At one time, a wealthy Brahman asked the Buddha, "Friend Gotama, according to the sayings of the Brahmans who lived long ago - men who were old, who taught other teachers - this world was once very crowded with people. Why does there seem to have been a decrease in the number of people?"
The Buddha answered, "At the present time, Brahman, people are infatuated with unrighteous passion, overpowered by inordinate greed, overcome by unnatural desires. Because of this, they seize knives and weapons and kill each other. Because of this the (rain) deva does not send timely rains. Because of this, food is scarce, crops fail, there is famine, and people must live on blades of grass. Because of this, Yakkhas release non-human beings to attack people. This is why there has been such a decrease in the number of people in the world"
Gradual Sayings I 141-143)

In this discourse, the Buddha speaks of the three destroyers of the world: War, drought and famine, and pestilence. These three destroyers are also mentioned in a discourse (Digha-nikaya. sutta 26) in which he describes how there is a gradual decline in the human lifespan until people only live for ten years.
 

The same causes are given in both discourses: people are infatuated with unrighteous passion, overpowered by inordinate greed, and overcome by unnatural desires.
The Buddha says that these tendencies, which give rise to the three destroyers, were already present in his own day. Today, they seem to be even more widespread. In the Western world, there has been a general rejection of moral values. People seem rather to be only interested in finding excuses for satisfying their every desire. They do not believe that wrong actions in this life will lead to suffering in future lives. Once the belief in cause and effect is rejected, then people begin to believe that they can act with impunity.
Not everyone is so blind, of course.
We can make the effort to follow the five basic precepts, which the Buddha pointed out were necessary if the world is to escape from being destroyed - Not because he invented these precepts, but because they are part of the natural order of the conditioned world. Anyone who has made an honest effort to do so will know what a difference it can make. Leading a moral life gives much joy and energy. We can free ourselves from the fears and anxieties that accompany immoral actions.

The world has seen constant wars being waged. We are seeing strange famines in which countries that have bumper crops cannot gather in the food necessary to feed the people, famines in countries with vast stores of food that are not distributed because of the greed of a few people. There is disruption in the earth's climate, and many governments refuse to take precautionary steps to try and curb the damage that has already been done - damage that will affect many generations. There are new diseases appearing - The equivalent in the modern world to the un-human beings set loose by yakkhas in the Buddha's discourse.

We may not be able to feed all the hungry people in the world. We may not be able to find cures for all the diseases in the world. But we can strive to make the world a better place to live in, both for ourselves and others. The Buddha taught that by practicing the Brahma-viharas (the Divine Abidings) they could protect themselves and help other beings. We should therefore develop metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upekkha (equanimity).

For metta, we begin with ourselves. Then we develop thoughts of loving-kindness for others in the following order: someone we like, admire and respect; someone we feel neutral towards; our enemies. We must at all times avoid feelings of attachment or anger towards others. Loving kindness is not sentimental.

For karuna, we begin with thoughts of compassion for an unfortunate person. Then we develop these thoughts for people in the following order: those who are dear to us; a person we feel neutral towards; a hostile person.

For mudita, thoughts of sympathetic joy (rejoicing in the success of others) are developed first for a dear companion, then for a neutral person, and finally for an enemy.

Upekkha is the most difficult of the four abidings, a calm, unperturbed attitude towards others is very hard to maintain. We should begin with thoughts of equanimity for a person we are neutral towards, then move to a dear person, and then to a hostile person.

Once we have mastered the four abidings with regard to individuals we know, then we can develop thoughts of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity towards beings everywhere. We can think in terms of all those to our left, those to our right, those above, and those below.
These Divine Abidings will also help us to put into practice other aspects of the Buddha's teachings.

We can try to do more than just restrain the innate tendencies that push us to act in ways that will bring on the destruction of our beautiful world. We can work to eradicate these innate tendencies by developing our concentration and our insight.

In Buddhism we have the cure for all the mental ills that affect mankind. It is the evil forces of the mind (past and present) that are responsible for the present state of affairs all over the world. By inspiring a strong sense of Buddhism into the minds of the people during the most critical days of Burma some two years ago [written in 1951],we have been able to get over the crisis.
Nowadays, there is dissatisfaction almost everywhere. Dissatisfaction creates ill-feeling. Ill feeling creates hatred. Hatred creates enmity. Enmity creates war. War creates enemies. Enemies create war. War creates enemies and so on. It is now becoming a vicious circle. Why? Certainly because there is lack of proper control over the mind.... Let us then study the mind and its peculiar characteristics and solve the problem that is now facing the world.
What Buddhism Is (Sayagyi U Ba Khin) p.28

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