覚りの機会の平等性
Equality of opportunity for enlightenment
2026-02-28
All people (sentient beings), without exception, are capable of accumulating merit and reaching the imperishable state of nirvana.
This is truly so.
That said, are the opportunities for practitioners of the Buddhist path to awaken (= to attain liberation) preserved in an equal manner?
In other words, can we say that the various opportunities that arise throughout the whole course of Buddhist practice—such as accumulating merit, giving rise to appropriate conditions for awakening along one’s path, being able to remain mindful, and, especially, being able to generate wisdom when circumstances demand it—come to practitioners in a largely equal way?
It is a subtle question, but fundamentally, it is reasonable to think that this equality is indeed maintained.
This is because everyone who has actually reached awakening (= liberation) does not believe that they awakened due to something special or exceptional unique to themselves.
That said, they do not think that they awakened by mere chance, nor do they suppose—much less—that they were guided by some transcendent will.
This is because the path to awakening is, from beginning to end, a matter that belongs to each individual, and because it can be said that everything necessary for awakening is already present in every person from the outset.
However, a person cannot reach awakening entirely on their own.
For through inconceivable conditions and causal connections that take words as their supporting condition, a person gives rise to opportunities, accumulates merit, and, when faced with a critical moment, again generates wisdom by taking words as a condition.
For these reasons, as long as one is a person who can use words properly, it can be said that the equality of opportunities for awakening is, as it were, guaranteed.
And at the core of this equality lies the opportunity for the appearance of the exceedingly rare “Verses of the Dharma,” and the assurance that, from the Buddha’s perspective, this opportunity is most likely bestowed upon all people in an equal manner forms the basis of that guarantee.
Incidentally, with regard to the “Verses of the Dharma,” they are taught as the following principle in the early Buddhist scriptures of Shakyamuni Buddha.
• ── Each of your verses has been recited splendidly and in due order. Yet listen also to my verse. (Giving) with faith has indeed been praised in many ways. However, the ‘Verse of the Dharma’ is superior (even to giving). The good people of old, and the good people even before them, endowed with wisdom, proceeded toward nirvana. (Dialogue of the Buddha with the Deities — Samyutta Nikaya I, translated by Hajime Nakamura, Iwanami-Bunko)
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