Wise View As Refuge In Challenging Times
Because we can be so acutely aware of the turbulence and difficulties in our world, it is natural that we want to both find refuge from them and respond to them. It can seem that these are opposite responses to the political and social turmoil embedded in our society. Yet, from a particular perspective, or understanding, they are not. This understanding is none other than the understanding of Wise View – specifically, the aspect of wise view that pertains to the law of Karma: that actions of a particular nature (based on greed, hatred and delusion, or non-greed, non hatred, and non-delusion) lawfully produce corresponding results.
These results manifest in this lifetime and, according to Buddhist cosmology, affect future lifetimes as well. Beings with a particular mixture of greed, hatred and delusion and non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion are born into the human realm. Beings with a greater percentage of unwholesome qualities are born into lower realms, and beings with a greater percentage of wholesome qualities are born into higher realms. Therefore, beings born into the human realm will always have a mixture of wholesome and unwholesome habit patterns of mind.
As we can see, some humans have the wholesome Karma to come into contact with and follow a spiritual path that will strengthen wholesome qualities and weaken unwholesome ones. Others don’t, and the unwholesome qualities of heart and mind manifest in thought, speech and language that lead to suffering for themselves and others. History shows us that the human realm has always been this way.
Understanding this aspect of Wise View is important for cultivating a proper refuge from the suffering that arises in relation to these challenging times. With this view we can see that there actually isn’t anything out of place. Everything is happening lawfully and could not be otherwise. To the degree that this view occupies the mind will be the degree to which there isn’t extra suffering in the form of strong reactivity to an already difficult situation. That’s the refuge. We can’t stop the craziness in this world, but we can learn how to not add suffering to it.
It can be easy to read the above and feel that it’s just a cop out – an easy way to disconnect from and not address the suffering in our world. Yet, if we open to the fact that what’s happening could not be otherwise, it brings us more closely into relationship with what is than if we simply react and think things should be otherwise. We say, “Yes, this is happening,” rather than, “This shouldn’t be happening.” This is the world we actually live in, not the world that we hoped we lived in.
Not only does this view bring us closer to our world, but by reducing reactivity, it becomes a supportive platform from which skillful responses can arise. When we’re filled with reactivity and incensed that things are the way they are, any action we take will be tainted with aversion and therefore be less likely to ease our suffering.
The Buddha said, “There is Dukkha.” It’s the starting point for the entire Noble Eightfold Path, and it’s the starting point for finding refuge from, and responding to, the suffering associated with the manifestations of greed, hatred and delusion in our world.