仏教の先生の書かれた日本語文の英訳をさせていただいています。Buddhism’sTheory of Happinessという名前でYouTubeやSNSで仏教の布教活動をされています。その翻訳した文の一部を定期的にここでシェアさせていただきます。
Sakyamuni Buddha meticulously expounded the law of cause and effect throughout his life.
・Good causes produce good effects ・Bad causes produce bad effects ・Own causes produce own effects
If you plant good seeds—‘seeds’ here means ‘deeds’ or ‘actions’—you’ll gain good results or happiness. If you do bad deeds, you’ll experience misfortune. Whether good or bad, every element of our fate comes from the seeds that we sow.
However, the Buddhist scripture, Notes on Oral Transmissions says:
"We fear evil and yet we commit evil deeds. We strive to do good deeds and yet we are humans incapable of doing them."
When it comes to planting good seeds, you’ll want to make the effort to do good deeds regardless of whether anyone sees you or not. At the same time, though, by doing this we will be made aware that we actually “cannot do” good deeds. It’s because this is simply human nature.
So this quote expresses how our mindset will be after listening to Buddha’s teachings, and what will be revealed to us about ourselves. When we’re made starkly aware of our own nature, that we’re unable to stop ourselves from committing evils though we know we should, all the more so we feel compelled to listen to the Buddhist teaching of true happiness for precisely such beings.