There is no peace, not even in death for one who does not live according to the Dhamma. Not in this life, not in the next life.
One who does wrong, who knows it’s wrong, yet continues, suffers in this life, with guilt, with self-affliction.
If the one who causes suffering does not suffer now, suffering follows in the next life.
Not even suicide can escape the suffering. Suicide only makes suffering worse in next life.
Suffering propagates not just to the person doing wrong life after life, but to the family and community, generation after generation.
Think of the Khmer Rouge, how evil they were, and they must be suffering now. But they also passed great suffering to the next Khmer generation, and the generation after that.
It takes courageous people, who wants to do the right thing. What is courage? Though you suffer, but because of strong belief and practice, you do not pass on the suffering to others, to the next generation.
Buddha is so great because he showed any human can become an arahant, a conqueror, and there were many arahants in Buddha’s time. Even the lay can become an arahant, not just the monk. Why not in our time? Why not you attain some peace from Nibbana now?
Buddha gave the answer in Dhammacakka, with middle way that leads to Nibbana. What is the middle way? It is the noble eightfold path… In Theravadin Buddhism, Nibbana is not just something left for the next life, sometime in the distant future lives as commonly believed. Nibbana is stopping the suffering in this life, not in others, in one’s self, and it is within all of our abilities to attain.
Seeing the wrong, finally resolve to correct it, in yourself. Speak wholesomely, and follow through with actions. Choose self-respecting career path, and put the right effort in what you do. Finally, practice mindfulness and meditation. That’s the noble eightfold path, and the middle way of the Buddha that leads to peace from Nibbana now.
