in the joy of the person sitting next to us on the bus? They are no different then we are, are they? They have the Buddha nature just like we do, don’t they?

It is not always easy to love or feel by any means! But as Second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda once said: “we can substitute courage for compassion. The courage to speak the truth is the equivalent of compassion.”

In our cut-throat, aggressive corporate culture, compassion is sometimes perceived as a sign of weakness. It is something you shouldn’t have if you are to succeed, where they only way to win is at the expense of someone else.

This is a very unfortunate way to approach life. You miss so much by adhering to this way of treating others. From the standpoint of the Ten Worlds, this is the world of Animality, whereas compassion is the life-state of Bodhisattva.

Let’s summon up our courage, increase our compassion and write new lyrics to our own song.

Quote of the Month

“As Buddhist, we need to be  sensitive to other people’s situations, to put out the ‘antennas of the heart,’ as it were. Such concern and sensitivity, which the Daishonin teaches by his own example, are essential parts of the makeup of a Buddhist.”

-Daisaku Ikeda FIA p.20