What the World Still Lacks: When Humanity Chases Emotion and Forgets Tranquility

Modern life sweeps us into endless busyness. Have you ever stopped in the middle of a crowded street and asked yourself: "Why do I have everything, yet still feel something is missing?" A friend of mine once boasted that he had cried, laughed, and shouted with wild excitement at a football match. But when the game ended, he went home, sat alone, and felt an emptiness in his heart. In a world full of noise and fleeting emotions, what are we losing?

The World Lacks Tranquility

In life, we always have two opposing states of heart: one is agitation, excitement, being stirred up; the other is alertness, calm, and tranquility. Each state has its own value. But with wisdom, anyone can see that a tranquil heart reflects an inner life that is more valuable, more steadfast, more mature. A person who is easily provoked is often judged as immature and lacking in composure.

We can say the world lacks tranquility, meaning it has lost its balance. People are moving toward agitation, seeking to stir up the human heart, while rarely seeking stillness.

This world has far too much emotion. Look at how a pop star dances wildly on stage while thousands of young fans jump along in frenzy. Their admiration goes so far that they hire security to crowd hotel entrances and tear shirts as souvenirs. Or in football, people cry, laugh, and leap with every roll of the ball. Sometimes standing outside on the street, hearing the screams, you would think the players were on the field, when it is actually the spectators. There are also those who race cars in pursuit of thrills, toying with death, only to end up in a hospital or a graveyard. All of this comes from one aggregate of feeling, an emotional nervous system that constantly craves to be fed. And this world is chasing intense sensations while forgetting tranquility.

Emotion: A Double-Edged Sword

Someone may ask: "Are all emotions bad?" No. Being moved by the suffering of our fellow beings, or by noble sacrifice, is wholesome emotion. Such feelings nourish our ideals for living. But emotion driven by winning and losing, by competitiveness, by blindly following instinct, drags us down into samsara (cycle of rebirth).

As for the noble movements of the heart, such as love for humanity, love for our fellow beings, and love for all sentient creatures, those movements help us achieve meditative concentration within ourselves.

Therefore, a Buddhist does not need to eliminate all emotions, but must clearly distinguish which emotions are wholesome and which are unwholesome. Wholesome emotion leads to growth, while unwholesome emotion pulls us down. Amid the turbulence of feelings, meditative concentration helps us find balance again.

The World Also Lacks Balance

Beyond tranquility, the world also lacks balance, specifically balance in the gap between rich and poor. Statistics show that the three hundred richest people in the world possess wealth equal to that of three billion poor people. Living on the same planet, some dwell in castles while others wrap themselves in tattered blankets through the winter. This is not reasonable.

In this world, the three hundred richest people, when their wealth is combined, equal the wealth of three billion other poor people.

Yet we dare not call it injustice, because the wealthy may create their fortune through talent. They did not rob anyone. Balance does not mean taking money from the rich to give to the poor, for seizing the property of others is itself unjust. True balance lies in the cause: wealth and poverty come from blessings from merit.

Do we know what causes wealth and poverty? Blessings from merit.

Therefore, to create balance, we must help the poor create more merit. For now, we can encourage the wealthy to share. The rich should not rely on their blessings from merit to cling to their possessions, for that is an unwholesome mind. Sooner or later they will collapse under the law of cause and effect (karmic law). As for the poor, once they know how to create merit, they will have the opportunity to rise.

How Can Buddhists Fill What Is Missing?

As disciples of the Buddha, we have a mission to supply what the world still lacks. First, we ourselves must practice. We must live with tranquility, gentleness, kindness, and diligent meditative concentration. Those who recite the Buddha's name, follow the breath, or contemplate Prajna are all practicing meditative concentration. Meditative concentration is a precious medicine for a feverish world.

The meditative concentration of Buddhism is an extremely precious medicine for this feverish world.

But we must not stop with ourselves. We need to encourage and invite others to practice as well. Let us tell everyone about the benefits of meditative concentration and of a tranquil inner life. When two thirds of the world can master their emotions and find happiness in meditative concentration, peace will come very quickly.

The world lacks tranquility and balance. But none of us can change the whole world. We only need to change ourselves: quiet the mind, practice meditative concentration each day, and love and share with those less fortunate. When each person adds what is missing into their own life, the world will gradually become more peaceful. Let us begin today, with one conscious breath, with one heart that knows how to listen.