I am reproducing an introduction by Reverend Nyanaponika made in 1962 to the book of "The Heart of Buddhist Meditation".
It is relevant today with an impending world crisis, perhaps a war of attrition or the World War III.
In the present era after two world wars, history seems to repeat its lessons with a voice more audible than ever, because the turbulence and suffering that alas, are generally equivalent with political history, affect increasingly lager section of mankind, directly and indirectly.
Yet, it does not appear that these lessons have been learned any better than before.
To a thoughtful mind, more gripping and heart rending than all the numerous single facts of suffering produced by recent history, is the uncanny and tragic monotony of behaviour that prompts mankind to prepare again for a new bout of that raving war.
The same old mechanism is at work again:
the interaction of greed and fear.
Lust for power or desire to dominate are barely the instruments of destruction.
Fear, however, is not very reliable brake on man's impulses and it constantly poisons the atmosphere by creating a feeling of frustration which again will fan the fires of hate.
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