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ON E N E S SQuarterly Newsletter of the Rev. Gyomay M. Kubose Dharma Legacy Vol. 3 No. 2 Summer1999FREEDOMBy Ven. Gyomay M. KuboseThe Legacy is onlinewww.brightdawn.org See page 5 All men seek happiness, peace and free-dom. Where freedom is, there is happinessand peace; therefore, freedom is the basicdesire of man. Freedom is the opposite ofcontrol, limitation, bondage, and ignorance. Buddhism teaches the way of freedom,which is Enlightenment or Nirvana. Thepurpose of Buddhism is the attainment ofNirvana, which is a life of freedom. Man isnot free as long as he is bound by time andspace. Everyone fears death and does not wantto die. Yet, we all die without exception. Whydo we fear death? Death is a natural thing. Itis a process of life just as much as birth is.We need not fear death. When flowers arepast their bloom, it is only natural for them toscatter. When leaves are matured in theirgrowth, they turn color and fall. If you tran-scend death, then you are free from birthand death. In the life of truth we do not die.Death does not hinder our true life. There isno fear of death in the true man. Man is freefrom birth and death when he attains Nir-vana. Nirvana is the world of freedom. Man fears punishment or consequences.Punishment or consequences is the law ofkarma. No one can escape from karma. Itis a natural consequence. If you are born,you will die. Birth includes death. All that ismade is subject to decay. Man tries to avoidor escape from inevitable things. This isevidence of ignorance. Accept the inevitablethings, not unwillingly, but willingly and natu-rally. When you accept willingly, when it isnot forced upon you, you are free. Accep-tance is your freedom. Acceptance is tran-scendence. Transcendence means acceptance. Transcendence and acceptanceare not two things but one and the same.Here exists freedom. When you are born asa woman, be a woman. If you are short,accept the shortness and do not let any-thing hinder you. You can excel in manythings. If one is born as Japanese, be agood Japanese. Roses are red, the sky isblue, snow is white, sugar is sweet, andpepper is hot. That is the way it should be.All things are good and all are free as theyare. You need not compare. Everyone hashis place in the world. So be it. Flowers arered and leaves are green. This is the worldof suchness—the free and natural world. Buddhism teaches Enlightenment, whichis the opposite of ignorance. Enlightenmentis freedom, and ignorance is bondage.Enlightenment is to see things as they are.Upon seeing a rope on the road in theevening, and thinking it is a snake, you be-come scared; but if you are able to see therope as a rope under better light, there is nofear. If one is able to see things as they are,he is free. Ignorance is the cause of alltroubles. We do many stupid things be-cause of our ignorance. To be greedy, toget angry, to have idle complaints—all thesecauses of suffering are the results of igno-rance. To be free or to attain freedom is toovercome ignorance, and that is enlight-enment. We often think that others hinder our ownfreedom. The wife blames her husband andthe husband blames his wife. Often weblame society and condemn the “system.”But it is not the environment that makes youmiserable or deprives you of your freedom.No matter how good the environment is,unless your mind is free, you cannot be afree person. One person said that hewanted to be free; however, when a red lightsignal at a crossing stopped him, he feltthat he was not free. To me, the red light isnot a hindrance. I do not want to go againstthe light because it is dangerous. I workbecause I want to work, not because I haveto work. I help people because I want tohelp, not because I have to help. This world is free. Our life is free. Thisworld is the world of Nirvana. Nirvana is notsomething we attain or grasp. Rather, wediscover ourselves in the world of Nirvana,the true free world in which we are living.Nirvana is right here, now. Heaven and hellare not places we go after we die. They arehere now. They are the contents of our ownlife. We create a heaven-like or hell-likeplace. We are responsible. It is our igno-rance that makes our whole world dark.When we are enlightened, the whole worldbecomes bright. It is not the devil that brings darkness andmisery, nor gods that bring happiness orbrightness. It is up to us to make our lifebright or dark, to be free or to be in bond-age. Freedom exists in us. Freedom doesnot exist in the relative and comparativeworld but only in the world of oneness, theabsolute. Only when subject and objectbecome one, is there freedom.

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