Our World
It's clear which world we got. Or is it? It seems we have both. We are like donkeys pull along by a carrot dangling from a stick. And if we do not fall for the trick, we are hit by the stick.
The economy collapses because of the banking-housing crisis. But that was planned. Anyone who did not greedily go in for an unrepayable loan voluntarily had new terms inserted by deception or simply suffered as the market sank. They didn't do anything.
But it was no accident. This was a great money-making scheme that has worked as planned. The bankers are richer with interest-free loans to bail them out and the repossession of homes.
Why do such things happen to us?
There's an interesting answer, even more interesting than bank plots and high finance conspiracies. We have things the way they are because of who we are. Who are we?
Ordinary Worldlings
Most of us are puthujjanas (literally, "one of the many folk") or "uninstructed worldling," that is, an ordinary unenlightened person. What does it mean?
A puthujjana is any layperson or monastic who is still possessed of all ten fetters (samyojana) binding one to the Round of Rebirths (samsara). For such a person has not yet reached any of the [ten, usually divided into four] stages of enlightenment (ariya-puggala).
"Who is neither freed from the three fetters (personality-belief, sceptical doubt, attachment to mere rules and rituals), nor is on the way to shaking free of these three, such a being is called a worldling" (Pug. 9).
According to the commentary to MN 9, a "worldling" may be:
- (1) an outsider (non-Buddhist) who, if believing in moral causation, may be said to have right view at least to that extent, but has no "knowledge conforming to the [Four Ennobling] Truths" (saccānulomika-ñāna), as has
- (2) the "worldling inside the Buddha's Dispensation" (sāsanika).
A worlding who professes to be a Buddhist may either be a "blind worldling" (andha-puggala) who has neither knowledge of, nor interest in, the fundamental teaching (the Four Noble Truths, the Five Aggregates of Clinging, etc.).
Or one is a "noble worldling" (kalyāna-puggala), who has such knowledge and earnestly strives to understand and practice the Teaching.
See Atthasālini Tr. II, 451 (tr. by "average person"); commentary to MN 1, DN 1.
Going Beyond
Our aim perhaps, surely the aim of Wisdom Quarterly, is to get out of samsara and literally find enlightenment. Many Buddhists (most of them Mahayanists) will insist, "Enlightenment is already here!" Fine. Many of us have yet to find it, to dwell in it, to live it in happiness and security from suffering of all kinds. This year will focus on reaching enlightenment more than ever before.
