Problems are problems precisely because we doubt our ability to surmount them, but when we confront challenging circumstances with faith in the unlimited potential of our innate Buddha nature, we change our life state and transform our deluded responses.
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In the context of our daily lives, the process of changing poison into medicine begins when we face difficulties with the confidence that we have within us the full resources to overcome them. In his writings, Nichiren describes how faith in the Lotus Sutra transforms the three paths of earthly desires, karma and suffering into the three virtues of the Buddha-the Dharma body (truth), wisdom and emancipation (freedom).Ĭhanging poison into medicine begins when we face difficulties with the confidence that we have within us the full resources to overcome them. Nichiren recognized, however, that the effort to eliminate desires is ultimately a fruitless pursuit, as some desires, in fact, create value and sustain life. Some schools of Buddhism guide practitioners to eliminate desires as the means to break this cycle. This is the negative cycle of deluded impulses, negative karma (action) and suffering. But when that action is based on delusions about the true nature of life and reality, we may make unwise choices and further compound our problems. The desire to escape suffering drives our actions. “Earthly desires” here indicates not simply cravings but all desires, impulses and delusions that arise in the absence of wisdom and thus lead to suffering.
The negative cycle in which we exacerbate or perpetuate our suffering is defined in Buddhism as the “three paths of earthly desires, karma and suffering.” They are known as “paths” because one leads to the other. Compassion expands and deepens our motivation by making us aware of the suffering of others, including those involved with us in a challenging situation. Wisdom enables us to choose the kinds of responses and courses of action that will lead to positive change, while courage gives us the ability to confront situations and persevere until we create a breakthrough. This unleashes innate qualities of courage, wisdom and compassion, enabling us to steer the situation toward a more positive outcome. When we are rooted in a sense of the expansiveness of our lives, we can face our circumstances squarely with confidence and an embracing spirit. Ultimately, all such tendencies can be traced to a lack of belief in the dignity and potential of our lives and the lives of all others. These distort our ability to clearly perceive our reality, causing us to respond to our environment and circumstances in ways that compromise our own happiness and lead us to become entrenched in negative patterns of behavior. From a Buddhist perspective, it is the negative tendencies within our lives, such as egotism, greed and cowardice, which are the root of the problem.
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