Date: 08/16/2025 08/17/2025
Location: Star Ocean Meditation Center
Teacher: Sara
Dharma Knowledge
Equality in the Dharma
Equality in the Dharma is not a sentimental attitude, nor a moral slogan advocating sameness. It does not demand equal evaluation of all individuals, nor does it deny differences in capacity or circumstance. The equality discussed in the Dharma is cognitive and structural, grounded in a precise analysis of how existence and causality function.
At its foundation, the Dharma affirms equality at the level of law. Equality does not mean identical outcomes, but that all phenomena are governed by the same causal principles without exception. Birth, aging, illness, and death do not exempt anyone. Greed, hatred, and delusion do not disappear due to status. Liberation is not granted by identity. Causality does not discriminate, and this impartiality forms the basis of equality in the Dharma.
Second, the Dharma emphasizes the universality of suffering. Equality here does not deny the diversity of suffering’s expressions, but recognizes that suffering as a conditioned outcome exists for all sentient beings. Wealth, power, or education may alter its appearance, but they do not remove its causal roots. In this sense, all beings are equal in their exposure to conditional dissatisfaction.
Third, the Dharma rejects essentialist distinctions. It denies that there are fixed, inherent hierarchies among persons. Differences such as noble and base, intelligent and dull, sacred and ordinary are temporary configurations of conditions, not intrinsic qualities. Because all phenomena are impermanent and without fixed essence, claims of inherent superiority lack any valid foundation.
In the context of practice, equality manifests as the universal availability of liberation. The Dharma does not assume that any group is closer to awakening by birth, gender, class, or culture. The only relevant factors are the capacity for observation, understanding, and practice. This equality is not an ethical concession, but a logical consequence: if the structure of suffering is the same, the path beyond it must be equally accessible.
At the same time, the Dharma does not advocate equality of results. Due to differences in conditioning, habits, and cognitive clarity, individuals progress at different rates and reach different depths of understanding. These differences are neither unjust nor problematic; they are natural outcomes of causality. From the Dharma’s perspective, inequality arises only where an external judge distributes outcomes—which the Dharma explicitly denies.
Equality in the Dharma is also distinct from the moral injunction to treat everyone kindly. Compassion may arise from understanding equality, but equality itself is not an emotional stance. It is an accurate recognition of how reality operates. When it is understood that no being receives special treatment from causality, compassion becomes a rational response rather than a selective sentiment.
In conclusion, equality in the Dharma is neither the erasure of difference nor a value declaration. It is an objective description of existence under impermanence, causality, and non-self. Within this structure, no individual possesses inherent privilege, and no individual is excluded in advance from liberation.
