..續本文上一頁 our desires for pleasant experiences. It is said that trying to satisfy one”s desire for pleasant experiences is like drinking salt water when one is thirsty. If one drinks salt water to satisfy one”s thirst, one”s thirst, rather than being quenched, is only increased.

　　Not only do we crave for pleasant experiences but we also crave for material things. You can see this clearly in children. I have a five year old son. Take him into a toy shop and he will want every toy in the shop. And perhaps he will buy a toy. Almost as soon as he has bought the toy he begins to lose interest in it, and without fail, within a few days the toy will be neglected in the corner of the room and he will want another toy. While this can be seen very clearly in young children, are we any different

　　 After we have bought that new car don”t we want another one

　　 After we have got a new house don”t we think "Well, this house is quite nice, but it will be even nicer if I can get a better one, one with a little garden or one with four rooms, or a point block, or a condominium." And it goes on and on, whether it is a train set or a bicycle or a video recorder or a Mercedes Benz. It is said that the desire for acquiring wealth or possession is involved with three major sufferings, or problems. The first one is the problem of getting it. You have to work, and save enough to buy that car or that house. Secondly, there is the suffering of protecting it. You worry that someone might bang your car, you worry that your house may burn down or be damaged by the rain. Finally there is the suffering of losing them, because sooner or later they will fall apart.

　　Craving for existence or eternal life is a cause of suffering. We all crave for existence, we all crave for life. Despite all the suffering and frustration of life we all crave for life. And it is this craving which causes us to be born again and again. Then there is the desire for annihilation, the desire for non-existence, what we might call the desire for eternal death. This expresses itself in nihilism and in suicide. Craving for existence is one extreme. Craving for non-existence is another extreme.

　　You may ask, "Is craving alone a sufficient cause of suffering

　　 Is craving alone enough to explain suffering

　　 Is the answer as simple as that

　　" The answer is no. There is something that goes deeper than craving. There is something which in a sense is the foundation of craving. And that something is ignorance (Avidya).

　　Ignorance is not seeing things as they really are, or failing to understand the reality of experience or the reality of life. All those who are well educated may feel uneasy about being told that they are ignorant. I can recall what Professor Lancaster who visited Singapore a few months ago said regarding this. He said this is one of the most difficult things to explain to university students in the United States when they begin a course in Buddhist studies because they are all very happy and proud to be in the university. Here you have to tell them that they are ignorant. He says always the hands shoot up immediately, "How are we ignorant

　　 In what sense are we ignorant

　　" Let me say this. Without the right conditions, without the right training and without the right instruments we are unable to see things as they really are. None of us would be aware of radio waves if it were not for the radio receiver. None of us would be aware of bacteria in a drop of water if it were not for microscopes, and none of us would be aware of molecular structure if it were not for the latest techniques of electron microscopy. All these facts about the world in which we live in are known and observed only because of special training, special conditions and special instruments. When we say that ignorance is failure to s…

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