September 2003, Issue 13

Editorial

The following is an excerpt from this issue:

The Buddha’s first Noble Truth was the truth of suffering. Most of our problems, if not all of them, really boil down to the issue of happiness and unhappiness. What do we usually do when, for some reason or another, we feel unhappy? What we don’t usually do is ask ourselves why we feel unhappy.

If we do ask at all, we ask only superficially, and we give ourselves only a superficial answer—in terms of symptoms or externals. What we usually do is try to escape from the feeling of being unhappy and simply ricochet—or try to ricochet—from that state into the opposite state of being happy.

This usually means grasping at some object or experience which is the Buddha’s second Noble Truth—the truth of the cause of suffering. We grasp at things that we believe will give us the happiness that we lack and seek. In other words, what we usually do is set up happiness as a goal and strive to achieve it…(Continued on page 1.)

Read this Myoju (file on Google Drive)