Dhamma Talks - It Is Not Fair :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

One part of my job as a Buddhist monk is to listen to what people are saying. This is a service that I give to people; to listen to them. This seems to be a good service that all people like, as it is free of charge. If they talk to a psychologist, they have to pay them money. It is so often that I have to listen to the conflicts, sad stories and so on. It is not so hard to listen to their problems, and it is worth listening if I can pull them out of their own problems. To do that, sometimes, I have to jump into the problems to help them but I don’t drown in the pit of the problem because I have been well trained.

The Buddha taught his disciples, “Don’t add fuel to the problems; they will disappear at the end, as the fire which is without fuel, will go out”. Luangpor Char compared the problems to rubbish and those monks, who listened to the problems, were like rubbish bins, but leaking ones. It is true as we, the monks, can listen to what people are saying unlimitedly; we never grab what we hear, we just let go of things like the leaking bins which are never full.

What do most people say? They complain, “We are not happy, we are not successful in life, we are poor and we cannot afford to buy this and that”, and the popular complaint is “It is not fair; why did this happens to me”. They like to complain about this and that, they never look within themselves before complaining. Things happen according to cause and effect. If we look within, we will see things clearly and know why things happen in that way. Often people spend time in complaining. In stead of doing that, they should look inside themselves and find out the cause of their problems. Sometimes they find the answer ‘Yes, because of this, that happened to me’. Many actions we have done in life; we might forget. When the result happens, we think, “I haven’t done anything wrong, why is this happening to me. It is not fair”. Have we ever thought “It is not fair; we have done many crimes but we haven’t been arrested”? There is one story that Ajahn Brahmavamso told, when he taught the prisoners in prison. Here is the story;

Ajahn Brahmavamso had been teaching the prisoners for a while. There was one of his students who got familiar with him. One day he approached Ajahn and said, “Master, I want to tell you something about my life. Why was I put in prison; you know? I am innocent. I didn’t do anything wrong. I know; many people say to you, like this ‘I am innocent’. You know? They are liars but I speak the truth. I won’t lie to you, I will be honest”. Ajahn Brahmavamso believed him, as he was serious, and started to think, “It is not fair for this man to be in prison without doing anything wrong. How can I help him out of this?” While Ajahn Brahmavamso was thinking, the man broke the silence, saying, “But master, I used to do many bad things, without being arrested. I think that it is fair for me!”. Ajahn Brahmavamso felt relieved, and smiled, saying to him, “Then you understood the law of kamma”. He insisted, “Yes, definitely, I do”.

One reason, which makes us complain, is that we are not clear about kamma, or action, so that we complain ‘it is not fair; why is it me’. If we watch our life closely; we will see that everything has a cause and brings an effect. Everything is fair enough. It is just our mind that is not fair as it is crowded with ignorance. Listen to ourselves and others, see how our mind works, and then we can improve our life for the better. Is it fair to say this?