To solve our human problems and enable us to find everlasting peace and happiness, Buddha gave the most profound teachings for us to use as practical advice. His teachings are known as ‘Dharma’, which means supreme protection from suffering. Dharma is the actual method to solve our human problems. To understand this, first we should consider what is the real nature of our problems and what are their main causes.
Our problems do not exist outside our mind. The real nature of our problems is our unpleasant feelings, which are part of our mind. When our car, for example, has a problem, we often say, ‘I have a problem’, but in reality it is not our problem but the car’s problem. Our problems develop only when we experience unpleasant feelings. The car’s problems exist outside the mind, whereas our problems are inside our mind. By differentiating between animate and inanimate problems like this, we can understand that the real nature of our problems is our own feelings, which are part of our mind.
All our problems – our unpleasant feelings – come from our delusions of attachment and self-grasping ignorance, therefore these delusions are the main causes of our problems. We have strong attachment to the fulfilment of our own wishes and for this aim we work very hard throughout our life, experiencing many difficulties and problems. When our wishes are not fulfilled we experience unhappiness and depression, which often causes us to become angry, creating more problems for both ourself and others. We can understand this clearly through our own experience. When we lose our friends, job, status, or reputation and so forth, we experience pain and many difficulties. This is because of our strong attachment to these things. If we had no such attachment, there would be no basis for experiencing suffering and problems at their loss.
Due to strong attachment to our own views, we immediately experience the inner problem of unpleasant feelings when someone opposes them. This causes us to become angry, which leads to arguments and conflicts with others, and this in turn gives rise to further problems. Most political problems experienced throughout the world are caused by people with strong attachment to their own views. Many problems are also caused by people’s attachment to their religious views.
In previous lives, because of our attachment to fulfilling our own wishes we performed many different actions that harmed other living beings. As a result of these actions, we now experience many different problems and sufferings in our life.
If we look in the mirror of Dharma, we can see how our attachment, anger, and especially our self-grasping ignorance are the causes of all our problems and sufferings. We shall definitely realize that unless we control these delusions there is no other method to solve our human problems. Dharma is the only method to control our delusions of attachment, anger, and self-grasping ignorance. This is why we can say that Buddha’s teachings, Dharma, are the only method to solve our human problems. Ancient Kadampa practitioners and many practitioners of today understand this through their own experience; they are witnesses to this truth. Buddha’s teachings are the supreme scientific method to solve human problems. If we sincerely put his teachings into practice, we shall definitely solve our human problems and find the real meaning of our life.