Happy New Year
Wishing you a very happy New Year.
Thank you for your continued support this year as well.
As a new year begins, each of us likely holds some hope in our hearts for how we wish the year to unfold. Some may wish, “I want to stay healthy and live a long life!” Others may hope, “I want to pass my entrance exams,” or even, “This year, I really want a boyfriend (or girlfriend)!” There’s no single “correct” wish. Still, if we are going to wish for something, I would encourage you not to settle for small, easily attainable happiness close at hand, but instead to dare to dream of something so big it may seem almost impossible.
The Dream of Buddhists
There is a dream that Buddhists around the world have shared since ancient times: the dream of attaining enlightenment.
But what, exactly, is the state of “enlightenment”? According to dictionary definitions, enlightenment is described as a calm and peaceful state of mind free from worldly desires. Yet strangely enough, it is difficult to grasp what that state truly is, or whether it can really be reached through practice. After all, although it is said that Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment some 2,500 years ago, the next being foretold in the scriptures to do so—Maitreya Bodhisattva—is said to be born into this world 5.67 billion years in the future. That means that in our present age, there is supposedly not a single person who has attained enlightenment.
Whether this tradition is literally true or not, when we look honestly at ourselves, it is easy to accept that attaining enlightenment is extraordinarily difficult—and that it is rare indeed to find anyone around us who embodies such perfect realization.
Still, Dare to Dream Big
For this reason, the state of enlightenment—something no one in our time has witnessed firsthand—remains mysterious and elusive. One cannot help but marvel at how people in the past were able to walk a path aimed at something so unknowable. And yet, it is precisely this relentless pursuit of an ultimate ideal that may explain why Buddhism has endured for over 2,500 years.
Humans achieve little growth by aiming for small, easily attainable goals. But what if we face an ultimate ideal—perhaps even a reckless one—such as “I want to attain enlightenment”? In doing so, we become acutely aware of how deeply entangled we are in our own delusions. We begin to feel the need to discipline ourselves. And because self-discipline is so difficult, we naturally reach out to others and join hands with companions. Buddhist sanghas, precisely because they pursued such an overwhelmingly grand ideal, became indispensable to Buddhists.
The same principle surely applies to the dreams each of you cherishes this New Year. The bigger the dream, the greater the opportunity for you to change. As others resonate with your journey toward that dream, your bonds with them will deepen.
May this year bring you closer to your dreams, day by day!
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