Painting by Vicent Van Gogh, “Sorrowing Old Man (‘At Eternity’s Gate’)”
Pessimism, in its most common usage, means “a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen; a lack of hope or confidence in the future” and as a philosophical position “a belief that this world is as bad as it could be or that evil will ultimately prevail over good”.
Neither of these meanings applies to Buddhist teachings. The Buddha taught that all things arise and pass away in accordance with causes and conditions. If the causes and conditions for the worst to happen prevail in a particular situation, then the worst will happen; if the causes and conditions for the best possible outcome prevail, then the best outcome will emerge. He emphasized learning to see things clearly rather than adopting one-sided attitudes towards them.
The Buddha, understanding the causal nature of phenomena, did not posit absolute values of good and evil pitched against each other in an endless war. Thus the idea that he taught the ultimate triumph of one side of a struggle which he did not acknowledge to exist in the first place can be dismissed. Buddhists hold that if a cup of tea has a salty flavor, unpleasant as that might be, it is not evidence of an essentially malevolent universe. It is simply the result of someone mistaking the container holding the salt for the one with the sugar.
More questions and answers HERE
Source:
- Without and Within – Ajahn Jayasaro
