Everyone says it’s the time of degeneration. Yes, I believe the degenerate age will be here sooner or later as Guru Rinpoche prophesied in his Seven Chapter Prayer, Spontaneously Accomplishing Wishes: “In the degenerate age of strife, in the last five-hundred years, all sentient beings will be beleaguered by the gross defilement of the five poisons.” Also in other Buddhist texts, they mention our generation being in the degenerate time. However, I firmly wonder if the present century is the degenerate time.
Once His Holiness Padma Norbu Rinpoche said, “I think it’s our best time instead of the time of degeneration.” We are in the perfect time where we have all the causes and conditions to practice Dharma. When I say practising Dharma here, it doesn’t only mean wearing robes and becoming monks and nuns. I mean cultivating unconditional love and compassion through education. During past centuries, it was said in the histories how rare and difficult it was to get such education. The world was under the threat of civil wars, in conflicts of race and religion, suffering from holocausts and most of all from the notorious two world wars of the twentieth century. Can you imagine how many beings might have suffered at that time? Certainly thousands of millions of innocent beings suffered due to lack of education about love and compassion.
In the best cases, different kinds of revolution took place in order to make the living peaceful and happy in the past. But most of them failed or were left incomplete. Now the world is completely different. It is glued with so much mutual friendship and freedom, and formed as one home like never before. The present world is reformed with education, the root of all phenomena. Therefore, how irrational would it be to say that we are living in the degenerate time?
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every generation seems to think that the next generation is slowly going to hell in a hand basket.” So, it’s our mere notion and ludicrous to say that we are living in a degenerate age. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by the nascent monasteries and yoga centres sprouting up that were hardly seen anywhere in the past.
Quite recently we have seen people protesting to ban festivals that include slaughtering of animals in some places which have been practising this for a long time. Volunteers from all around the world came to help during the times of disaster like the deadly earthquake in Nepal and the Malaysian plane crash. Friendly world cup games, and the proliferation of NGOs and charities are some of the inspiring good examples of harmonizing our world.
I think this is all done only with the motivation of what we call four immeasurable thoughts in Mahayana Buddhism. We as a whole world are contemplating and putting into practice the four immeasurable thoughts unknowingly or knowingly. Immeasurable love, compassion, joy and equanimity are practiced by having the mind to help clear other nations’ problems, praying for the happiness of other nations, rejoicing in other nations’ success, and participating together with cooperation respectively. I have seen many Indian non-Buddhist tourists visiting the Golden Temple (at my home in Namdroling Monastery, south India) for the last nine years. I asked one of the Muslim couples their reason for visiting the monastery. They happily replied that they just felt peace and calm visiting places like the Golden Temple.
Due to the advancement of science and technology, machines are being invented for the sole intention of making our life easy such as smartphones, computers, automobiles and so on. Everything is made easy and reliable for us like never before. A few months ago I went to meet my wonderful friend Macson, the first Christian monk I ever met. The name of his church is Pushpa Ashram, which is located on the outskirts of Mysore, south India. I was surprised when I saw the gate of the church and asked him in confusion, “Is this really your Christian monastery or am I going into a Hindu temple?” He replied instantly with smile, “Every new visitor gets confused like you and later they appreciate the idea of keeping harmony between different religions which is why we deliberately built our main gate with a Hindu architect.” He added that nearby Hindus also used to visit the church and pay their respects. This entered my ears like a longing man hearing the awaited three words from his dream girl. It filled my heart with immense joy.
John Milton said in his poem Paradise Lost, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” So it’s in our mind to make a beautiful heaven to live upon. Let’s fulfil our common goal of achieving happiness in the world and make it a beautiful place to live. Let us all educate ourselves and unite together as members of one home, respect all religions, cultivate love and compassion, and finally be “a charlatan trying to breach the degenerate age”.
By Lopon Pema Wangdak
NNI
