A village without war and peace from One-straw revolution
Next week, September 21st, Tuesday is the International Day of Peace (peace day) so here's another peace topic.
Why is it so hard to keep peace in this world? If making peace or keeping peace is so easy, there wouldn't be major conflicts and wars being repeated in human history. Then, is it natural for humans to make war?
Perhaps what is perceived as natural to most humans is far deviated from the rest of the natural world so that what is natural to us is no longer true naturalness.
Peace is a relative state that is dependent on the state of war, thus the best way of making peace seems to be getting rid of the notion of peace, that is, getting rid of the duality and relativity of peace and war.
"The world itself never asks whether it is based upon a principle of competition or of cooperation. When seen from the relative perspective of the human intellect, there are those who are strong and there are those who are weak, there is large and there is small.
Now there is no one who doubts that this relative outlook exists, but if we were to suppose that the relativity of human perception is mistaken - for example, that there is no big and no small, no up or down - if we say there is no such standpoint at all, human values and judgment would collapse.
“Isn’t that way of seeing the world an empty flight of the imagination? In reality, there are large countries and small countries. If there is poverty and plenty, strong and weak, inevitably there will be disputes, and consequently, winners and losers. Couldn’t you say, rather, that these relative perceptions and the resulting emotions are human and therefore natural, that they are a unique privilege of being human?”
Other animals fight but do not make war. If you say that making war, which depends upon ideas of strong and weak, is humanity’s special “privilege,” then life is a farce. Not knowing this farce to be a farce there lies the human tragedy. "
"The ones who live peacefully in a world of no contradictions and no distinctions are infants. They perceive light and dark, strong and weak, but make no judgments. Even though the snake and the frog exist, the child has no understanding of strong and weak. The original joy of life is there, but the fear of death is yet to appear. The love and hate which arise in the adult’s eyes originally were not two separate things. They are the same thing as seen from the front and from the back. Love gives substance to hate. If you turn the coin of love
over, it becomes hate. Only by penetrating to an absolute world of no aspects, is it possible to avoid becoming lost in the duality of the phenomenal world.
People distinguish between Self and Other. To the extent that the ego exists, to the extent that there is an “other,” people will not be relieved from love and hatred. The heart that loves the wicked ego creates the hated enemy. For humans, the first and greatest enemy is the Self that they hold so dear.
People choose to attack or to defend. In the ensuing struggle they accuse one another of instigating conflict. It is like clapping your hands and then arguing about which is making the sound, the right hand or the
left. In all contentions there is neither right nor wrong, neither good nor bad. All conscious distinctions arise at the same time and all are mistaken."
Because we favor love, hatred is generated. Favoring one thing will inevitably create the opposite. How can we not see it this way? Are we too arrogant and mature to learn from infants? Because we are supposed to be teaching them? and we know better about the world?
It seems that who know how to run the world is only making the world less pleasant place to live. If we know what we are doing, why is the earth is only getting worse?
In Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" (translated by Brian Browne Walker, 1995) relative existence of things also appear in chapter 2,
"When people find one thing beautiful, another consequently becomes ugly.
When one man is held up as good, another is judged deficient.
Similarly, being and nonbeing balance each other:
difficult and easy define each other;
high and low rest upon one another;
voice and song meld into harmony;
what is to come follows upon what has been.
The wise person acts without effort and teaches by quiet example.
He accepts things as they come,
creates without possessing,
noruishes without demanding,
accomplishes without taking credits.
Because he constantly forgets himself,
he is never forgotten."
Why is it so hard to keep peace in this world? If making peace or keeping peace is so easy, there wouldn't be major conflicts and wars being repeated in human history. Then, is it natural for humans to make war?
Perhaps what is perceived as natural to most humans is far deviated from the rest of the natural world so that what is natural to us is no longer true naturalness.
Peace is a relative state that is dependent on the state of war, thus the best way of making peace seems to be getting rid of the notion of peace, that is, getting rid of the duality and relativity of peace and war.
If we look at the world as competition or cooperation, we are still looking at the world through relativity. There will always be high and low, strong and week, winners and losers.
The following is an excerpt from "A Village Without War and Peace," a small chapter from "The one straw revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka. "The world itself never asks whether it is based upon a principle of competition or of cooperation. When seen from the relative perspective of the human intellect, there are those who are strong and there are those who are weak, there is large and there is small.
Now there is no one who doubts that this relative outlook exists, but if we were to suppose that the relativity of human perception is mistaken - for example, that there is no big and no small, no up or down - if we say there is no such standpoint at all, human values and judgment would collapse.
“Isn’t that way of seeing the world an empty flight of the imagination? In reality, there are large countries and small countries. If there is poverty and plenty, strong and weak, inevitably there will be disputes, and consequently, winners and losers. Couldn’t you say, rather, that these relative perceptions and the resulting emotions are human and therefore natural, that they are a unique privilege of being human?”
Other animals fight but do not make war. If you say that making war, which depends upon ideas of strong and weak, is humanity’s special “privilege,” then life is a farce. Not knowing this farce to be a farce there lies the human tragedy. "
"The ones who live peacefully in a world of no contradictions and no distinctions are infants. They perceive light and dark, strong and weak, but make no judgments. Even though the snake and the frog exist, the child has no understanding of strong and weak. The original joy of life is there, but the fear of death is yet to appear. The love and hate which arise in the adult’s eyes originally were not two separate things. They are the same thing as seen from the front and from the back. Love gives substance to hate. If you turn the coin of love
over, it becomes hate. Only by penetrating to an absolute world of no aspects, is it possible to avoid becoming lost in the duality of the phenomenal world.
People distinguish between Self and Other. To the extent that the ego exists, to the extent that there is an “other,” people will not be relieved from love and hatred. The heart that loves the wicked ego creates the hated enemy. For humans, the first and greatest enemy is the Self that they hold so dear.
People choose to attack or to defend. In the ensuing struggle they accuse one another of instigating conflict. It is like clapping your hands and then arguing about which is making the sound, the right hand or the
left. In all contentions there is neither right nor wrong, neither good nor bad. All conscious distinctions arise at the same time and all are mistaken."
Because we favor love, hatred is generated. Favoring one thing will inevitably create the opposite. How can we not see it this way? Are we too arrogant and mature to learn from infants? Because we are supposed to be teaching them? and we know better about the world?
It seems that who know how to run the world is only making the world less pleasant place to live. If we know what we are doing, why is the earth is only getting worse?
In Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" (translated by Brian Browne Walker, 1995) relative existence of things also appear in chapter 2,
"When people find one thing beautiful, another consequently becomes ugly.
When one man is held up as good, another is judged deficient.
Similarly, being and nonbeing balance each other:
difficult and easy define each other;
high and low rest upon one another;
voice and song meld into harmony;
what is to come follows upon what has been.
The wise person acts without effort and teaches by quiet example.
He accepts things as they come,
creates without possessing,
noruishes without demanding,
accomplishes without taking credits.
Because he constantly forgets himself,
he is never forgotten."
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