What is Our Goals?
- Why is Buddhism?
Our goal is to construct genuine sustainable and independent societies by cultivating people's peaceful minds based on Buddhist principles. As a result, people with the minds will spontaneously take responsible for societies and will construct happier and safer communities with better lives which does not rely on economic growth only with materialism and monetarism.
Recent years, while Cambodia has been in the remarkable economic growth, some problems has been widespread, such as mental devastation, increasing income gaps, and environmental destruction. As one of the causes, politics and economic systems has superficially been responsible for these problems. If, however, people’s mentalities should have influence on whether the systems are fair or not since people have controlled these systems, we believe that, with Buddhist principles, cultivating sympathy and compassion to the others is essential to build healthy and sustainable societies.
Before Pol Pot Resume, Cambodian societies were well established with Buddhism. However, approximately 80% of the Buddhist monks were killed during the resume, thereby interrupting maintenance of Buddhism.
At first, we plan to take Cambodians back to the basic principles preached by Buddha in order to connect the gaps between old and new Cambodian societies by using words as easy and simple as possible. We believe that citizens can learn how they overcome various difficulties and griefs in daily life and how Buddhism shows them milestones to live with peaceful minds.
- From Cambodia to the World
Now, remarkable technological progress and capitalistic economic systems enable materialism to come out all over the world. It has helped human beings to release from the carrying capacity in nature and many people to receive materialistic affluence and comfort. On the other hand, it has noticeably caused, on a global basis, the crisis of extinction of human beings by the increasing number of nuclear weapons, the destruction of nature, the increasing wealth disparity, and continuous conflicts based on grudges, hegemony, and the scramble of natural resources, thereby leading serious flaws on civilization.
No effective and fundamental countermeasures, which can eradicate these problems and issues, has been implemented even if multipronged warnings have been issued. The issues of environmental deterioration and wars, happening all over the world, have been discussed in the United Nations, but the U.N. cannot have made huge progress because each participant has only claimed its own national interests, which prevents the U.N. from finding agreements. In addition, those who are indifference to these problems, and ignore reality and pursue short-term economic benefits also take responsible for delay of agreements in world conferences.
In the creed of the Four Noble Trust and Noble Eightfold Path, Buddha preached Dukkha, one of the Four Nobel Trust, whose usually interpretation is that the world is filled with suffering. The importance shown in the creed is not that people should acquire monotonous knowledge, but that people should face the reality which is full of pain.
Why did Buddha teach us it? This is because that most people have minds which tend to seek pleasure, but not to look the reality in front of themselves. It is the very obstacle for people to keep themselves tacking suffering, and they manage to escape from one even if overcoming anguish can point the way to happiness. Therefore, Buddha strictly taught us because he knew that the tendency to seek pleasure strongly binds people to hedonism.
People’s nature does not change. While they bring us suffering which means unhappiness, economic activities based on materialism has made human beings hedonism, but people all cannot stop suffering due to facing one is very difficult.
Another realistic and significant reason, which makes us struggling to solve worldwide issues at present, is that we should thoroughly reconsider the societies which is consisted by the mechanism of economic growth with mass production, mass consumption, and mass waste. It means that we must change the way to pursue happiness not based on economic growth which is composed of oversupplied materials, but based on sympathy and compassion to the others.
Most people have not experienced this change in human history. What makes it possible? It exists in the wisdom of religions such as Buddhism, which leads us to make the world less reliance on materialism but more reliance on mental and spiritual satisfaction. We call it “Desire little and know contentment” in Buddhism.
We believe that people need three simple guidelines as below, which are based on Buddhism.
- Universal happiness for all people
All people should be guaranteed the minimum access to clothing, food, and housing, the fundamental human rights without any oppression, the delightful daily lives, the conditions with mental and spiritual satisfaction, and the harmony with environment and societies which allow their unique characteristics.
- Foundations as human beings to realize happiness
Individuals should realize that they are irreplaceable, can mutually connect with everything on the earth, learn the wisdom which has been built up by predecessors, should get through with conscience whose origin lies inside them, enhance compassion to the others, and take actions to share their hands to help each other.
- Create happy and peaceful societies over the foundations
All people should continuously take actions by considering how we can create societies which consist of peaceful relationships among individuals, where people can prevent the extinction of creatures and the destruction of nature and environment, and where people can feel harmonious and sustainable.
*reference: Differences between pleasure and happiness
Ancient philosophers distinguished between pleasure and happiness while now we jumble up them, thereby making differences of them ambiguous. People have, in the bottom of our minds, thoughts that societies make people obtained pleasure by agitating their desires.
However, economic activities, based on the agitated desires, attribute to the facts that the stronger deprive the weaker of everything and that people have depleted vast amount of natural resources, therefore resulting in situations whether rich-poor gaps have been expanding, incessant conflicts have occurred all over the world, and people have given tremendous damages on environment and caused irreparable devastation on nature.
It is natural to think that people will not be able to receive happiness, which they feel, if they go on the same lifestyles. Happiness means mental conditions that are filled with a sense of fulfillment by being relieved from desires, and ancient philosophers, especially Buddhists, have clearly proposed the way how we can reach such genuine happiness.
Now, based on the wisdom, which have accumulated by predecessors and which people should recognize and relearn, and on the expression of sense and powers, which everyone has potentially, our organization aims at the genuine happiness for all people; which means the happiness for individuals and the harmony among all creatures and nature.