..续本文上一页ue vision and knowledge” (Dionysius, the Areopagite). May in the realization of non-self all beings be happy!

　　Joy and Sorrow

　　Dukkha.tc”eva pa.t.tapemi dukkhassa ca nirodha.m

　　One thing only do I teach:

　　Woe and how its end to reach.

　　(MN 22, Alagadduupamasutta)

　　In this saying the Lord Buddha has summed up the whole of his noble teaching, laid down its essential features, and indicated the line of thought and action, which we, his disciples, ought to follow, if we too wish to attain what so many have attained before us, and what all of us are striving for, Buddhists and non-Buddhists, knowingly or unknowingly—the attainment of the highest and purest bliss.

　　The very fact that we all are striving for greater happi­ness shows that the degree of happiness in our possession is not satisfactory, that that degree of happiness is not even considered as good. We do not strive for what is better, but for the best. The best, however, is not better than the good, but it is the good that we have recog­nized as such. And after having recognized it, all the rest cannot even compete; it becomes simply evil, and as such it is rejected, whatever other name we may give to it.

　　Because the good is not attained, the quest of the good involves striving, struggle. Hence it is that even the vaguest idea of happiness contains an element of no-­more-struggle, no-more-striving, attainment, equilibrium, rest. It is the eternal rest we all are seeking.

　　“The night keeps hidden in its gloom the search for light;

　　The storm still seeks its end in peace, with all its might.”

　　(Rabindranath Tagore)

　　Rest is the natural goal of all action; and all action, because it is non-attainment, is dissatisfactory: dukkha. As life is action, actuality, non-attainment, striving, it is also impermanent. Hence life is sorrow-fraught, because it is impermanent.

　　To see that there is suffering in the world is not such an extraordinary discovery. The greatness of the Buddha”s insight, however, lies in the fact that he realized that every­thing is suffering; in other words he saw not merely that there was suffering in life, but he realized that life itself is suffering.

　　Thus suffering is actuality and as such it forms the foundation of the Buddha”s teaching. This does not make Buddhism pessimistic. It has merely to be accepted as a fact, as the truth, as actuality. There is nothing to be unhappy about the fact of dukkha, but there is something to be learned from that fact. Indeed, the whole of Buddhism is dependent on it. Here in suffering lies the origin of Buddhism, and in the deliverance from suffering its culmi­nation.

　　Even if Buddhism would teach the universal fact of suffering without showing at the same time the deliverance thereof, still it could not be said to be pessimistic; it would be stating the truth without exaggeration. But pessimism is an exaggeration towards the dark side. It would be pessimistic to state that no deliverance from, no cessation of suffering were possible. But the Buddha said: “As there is in the mighty ocean but one taste, the taste of salt, thus there is in my teaching but one taste, the taste of Deliver­ance” (Udaana).

　　So stands Buddhism marked, not as a pessimistic religion, a religion of sorrow and sadness, but as leading to the purest happiness and joy, because it teaches the deliv­erance from sorrow.

　　But in order to be delivered from sorrow, we must first understand what sorrow is.

　　Like the idea of happiness is linked up with eternal rest, so the idea of unhappiness is based on restless change. It is the teaching of change, of transience, of impermanence: anicca, which makes us understand all as suffering: dukkha.

　　To see the world as a continual flux, to see its dynamic nature, its …

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