The Four Desires

All human beings have desires. Buddhism is sometimes misunderstood because it teaches the quenching of desires. If these desires are removed from us, we are in a vegetative existence. It is good to have desires, if we are able to control them.

We all have four basic desires from which other desires form. These desires are the ultimate goals of all humankind. They are 1) the Desire not to die, 2) the Desire not to suffer, 3) the Desire to be free, and 4) the Desire to live in utopia.

These four desires are in common for everyone in the world. To attain them, Nichiren Buddhists chant "Namu Myo-ho Ren-ge Kyo."

In daily life, without realizing these goals, everyone is trying to reach them. For example: Death is inevitable to all. However, in a long history of human life, we strive to live longer by development and improvement of sanitation and medical treatment. They provide longer and healthier lives for us. Religion also teaches eternal life of the Buddha or Eternal God.

We all have a desire not to suffer; however, the rich and the poor experience hardship in their daily lives. Everyone has suffering of some type. To minimize sufferings and hardships, there are many developments in agriculture, forestry, fishery, transportation, communication, and so on.

The desire to be free is very strong, and it would be great if we could do anything we want at any time with no one else telling us what to do. However, living in society, we cannot be absolutely free. However, we still seek after freedom in religion, philosophy, ethics, morals, literature, speech, publication, and so forth.

The desire to live in a Utopia finds development of constitutions, the economy, politics, education, law enforcement, international affairs, and so on.

The purpose of living in this world is to fulfill these four desires.

It is important to realize that we are striving for fulfilling these desires in our daily work and daily lives. The five character of Myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo teach this, because it is positive thinking and is the power of harmony to universal laws.

Sep. 1, 1987