輪廻の解決：Solution of Samsara

 

諸苦の解決 3

輪廻の解決

 

輪廻の原語saṃsāraは「全-流」（sāraは浅瀬の流水サラサラの擬音語）を意味し、車輪の回転を意味するものではない。saṃsāraとkarmaはインド思想の基底にあるとされるが歴史的意味はヴェダ、ウパニシャッド、仏教へと大きな変化をした。

ヴェーダでは季節の循環・宇宙秩序と儀礼・祭祀を意味し正しい時・所・法で祭祀を行うことが対応する日照・降雨・収穫などと関係するが、ウパニシャッドでは行為・生き方が果報・運命を決め生死輪廻の善悪を決めるとされる様になりました。

最古層のウパニシャッドでは死後霊魂は荼毘の煙となって天に登り月に住し雨と共に地に降り植物に吸収され食物として生前の行為により異なる生物に食べられ精子となり母体に入り異なる生を受けることになるなどと永遠輪廻が説明されている。

永遠輪廻から解放される解脱の方法として様々な苦行などが考案されたが覚者は二師より定（三昧：総合）を学んだが満足せず四禅（瞑想）を正定として身心・知情意の業の止滅の過程・内容を具体的に示し誰でも涅槃・覚醒に至れる道を示した。

覚者は十二支縁起で刻々輪廻（生成・生存の輪）で渇愛・無明で輪廻・苦の生存を示したが、刻々生死の状態を地獄・畜生・餓鬼・人・天の五道・趣（gati)で示した（後に修羅追加）。人は有頂天から餓鬼・修羅・地獄の三悪道に陥ることがある。

金字塔文明・国家の金物力の奪い合いはその奴隷になり餓鬼・修羅として争い独裁・戦争・核・大量絶滅・気候変動・氷河崩壊・森林火災・酷暑・大雨等の地獄を自他一切に作っているのである。その解決は業三毒から法三学への転換である。

縁起法は一切が相依・相対であるから自己中・自国中・独裁・戦争・核・破局は許されず、五戒に基づく戒・地球倫理は人間として皆が守る義務である。静坐・正定は涅槃・覚醒を皆に実現させ、般若：知恵・慈悲は皆の実践となり世界を変える。

正定（総合）である坐禅は何かを得るのではなく悪業を手放すのであり、それが一切仮構・造作の止んだ涅槃であり、そこに本来の在り方に目覚めるのであるから、覚者（ブッダ、諸仏諸菩薩：道元他一切）が出来たことは皆に出来ることです。

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Solution of Saṃsāra

 

The original term for “transmigration,” saṃsāra, literally suggests “flowing on altogether” or “continuous flowing” (saṃ + √sṛ, “to flow, move, go”). It does not originally mean the turning of a wheel. The Japanese sound sara-sara, describing the gentle flow of shallow water, happens to suggest this flowing quality well. Saṃsāra and karma are regarded as fundamental concepts of Indian thought, but their historical meanings underwent major transformations from the Vedas, through the Upaniṣads, to Buddhism.

In the Vedic tradition, the emphasis was on the cycles of the seasons and cosmic order, together with ritual and sacrifice. Performing the proper ritual at the right time, place, and in the proper manner was understood as participating in an ordered cosmos involving sunlight, rainfall, harvest, and other natural processes. In the Upaniṣads, however, increasing emphasis came to be placed upon one’s actions and way of life as determining their fruits and destiny, including favorable or unfavorable rebirth within saṃsāra.

In some of the oldest Upaniṣads, transmigration after death is explained through a remarkable cosmic cycle. The deceased is cremated; the journey is associated with smoke ascending toward the heavenly realm, residence in the Moon, and eventual descent with rain. Rain enters the earth and is absorbed by plants. Through food, and according to previous action, the returning being becomes connected with different forms of life; through reproduction it becomes semen, enters a womb, and receives another birth. In this way an apparently endless circulation of birth and death is described.

Various forms of asceticism were developed as ways of attaining mokṣa―liberation from endless saṃsāra. The Buddha―the Awakened One―learned states of meditative absorption (samādhi: synthesis) from two teachers, but was not satisfied that these provided the final liberation/solution. He subsequently clarified the Four Jhānas (meditations) as Right Samādhi, concretely demonstrating a process through which the karma of body and mind―intellection, emotion, and volition―can be calmed and brought to cessation. Thus he showed a Way through which anyone can awaken to and realize Nirvāṇa.

Through the Twelve Links of Dependent Co-origination, the Buddha analyzed saṃsāra as the moment-to-moment Wheel of Becoming/Existence, showing how nescience (avidyā) and craving (tṛṣṇā) condition continued becoming and suffering. The conditions of moment-to-moment existence can also be described through the Five Destinies (gati)―hell beings, animals, hungry ghosts, humans, and heavenly beings―to which the asura realm was later added, producing the familiar Six Destinies. Within human life itself, a person can fall from a state of heavenly exhilaration into the conditions symbolized by hungry ghosts, asuras, or hell―the three evil destinies.

Our pyramidal civilization, with states competing to acquire money, matter, and might, can itself become enslaved by these forces. Like hungry ghosts and fighting asuras, human beings struggle endlessly for possession and power, producing for ourselves and others the hells of dictatorship, warfare, nuclear destruction, mass extinction, climate change, collapsing glaciers, forest fires, extreme heat, torrential rains, and other catastrophes. The solution is a fundamental transformation:

from the karmic Triple Poisons to the Dharmic Triple Learning.

The Dharma of Dependent Co-origination reveals that everything is interrelated and relative. Therefore, self-centeredness, state-centeredness, dictatorship, warfare, nuclear destruction, and civilizational catastrophe contradict the reality of our interdependent existence. Ethical conduct and a Global Ethic grounded in the Five Precepts are responsibilities that all human beings should undertake. Still sitting and Right Samādhi make Nirvāṇa and awakening realizable for everyone, while **prajñā―wisdom together with compassion―**becomes everyone’s practice and transforms the world.

Zazen, as Right Samādhi―synthesis of all―is not a matter of acquiring something. It is letting go of unwholesome karma. When all fabrication, construction, and contrivance cease, there is Nirvāṇa, and we awaken to our original way of being.

Therefore, what the Awakened Ones―the Buddha, the buddhas and bodhisattvas, Dōgen, and others―were able to realize is a possibility open to everyone.

If one can awaken, all can awaken.

Nothing to gain―only to let go.
From karma to Dharma,
from saṃsāra to Nirvāṇa,
from suffering to awakening.

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