There is tremendous suffering in the world, but since nothing comes from nothing—that is, everything has causes—it cannot be accidental.

     Most of our suffering is man-made—either by others or by ourselves—and so is avoidable. It is not because we are inherently bad or sinful (as some religions claim), that we cause suffering to others, and ultimately to ourselves, but because we lack understanding of how we live in dependence upon others, and how we cannot live otherwise. And why do we not understand this? Largely because we are not educated properly; and, lacking such understanding, we are like a man who sits astride the bough of a tree and begins to saw through it between himself and the trunk: when the bough falls, he also falls with it. Could he be called ‘sinful’, or merely ‘stupid’?

     It is not surprising that there is so much suffering when there is so much of its cause. Where there are causes, there will be effects; to prevent the effects, the causes must be avoided. Knowing the causes is the first step of doing this. Those who have ever removed weeds from a garden will know that to prevent them from growing back again, the roots must be pulled up; merely to cut them off above ground would leave them to spring up again within the next few days; such is the resilience of weeds.

 

Two things,

said the Buddha

have no limits:

Space,

And

Human stupidity.