2024-01-21 17:00:00
Shakyamuni Buddha illustrates the nature of ordinally people (=sentient beings) as follows:
251 In the realm of desires, there is no fire equivalent to passion. Even when casting dice bringing you an unfavorable result, there is no misfortune equivalent to anger. There is no net equivalent to delusion, and no river equivalent to attachment. (The Words of Truth: Dhammapada, Chapter Eighteen: Impurity" translated by Hajime Nakamura, published by Iwanami Bunko)
Furthermore, in an article dated January 21, 2024, it was stated that wise individuals first break through delusion and discover the path towards enlightenment.
I will add this about it.
Now, let’s put the analogy of delusion and obsession in a more contemporary expression.
"Delusion is like wearing colored glasses to see the scenery, and attachment is akin to an illusion."
Here, an illusion is something of a nature that, even if one intellectually understands it to be an illusion, one cannot escape its influence. On the other hand, colored glasses, once removed, allow one to see colors correctly.
Removing the colored glasses is analogous to understanding and correctly grasping the words of the righteous path that lead to the state of happiness (=Nirvana).
However, this is not as easy as saying it.
The difficulty of this is expressed in the Lotus Sutra, Chapter Two - Expedient Means, as follows:
"In the evil age of the five defilements, there are those who cling solely to various desires, and these individuals ultimately do not seek the path to Buddhahood. Even when hearing teachings on the oneness proclaimed by the Buddha, the future evildoers, perplexed, will not accept and believe in it. They will break the teachings and fall into a wicked world."
Therefore, only the exceedingly wise individuals can break through delusion and discover this unified path.
For those interested in this topic, please refer to the article dated December 19, 2023.
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