Enough is Enough- The cause of Suffering is not a Social Mystery
Author Rodger R Ricketts, Psy.D.
Copyright Rodger Ricketts Psy.D.,2025. All rights reserved. Protected by international copyright conventions. Reproduction is availble in case of brief quotations with due acknowledgement.
Decapitations, mass killings, enslavement, enforced starvation, abductions, sexual assaults, and the persistent plight of poverty and conflict are tragedies that have plagued humanity throughout history. Now, with the advent of modern mass communication, these heinous acts are revealed in their complete brutality as never before, making it impossible for anyone to ignore how critical the state of human suffering can be. This heightened awareness now provides a powerful motivation to put an end to such suffering.
Although the abuse of war and the inhuman attitude exhibited by people to fellow living beings is not new, the causes of such actions are revealing themselves more clearly. With the use of teachings offered by the Buddha we are now better able to remedy this and eventually stamp out these negative urges. The teachings of the Buddha, which are over 2,500 years, are increasingly applicable in the modern times, especially with the help of contemporary scientific discoveries. Through these teachings, a highly detailed model has been laid down which incorporates the use of moral and psychological understandings giving a clear and rational way to stop the suffering of ourselves, other people and living beings because of our ignorant and harmful intentions/actions.
This is a moment of excitement in humanity as we have a clear platform to develop a civilization with a harmonious relationship with the earth and its inhabitants. As opposed to the promises made in the past by different religious and philosophical movements, that favored one group and disadvantaged another, the vision advanced by the teachings of the Buddha and supported by modern science is not that at all. The new vision eliminates fixed identities and addresses the causes of conflict. What Buddha offers is a nonviolent, radical, yet functional way out of all that: a peaceful way out that can reduce and eventually remove the sufferings that has haunted humanity since its dawn. That misery contains a lot of distress that is caused by the ignorance of existence in human lives which creates a separation with reality. It is an important realization to help us cure the pain we both inflict and endure. This view can be summed up by a quote from the well-known physicist Albert Einstein: The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.
It’s worth noting that not all people who suffer from violence experience it directly. This also impacts on the perpetrators of such acts. According to the Buddha, a person who chooses to commit violence out of anger, greed, ignorance, and selfishness has a deluded mindset. This is what lies behind the destructive behavior we witness in the world today and in the past. When this kind of mindset ignorance disappears, violence, greed, hostility, and selfishness will also disappear. The greatest benefit of the Buddha’s teachings is that when we learn and apply them in our lives, we will achieve happiness, compassion, dignity, and wisdom.
The time has come when the world needs to understand these doctrines, (not mystical, not esoteric doctrines), but Truths which are guidelines about human suffering and their solution, in a practical and factual manner. The Buddha never engaged in Esotericism, nor did he offer a metaphysical explanation of the suffering. Rather, by observing himself and others, he concluded that ignorance, a misperception of reality, was the true source of suffering. By eliminating this misunderstanding through Awakening, people can relieve themselves and others from suffering. The result of Awakening is peace, happiness and compassion with oneself and all living beings. We must recognize that we are all interconnected and interrelated.
The teachings of Buddha present to us an immense opportunity of overcoming our ignorance and living compatibly with a harmonious life. We are ready now to have a Renaissance- a new Renaissance that would incorporate contemporary insights including of psychology, ecology, neurology, biology, physics, etc. that would hold up the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. This is the opportunity to make a remarkably positive future for humanity, it is the time to motivate a reformation, resulting in everyone being content and wise and suffering will no longer darken the face of this planet.
We are all Interconnected even with the Universe 