change language
you are in: home - ecumenis...dialogue - internat...or peace - world me... to hope newslettercontact uslink

Support the Community

  

Let us help Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

The Community of Sant'Egidio launches a fundraising campaign to send humanitarian aid to the refugee camps in Bangladesh, in collaboration with the local Church

Christmas Lunch with the poor: let's prepare a table table that reaches the whole world

The book "The Christmas Lunch" available online for free. DOWNLOAD! And prepare Christmas with the poor


 
printable version
October 1 2013 09:30 | Clemenza Hall, ABI

Let ourselves be questioned by suffering



U Uttara


Buddhist Monk, Burma
My warmest Greetings to: Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
 
Before I begin my talk, I would first like to thank the Community of Sant’Egidio for inviting me to talk at this ‘International Meeting for Peace’.
 
My topic for this meeting is “Let Ourselves be Questioned by Suffering”.
 
Please allow me to start with the definition of ‘suffering’. In an ordinary sense, suffering may be defined as ‘the bearing of or distress’; in Buddhism, ‘suffering’ may be interpreted as ‘Dukkha’; the Buddhist believe that all things are suffering. Dukkha is one of the three basic characteristics of existence; the other two being ‘Anicca’ and ‘Anatta’. All our lives are governed by these three characteristics, ‘Anicca’, ‘Dukkha’, ‘Anatta’.
 
The modern world in which we live in today, has become far advanced in Information Technology, compared to the world fifty years ago; the IT has made it possible to make good progress in communications, medicines, science, education, economics and in all other areas we can think of. Today, the IT and our personal computers have made it so easy for us to find the required information instantly. We no longer require writing down pages after pages and storing them in bulky files. What the IT have done is to make our living easier and help us to reduce our worries. This is a good thing.
 
However, we all know that if there is a ‘good thing’, there will also be an opposite, ‘bad thing’, just as, happiness is opposite to suffering.
 
We are all aware of the First World War, the Second World War and so many small wars in between which are still going on today. We can imagine how many people were killed and how they suffered. 
 
The IT has made the world modern and it has also brought with it the destructive nuclear powers; short range and long range missiles, and the nuclear bombs that can destroy the whole world at a fingertip. The possibility of a Third World War is not a far fetched one. This imaginary worry can become a reality, and this is a real worry; this is a real suffering.
We all live to enjoy life; we all want things. The majority live with a hope that one day they will have everything. The majority die just hoping. To put it simply, life for all of us will be never satisfied, and the suffering will always be there in all of us. 
 
When our Lord Buddha became enlightened, his very first sermon to ‘Pan-sa Wag-gi’ = the five wisest disciples, emphasized the causes of six categories of sufferings as follows:
 
1  Lying in pregnancy inside a mother’s womb is suffering;
2  Growing old is suffering;
3  Falling ill is suffering;
4  Dying is suffering;
5  Living together with a person whom one does not love, and living apart from a person whom one loves; and 
6  Not getting what one wants in life. 
 
The Lord Buddha said these are truly the ‘Dukkhas’, the sufferings.
 
According to what the Buddha taught, we are suffering daily, in one way or the other. We are afraid to grow old; we are angry at not finding a preventive medicine for our old age. We do not want to suffer pain, and we are suffering because we cannot find a cure. We are most afraid when we are about to die. Everyday, we all suffer and we all die. The Lord Buddha said this ‘suffering’ is “Dukkha Tissa”, one of the Four Noble Truths. No one can escape from this suffering.
 
In respect of suffering by different people, if I may turn to a few light hearted questionnaires!
 
Q  One person was asked what was the worst suffering that he has experienced in life.
A worst suffering was at a time when he urgently wanted to do toilets, and he could not find one.
 
Q   A child was asked what was the worst suffering that she       
   has experienced in life?
 
A   The child said it was at a time when the family was passing a ‘McDonald’, and the parents refused to buy her a ham-burger. 
 
Q    A young girl was asked what was the worst suffering that           
   she experienced in life?
 
A   She answered that it was at a time when her parents forced her to marry a man whom she does not love.
 
Q   The same question was put to a mental patient.
 
A  This person replied that his worst suffering was at a time when doctors gave him a medicine to quiet him down.
 
It was an attempt to find out the meaning of suffering and we have received different answers from different people.
 
As I have indicated above, the Lord Buddha has preached us that living and dying, and being reborn again and again, is the worst kind of suffering. He taught us ways how to escape from this circle of rebirth. Until and unless we can escape from this circle of rebirth, we will have to go through again and again  the process of suffering, namely, [Zarti] lying in pregnancy and being born, [Zarar] growing old,[Byardi] falling ill and [Marana] dying. The Lord Buddha did showed us a way to break through this circle of rebirth by practicing ‘Wipathana or Insight Meditation’, which involve sharpening one’s concentration and building up his or her inner wisdom, to attain the final goal of Nibanna.
 
May I wish you all peace, happiness and tranquility.

 

LINKED EVENTS
in the World

PROGRAMMA
PDF

LIVE STREAMING
Programme

RELATED NEWS
October 23 2013

The courage to hope: three videos


From Côte d'Ivoire to Rome, the images of this year's meetings of men and religions broadcast again on television
IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT | CA | ID
October 3 2013
SAN ANTONIO, UNITED STATES

The spirit of Assisi in Texas


Nearly 1,000 people in San Antonio Texas for the U.S. edition of The Courage of Hope
IT | EN | ES | DE | PT
October 2 2013
ABIDJAN, CÔTE D'IVOIRE

“The Courage to Hope”, also organised in Africa.


Religions meeting in Abidjan, in connection with Rome
IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT | CA | ID
October 1 2013

Speech of the Holy Father Francis to the participants of the International Meeting for Peace “The Courage to Hope”

IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT | CA | ID
October 1 2013
To delegitimize religious terrorism

The Indian intellectual Kulkarni said: “Religious Terrorism divides ‘in primis’ its originating religion”.

IT | EN | ES | DE | PT | CA | ID
October 1 2013
To delegitimize religious terrorism

Catholic Theologian Puig i Tàrrech: «Terrorism in the name of God is an attack to all the faithful»

IT | EN | ES | PT | CA | ID
all related news

NEWS IN HIGHLIGHT
December 26 2017

Look at the world map enlightened by the Christmas lunches

IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT | CA | NL
December 25 2017

Merry Christmas from the Community of Sant'Egidio!


The joy of Christmas is the joy of a visit, the one we receive, because Jesus comes into the world, and the one each of us can give, because the visit is a joy and a light that remains. WATCH THE VIDEO
IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT | CA | NL | RU
December 13 2017 | BLANTYRE, MALAWI

The new church in the House of Friendship of the Community of Sant’Egidio in Blantyre has been inaugurated.


The first prayer was presided by Mgr. Vincenzo Paglia, who met the Community in his visit to Africa
IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT | NL | PL | HU

RELATED PRESS REVIEW
September 6 2015
Shekulli
“Takimi i paqes”, krerët botërorë të feve mblidhen në Tiranë
November 11 2013
Herder Korrespondenz
Religion und Frieden: Internationales Treffen der Gemeinschaft von Sant'Egidio
October 29 2013
Roma sette
Preghiera e condivisione fondamenta della pace
October 13 2013
SIR
Insieme scegliamo il coraggio della pace
October 6 2013
La Vita del Popolo (Treviso)
La pace delle religioni
all press-related