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Meditation

Meditation for peace

How Do We Practice Responsibility?

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When each of us practices doing goodness then the world can become peaceful.

Those four responsibilities (oneself, society, economy, and environment) are difficult to practice. Yet one who practices will have a peaceful mind. When each of us practices doing goodness then the world can become peaceful. Now we understand the concept of responsibilities. How do we practice these responsibilities?

Buddha’s teachings have been given to people for over 2.500 years. We need to learn these teachings to gain knowledge. For the world to know the concept of a good person, we should have either public or private organizations that are supported by the government and the public sector. The people who follow this concept can be compared to blocks from a standard mold. Each individual block is formed by six sides or directions and the whole block is the world, created by peaceful minds and definitely forming a peaceful world. The main components of the 6 directions are one’s parents. Parents have to know what good and bad are.

Responsibility

That is why Buddha typically taught how to avoid badness, and then to do goodness. One thing to be considered is the person who can take responsibility. Responsibility must begin with respect of self, We especially have to respect the top direction, the monk or the priest who has wisdom about what good and bad are.

Finally, we all need to be dedicated in order to perform these responsibilities well. You cannot shape clay to be a cube and stack it firmly by itself. The human mind should be expressed firmly like stone not like clay. We can make our minds strong like stone by practicing the four responsibilities:

1. Self: follow the four precepts or avoid personal evil (killing, stealing, committing adultery, and lying)

2. Society: avoid the four biases or preferences because of love, hate, ignorance, and fear

3. Economy: avoid the six causes of ruins (1. Drinking alcohol or taking drugs 2. Roaming the streets at night 3. Seeing bad shows or movies 4. Gambling 5. Associating with bad friends 6. Being reluctant to work for a living)

4. Environment: do not destroy but instead protect the environment from any possible problem

each other increases the strength of the humanity.

The four responsibilities above make the human mind strong like stone. Why should we make the mind like stone? This is because when each stone is shaped as a cube with six directions (sides), those stones can be stacked without collapsing and be constructed neatly.

The analogy is; each stone is one good person, and the shaped stone is the well-practiced good person who is responsible for the others. And thus, each person is responsible for the fundamental creation of peace in the world, Building on each other increases the strength of the humanity.