hasunoha

Why aren't humans equal?

There are things I think about on a regular basis.
Why aren't humans equal? That's it.
A person who was born into a rich family and never had trouble with money for the rest of his life.
A person who is blessed with good looks by nature and has no concerns about appearance.
People who are naturally smart and don't struggle with their studies or educational background.
I'm sure monks say that people like that also have unknown worries and hardships, and that happiness and unhappiness go together at the end of their lives.
However, I think that people with natural handicaps, such as being poor, ugly, or have physical or intellectual disabilities, have more suffering than people who are born with high specs.
Is it because people with high specs by nature did good deeds in their previous lives?
So didn't people with handicaps behave well in previous lives?
Hardly anyone has any memories of their previous lives. It's kind of unconvincing to receive the price of evil in this life that you don't know if it was in a previous life or not.
What do monks think of high-spec people in this world and people with handicaps in this world?

3 Zen Responses

An equal life

You don't become a lowly person by birth,
You don't become a Brahmin (noble person) by birth.
You become a lowly person due to your actions,
He also becomes a Brahmin (noble person) due to his actions.

Sutanipata 142

Buddha Shakyamuni was awakened to an “equal life” without “discrimination due to birth.”

I've read the questions you've asked so far, but since various mentors have explained a lot about reincarnation, I wonder if that was the effect...
There are various interpretations. Please be careful about understandings that promote discriminatory ideas. For me, this is just my understanding of the above.

However, in reality, there is a difference as you mentioned. They have different looks, abilities, and circumstances. It's a reality that can only be said that there is a difference.
So where can we say equality? It's

“Born by Affair, Left by Affair”

That's it.
Roughly speaking, it means that it won't turn out the way you think. You can't choose life, birth, or death, and you can't choose the circumstances that occur in your life. It just so happened that there were an infinite number of conditions, environments, and targets. This is how I received it, even if it didn't take my life.

Before that fact, “why?” “Why?” Even if you ask, it's just that fact. Now that I understand the reason, the facts don't change.

If so, what we should do is “how” do we live? That's it.
You are given the freedom to decide what kind of attitude you take when dealing with relationships that come your way. You can blame your past life and lament, or you can live with hope without giving up.

Isn't it possible for people to obtain life satisfaction through the “act” = “walk of fact” of “how” to live?

“Why?” → Even if the “reason and meaning” of “because you did something bad in your previous life” is true, would you be satisfied with it?

I am attracted to people who live single-mindedly regardless of their circumstances, and I respect their efforts.
For those people, it may be something that I think of as a “difference,” a one-sided pattern of things.

It is always our selfish “thoughts and teasing” that we find differences after Shakyamuni's awakening equality.

There is a difference between the richness of society and the richness of the heart

Why does Buddhism preach that “all people are equal”?
That's because I'm looking at things from a very broad perspective.
What is really important is not the difference born from appearance, money, or physical elements, but rather the “feeling of emptiness” born from within each person.
In a very simple way, it is “a peaceful heart born from being grateful.” Appreciation has nothing to do with appearance, money, or physical elements.
No matter how blessed they are with such external elements, if they think “this is natural” or “it's still not enough, I want more,” then that person's heart remains poor.
However, if you are grateful and satisfied with what you have been given, and can afford to give it to others, that person's heart will be enriched.

Also, any thing is “impermanent.”
There are only a few people who don't worry about money for the rest of their lives. This is because people who can afford money look for and spend more.

Everything changes all the time.
After all, “affluence” in society is nothing but a moment of comfort. Were Buddha, Kukai, Einstein, and Picasso rich? The measure of happiness cannot be measured by external factors.

Personally, I don't like monks who seek the misfortunes of this life in previous lives. We have no choice but to compete with the cards we've been dealt.

Your previous life doesn't matter, but it's not the end when you die either. This is because the trajectory of a person's life will always have an impact on later people in some way.
What is important is the task of looking at “what you can do.”

appending
Yu-sama
The question is what kind of training is necessary,
If you were a Buddhist, would it still be a “prayer of thanks and other actions.”
It's about being thankful that you're always being kept alive, and treating others with the peace of mind you've gained from it.
The expression to compete with the cards that have been dealt may have been a bit difficult to understand. I'm sorry.
A match is a match not with others, but with one's own heart.
Instead of comparing yourself to others, it is important to face your own inner world and how to be calm, and appearance, intelligence, or physical specs have nothing to do with that. I used Buddha, Kukai, etc. as examples because I wanted to tell you that happiness from finding the truth spiritually is important, not social success.
It's easy to say, hard to do... but doing it is the “practical act of a Bodhisattva.”

Because the category “human” is empty

In the first place, the concept of a “human being” is empty, and it's like an illusion without substance.
If you feel that you are “not equal,” you only compare people, but forget the human category and compare it to all living things.
No two creatures are alike.
You are much stronger than Ali, and you are living a luxurious life.

So, please remove the assumption that they are the same person and think that all living things are different.