~ Basic Goodness ~
Albert Einstein once said that the most important question anyone can ask themselves is: "Is the universe a friendly place or not?" He went on: "The answer we find determines what we do with our lives. If the universe is a friendly place, we will spend our time building bridges. Otherwise, people use all their time to build walls. We decide.” In other words, if we believe that life is fundamentally unfriendly then we are likely to feel unsafe in the world. On the other hand, if we believe that it is basically friendly we are likely to feel safe in the world.
In today's world, it can be challenging to believe that the world is a friendly place, let alone the universe. What with COVID 19, the climate crisis, economic uncertainty, racism and widespread aggression and violence, it's easy to believe that everything is fundamentally unsafe and therefore to feel anxious and afraid. But there is a middle way - a way that is not based on belief, but on our lived experience of ourselves and others. This middle view doesn’t dispute that bad things can happen to good people or that we can act out of selfish motives. But it also sees and understands what might be called "basic goodness". In other words, it perceives life and human beings as fundamentally good AND it recognizes that sometimes basic goodness is very difficult to see. This is the view that Buddhism takes about human nature. There’s a true story that illustrates this very nicely:
In a large temple north of Thailand's ancient capital, Sukotai, there once stood an enormous and ancient clay Buddha. Though not the most handsome or refined work of Buddhist art, it had been cared for over a period of five hundred years and had become revered for its sheer longevity. One day, the monks who tended the temple noticed that the statue had begun to crack and would soon be in need of repair. After a stretch of particularly hot, dry weather, one of the cracks became so wide that a curious monk took a flashlight and peered inside.
What shone back at him was a flash of brilliant gold! Inside this plain old clay statue, he discovered one of the largest and most luminous gold images of Buddha ever created in Southeast Asia. Now uncovered, the golden Buddha draws throngs of devoted pilgrims from all over Thailand. (The monks believe that the statue had been covered in plaster and clay to protect it during times of conflict and unrest).
Just as the people of Sukotai had forgotten about the golden Buddha, so perhaps we too have forgotten about our basic goodness. Acting out of the layers of self-protection and emotional armoring we have built to defend ourselves from pain and suffering, we fail to remember our inherent kindness, honesty and integrity. Buddhism can help us to help us see beneath these layers and uncover our basic human goodness, which is also called our “buddha nature.” Insight meditation teacher Stephen Levine said "Buddha nature is like the sun which is always shining, always present, though often obscured. We are blocked from our natural light by the clouds of thought and longing and fear; the overcast of the conditioned mind; the hurricane of I am".
Basic goodness is not a concept that we need to persuade ourselves is true, and it's not a belief that helps us to feel good. It is about our actual experience. As Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche said “Basic goodness is not just an arbitrary idea that the world is good, but it is good because we can experience its goodness.” In this way, our lived experience of basic goodness gives us faith and strength. This doesn’t mean that we ignore what’s wrong or excuse people who cause harm. And it doesn’t mean that we are naïve and make ourselves vulnerable to unstable and perhaps violent individuals. But the experience of basic goodness – our own and others’ - can become an positive orientation to life that enables us to build bridges rather than walls.
When we directly experience our truly golden nature, we will naturally act with kindness and respect towards those around us. And when we do this, we open a channel to their basic goodness. When people experience someone who values them, it gives them the ability to accept and acknowledge their own basic goodness. When we see what is good and noble in another, we create a space for the transformation of their hearts.
I’ll end with a few words from Rumi, a 13th century Sufi mystic:
“You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.”
Thank you.
In today's world, it can be challenging to believe that the world is a friendly place, let alone the universe. What with COVID 19, the climate crisis, economic uncertainty, racism and widespread aggression and violence, it's easy to believe that everything is fundamentally unsafe and therefore to feel anxious and afraid. But there is a middle way - a way that is not based on belief, but on our lived experience of ourselves and others. This middle view doesn’t dispute that bad things can happen to good people or that we can act out of selfish motives. But it also sees and understands what might be called "basic goodness". In other words, it perceives life and human beings as fundamentally good AND it recognizes that sometimes basic goodness is very difficult to see. This is the view that Buddhism takes about human nature. There’s a true story that illustrates this very nicely:
In a large temple north of Thailand's ancient capital, Sukotai, there once stood an enormous and ancient clay Buddha. Though not the most handsome or refined work of Buddhist art, it had been cared for over a period of five hundred years and had become revered for its sheer longevity. One day, the monks who tended the temple noticed that the statue had begun to crack and would soon be in need of repair. After a stretch of particularly hot, dry weather, one of the cracks became so wide that a curious monk took a flashlight and peered inside.
What shone back at him was a flash of brilliant gold! Inside this plain old clay statue, he discovered one of the largest and most luminous gold images of Buddha ever created in Southeast Asia. Now uncovered, the golden Buddha draws throngs of devoted pilgrims from all over Thailand. (The monks believe that the statue had been covered in plaster and clay to protect it during times of conflict and unrest).
Just as the people of Sukotai had forgotten about the golden Buddha, so perhaps we too have forgotten about our basic goodness. Acting out of the layers of self-protection and emotional armoring we have built to defend ourselves from pain and suffering, we fail to remember our inherent kindness, honesty and integrity. Buddhism can help us to help us see beneath these layers and uncover our basic human goodness, which is also called our “buddha nature.” Insight meditation teacher Stephen Levine said "Buddha nature is like the sun which is always shining, always present, though often obscured. We are blocked from our natural light by the clouds of thought and longing and fear; the overcast of the conditioned mind; the hurricane of I am".
Basic goodness is not a concept that we need to persuade ourselves is true, and it's not a belief that helps us to feel good. It is about our actual experience. As Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche said “Basic goodness is not just an arbitrary idea that the world is good, but it is good because we can experience its goodness.” In this way, our lived experience of basic goodness gives us faith and strength. This doesn’t mean that we ignore what’s wrong or excuse people who cause harm. And it doesn’t mean that we are naïve and make ourselves vulnerable to unstable and perhaps violent individuals. But the experience of basic goodness – our own and others’ - can become an positive orientation to life that enables us to build bridges rather than walls.
When we directly experience our truly golden nature, we will naturally act with kindness and respect towards those around us. And when we do this, we open a channel to their basic goodness. When people experience someone who values them, it gives them the ability to accept and acknowledge their own basic goodness. When we see what is good and noble in another, we create a space for the transformation of their hearts.
I’ll end with a few words from Rumi, a 13th century Sufi mystic:
“You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.”
Thank you.