First Sunday of May, we gathered together at the mission to dedicate our sincere prayer to the Buddhist guardian deity, Kishimojin whose Indian name was Hariti. She protects whoever believes in the Buddha Dharma. The Buddha Dharma is, in other words, the Buddha-Wisdom. So, you need to be a good Buddhist who has the Buddha-Wisdom to be protected by Kishimojin. I would like to share with you a Buddha-Wisdom to become a better Buddhist.

Before we learn this time’s Buddha-Wisdom, I would like to share with you reading from the Four Noble Truths. Please open the green book, Hasu No Oshie, and go to page 35. I’m going to read the Leader's part and you read the Class's part, please.

"Leader: The Four Noble Truths are the most complete summary of the entire Dharma. So, if we understand them, we will be good Buddhists. Let us remember there are only two paths in life. One, the way of happiness; the other, the way of suffering. The Four Noble Truths clearly point this out.

Leader: The truth of suffering.

Class: Man cannot escape from his destiny of death and suffering unless he finds a new way of life. Let us awaken to these facts.

Leader: The truth of the origin of suffering.

Class: The causes of suffering are the three defilements: greed, hatred and ignorance. Let us cleanse ourselves of these errors.

Leader: The truth of the extinction of suffering.

Class: It is true that we can attain perfect happiness and deliverance from suffering, if we cleanse ourselves of sin, and gain a new life. Let us live in this hope.

Leader: The truth of the path that leads to the extinction of suffering.

Class: The path of practice that leads to cessation of sins is the Noble Eightfold Path; namely, Right View, Right Emotion, Right Conversation, Right Conduct, Right Living, Right Effort, Right Meditation, and Right Faith. If we follow this path, we will attain Buddhahood. So let us practice these in our daily life."

Thank you for sharing.

Today, I would like to focus on the truth of suffering. From what do you suffer? Do you suffer from financial problems? Do you suffer from human relations? Do you suffer from your children’s education? You suffer from various kinds of problems in your daily life, don’t you? However, in the upshot, Buddha says that we, including you and me, suffer from four fundamental sufferings, which are "birth", "aging", "sickness" and "death". The Buddha says that we can never escape from the four sufferings unless we find a new way of life as stated in the book of Hasu No Oshie.

So, let us find the new way of life together.

First of all, "birth". Because we were born, we are now alive and suffer from many problems. Of course, we have not only sufferings but also happiness in our daily lives. When we are happy, there is no problem. We don’t need any help or don’t need to rely on anything. However, our lives are filled with problems, too. Whenever we face the problems, we always try to escape from them. But, the Buddha has already taught us that we are going to suffer from the four sufferings with no exception as long as we are alive. So, what if we accept the problems as well as accepting the happiness?

Second, let's think about "aging". Being young is, needless to say, wonderful. Then, is it a sin to get older? Everyone is surely getting older day by day with no exception. So, what if we think, "being young is great, but getting older is also good"? If we can accept the aging like this, don't you feel better, rather than thinking of aging negatively?

Third, let's think about sickness. Being healthy is, of course, good. Then, is being sick a sin? Buddha teaches us that no one can escape from getting sick. So, what if we enjoy being in good health, and we accept the sickness, too?

Lastly, let's think about death. This is the ultimate subject for us. No one wants to die. However, as long as we are human beings, we are going to die someday with no exception. Death is fearful and scary to anyone, of course. But, if we think of death calmly, we know that everyone is going to die someday. That’s inevitable. We understand that in our heads, but, we still don’t think, or we don’t want to think that we are really going to die. Anyway, let's try to accept this truth. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. Then, don’t you feel gratitude for being alive at this moment? Thinking of death seriously should make you feel grateful for being alive. How lucky we are! How precious our lives are! Then, if you could live with gratitude the rest of your life, death will become more acceptable. When the moment of death comes, if you can say, "I’ve lived my life with gratitude, so there’s no regret". If you can die like this, don’t you think that you would be very happy?

Finding a new way of life, stated in the Four Noble Truths, means to accept the sufferings as a part of our lives. In order to do that, you should be ready to face the four sufferings. Don’t think of escaping, but accepting them.

At my first Dharma Talk, I said that we could apply the Four Noble Truths to any kind of problems to help us accept.

We recently had a very sad news of terrible incident happened on April 6, 2007 at the Virginia Tech. A gunman shot and killed thirty-two people and after that he killed himself. I would like to express my deepest prayers to their parents, families and friends. This is not an incident that happened somewhere far away. This could happen anywhere and to anyone. I have three children and in the near future, they might be on campuses of colleges somewhere. If that should happen to me, what shall I do? How does the Buddha Dharma explain it? What can we learn from the incident? Let’s see the Four Noble Truths to help us with this tragedy.

What was the suffering? It was inside the gunman. He was suffering. When he was eight years old, he came to the United States with his parents and sister. At first he felt discriminated at school because he couldn't speak English. Since then, he had been suffering.

Then what was the cause of the suffering? It was hatred inside him. That's one of the three poisons of human beings according to the Buddha Dharma. The hatred inside him was growing and growing because his parents were not aware of his suffering, and he had no friend to talk to. He and his family could not blow out the flame of hatred inside him. So, this failure happened at where they should have blown out the flame of hatred inside the man.

Then, what about thirty-two victims? How can their parents and families accept and understand this? Now, they are suffering from the loss of their beloved ones. The poison of hatred has been produced inside them this time. The Buddha says in an ancient sutra called Udănavarga that:

"The hatred never comes to an end if you repay the hatred with the hatred. Therefore, the person who knows the Buddha Dharma throws away the hatred."

Compassion is very important for Buddhists. We should never despise anyone because we are all related to each other. If someone is suffering, be compassionate and help that person. It is because everyone is related to each other.

What we learned this time are the four sufferings, which are birth, aging, sickness and death. These sufferings are the truth of suffering. Next time, let us share learning the second of the Four Noble Truths, the cause of suffering.