The Web of Human Relationships

By Category: Harmonious LivingTags:

Human beings are social animals; we cannot live apart from community. As Buddhists, we are told to seek the Dharma among the people, for the Dharma does not exist in some other world or far away place; the Dharma is here among us, embodied in each and every being. When we understand that human society is nothing other than a web of human relationships, we will understand just how crucial our relationships are.

The cornerstone of happy living is to develop good relationships and nurture positive affinity with others.

Each link in the web, or each person in a community, affects the whole. Relationships create a particular atmosphere within a community and determine whether the community—be it a neighborhood, a place of religious gathering, a family, or a different form of community—invites mutual benefit and harmony or leaves its members in a state of isolation and conflict. Once we see how the repercussions of even one relationship can impact an entire community, we will learn to treasure each relationship and invest our most sincere and open efforts to creating relationships that are healthy and beneficial.

Wholesome actions are the seeds of good relationships, while unwholesome actions breed problems in our relationships with others.

We also need to understand that human relationships, like all phenomena, develop within the truth that, “All worldly phenomena arise out of causes and conditions; all worldly phenomena cease because of causes and conditions.” What this means is that the world is the culmination of our collective karma and conditions for being, and therefore, we all exist on an equal plane; no one has any special circumstances or advantages. Each one of us is born into this world because of our own individual causes and conditions, but the fact that we all live in this world together means that we share some common causes and conditions.

How you conduct yourself within relationships will have immeasurable influence on the lives of others, and vice versa, for relationships actually create the conditions of life that we all share.

Because of our collective karma and conditions, it is impossible for us to think simply in terms of our own individual happiness and peace. We may try to exist within a community under such personal and self-serving terms, but this inevitably leads to suffering and impedes the nourishment of affinity. How we can build affinity and live in harmony as we nurture our relationships within the community? To serve this purpose, we will need to examine many different aspects of the four great all-embracing virtues, the six points of reverent harmony, and the concept of grounding ourselves, and thereby our communities, in oneness.

From Living Affinity, written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun.

Image from Pixabay.

More Featured Articles

Five Precepts: Freedom of the Heart
Many of us think that after undertaking the precepts life will become a matter of you-can’t-do-this and you-can’t-do-that. We wonder if that isn’t limiting us even more. We worry that it will mean a loss of freedom. This is why some people will question: Why should I receive the precepts and end up just limiting myself!In fact, if we were to go to a prison Read more
Purify the Mind
In Buddhism, the root cause of human suffering and other problems are identified as the mind. It thus proposes to tap into this invaluable resource by transforming any unwholesomeness into wholesomeness. Buddhism instructs sentient beings on how to recognize the mind, calm the mind, and handle the mind. The Buddha taught for forty-nine years during his lifetime. Whether his teachings were about the four noble Read more
The Significance of Breathing
In the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections, the Buddha asked his disciples, "How long is one's life?" One of the monks replied, "A few years." The next one answered, "A few days!" Another one said, "Less than one day!" Another responded, "Between meals!" Finally, the Buddha said, "Life lasts for the duration of one breath." Life is extraordinarily precious and yet it is based on a Read more
Repentance
It is only through loving-kindness and compassion that we can find room in our hearts to forgive others. It is only through our willingness to let go of resentment that we can find a way to magnanimity.  Read more
Take Deep Joy in the True Dharma
“True Dharma” means those teachings which are right, correct, and do not deviate from the Middle Way.The word “Dharma” has several different meanings. One meaningof “dharma” is “phenomena.” In this sense, “dharma” includes phenomena as large as the universe and as small as a mustard seed. “Dharma” also refers to the truth, the teachings of the Buddha. The Dharma the Buddha taught is what allows people Read more
I Am Not a Monk “Sponging Off” Buddhism (II)
It is enough for most monks to only have the ability to chant and teach the Dharma, and of course I too can chant sutras and teach the Dharma. But only being this kind of monk was not something I was willing to do. I wanted to become a monk who was able to engage in propagating the Dharma in a multifaceted way: There is Read more
What is Meditation?
One of the great advantages of sitting meditation is that you can take it with you wherever you go. Whether you are in a forest deep in the mountains or beside a stream among the grass and reeds, you can develop meditative concentration just by sitting down and crossing your legs.But what is meditation? Does it come from sitting, standing, or lying down? Huineng, the Read more
Have Respect for Life
Life is the most precious thing in the world, so it is imperative that we respect it in all its forms. Not only must we have regard for human life, we must also respect animal life and the life of any organism in our ecosystem. The worst offense a person can ever commit is to violate the life of others, or even to cause harm Read more
Trees Have Roots; Waters Have Sources
Trees have their roots, and people have their origins. As hu­man beings, we must endeavor to increase joy in the world for the sake of everyone in the world, and we also must ensure that life will sprout flowers and bear fruits as strong and stur­dy as the peach. “Mother” is the source of life for every person, and she is also the harbor on Read more
Friendship
In the Buddha's teachings, there are four kinds of friends: friends who treat you like a flower, friends who act like a balance, friends who are like the mountains, and friends who are like the earth.Friends who treat you like a flowerWe all enjoy flowers, especially when they are fresh. We put them in vases to decorate our homes, we give them to our loved Read more
Walking, Standing, Sitting, and Resting
"Walk like the wind, stand like a pine, sit like a bell, and rest like a bow."This basic etiquette not only applies to Buddhists; everyone should practice it as well in daily living.When we first meet a person, we can tell the level of his/her education and cultivation by his/her manners. We know how refined a person is by the way he/she speaks and conducts Read more
A Good Reputation
We should always try to see the good in others, not the bad. On the samsaric level of this saha world alone, back-biting and faultfinding are known by most people to be totally counter-productive. Not only does faultfinding produce nothing but anger and mistrust, but the effects of negative speech also create an environment in which it becomes difficult to do anything positive. Read more