The Third Wish: To Lead the World Out of Materialism
-Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
When viewed closely, materialism is obviously a matter of serious and grave concern for it has become a problem that ‘devours’ humankind until we have lost that lofty part of our humanity, living mindlessly with no prospect for a bright and peaceful future, while at the same time worshipping the pleasures of the flesh and skin obtainable from all sorts of material goods and idolizing them as though they were our God.
The world is thus full of selfishness because human beings are contented with the ‘taste’ of material goods and have become more infatuated with it than any other tastes.
Now that everybody is more or less becoming a slave of materialism, what are we to do?
Life is composed of two things: on the material side, it is the body, and on the spiritual side, it is the mind. Between these two, there is something that tells truth or the right truth which leans neither to the physical side nor to the spiritual side. It is “Dhammaism.”
Materialism and spirituality are a pair of opposites, but to be excessively engrossed in spirituality is also a kind of extreme attachment and would be as harmful as the extreme clinging to material things in materialism. Let there be some form of harmony between the two.
Knowing nature well, we will not senselessly take anything from nature, to lay claim to it as our own. Knowing the laws of nature will help us know the way to restrain whatever traits of nature within us which lean toward the more undesirable side – things which are in the body and mind, elements, aggregates of consciousness or feelings and whatever such things there may be. It also helps us to know our duty in accordance with nature as to how we must perform our duty. That sort of nature will not lead to problems and suffering.
So we must help to the best of our ability to promote the knowledge and practice of Dhamma and to make sure that people know how to make use of Dhamma to pull the world out of materialism.
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu delivering the Third Wish talk on the occasion of his 80th birthday, 27 May 1986. Credit: BIA collection (Ref. K-252)
The above text was excerpted from one of three Dhamma lectures offered by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu on 27 May 2529 (1986) on his 80th ‘Age Teasing Day - วันล้ออายุ’ (birthday). All three lectures were combined into the bilingual book, The Three Wishes of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, with translation by J. Ratana Nantho Bhikkhu. Slight editing of this translation was undertaken by BIA volunteers for inclusion in the book, A Single Bowl of Sauce: Teachings Beyond Good & Evil, pages 195-219, May 2017. It is this most recent version of the translation that is offered in pdf form above to commemorate Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s 114th anniversary, 27 May 2020.
For other Dhamma teachings by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu (audios, free ebooks, interviews, poems), please visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation.
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Buddhadasa Bhikkhu delivering the Third Wish talk on the occasion of his 80th birthday, 27 May 1986. Credit: BIA collection (Ref. K-252)
