Stephen Hawking: One of Buddhism’s Three Poisons threatens us all.

There was an interesting report in the Washington post today, physicist Stephen Hawking has identified humanity’s aggression as one of the greatest threats to humanity itself. Quoth Hawking: “The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression. It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.” (Likewise, he said about empathy that it’s the quality he “would most like to magnify is empathy. It brings us together in a peaceful, loving state.”)

Aggression is all too familiar to us all, of course, but it has an especially notable place in Buddhist thought. Sometimes rendered simply as “anger,” or “hate,” aggression is referred to as one of Buddhism’s “Three Poisons,” along with passion (alternatively rendered as greed, or desire), and ignorance (or, delusion).

I thought this was a very poignant observation made by Hawking. I have to admit I never thought he would make a reference to Buddhism. Of course in retrospect it does make sense!

Namaste!

Ev~