Erasing the Cause of War

HUMANITY HAS PROBABLY evolved for more or less a million years and has always been crying out for peace on earth – Pacem in Terris, the old Latin phrase. But apparently, there is no peace in the world; yet without peace, we cannot possibly flower.

To see the extraordinary depth and beauty of life, the immensity of all living things, one must have peace, and that peace is denied wherever there is poverty. Even in affluent countries, there is a great deal of poverty. No nationalistic government can ever solve poverty because it is a global problem, one for the whole world, not a particular government, whether totalitarian, communist, or so-called democratic. The effects of poverty are degradation, the utter slavery of it, the brutality. And there is also the poverty of the mind, which is not resolved by books, institutions, organisations, or forums – that poverty ends when one understands the whole existence of oneself and one’s relationship to the world at large.

Religions have not encouraged or brought about peace in the world. They talk a great deal – the Christians talk about peace in the world – but religions have divided humanity. Just in this small town, there are I don’t know how many religious groups, dozens of them, institutions and foundations, each trying to tell people what to do. Religions have prevented peace and have brought wars: The Hundred Years War in Europe; torture and all the brutality of a culture based on religious concepts, dogmas and beliefs. And religions throughout the world have prevented right relationship between human beings. There have been five thousand years of war and we are still going on with it, killing each other – at the beginning with clubs and now we are able to vaporise millions. We have not evolved psychologically, inwardly, and as long as we are primitive psychologically, our society will be equally primitive.

So, can there be peace on this earth? This is a very, very serious question. Also, is it possible to live peacefully in oneself, without conflict, or are we forever condemned to live in conflict, to be at war? Is there a way out of all this? Certainly not through religions as they are, nor through political organisation, whether democratic, totalitarian or communist; nor through the division of nationalities. Governments are created by what we are. They have been structured, put together by our own demands. As long as you remain an American, and others remain Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim, we will have no peace on earth. Nor while there is racial division or cultural division. So, it is a very important question to ask of ourselves, not of another.

Is it possible to have peace on this earth? This has been a cry for millennia. Two and a half thousand years ago, the Buddha was talking about peace, long before Christianity came into being. And we are still talking about it. And so realising all this, what is one to do? Individual efforts to live in peace don’t affect the whole world. You may live peacefully in this lovely valley; quietly, not too ambitious, not too corrupt, not too competitive; just living here quietly, perhaps getting on with your wife or husband. But will that affect the whole of human consciousness?

Or the problem is much greater, much more profound. We have to think together; not the speaker thinks, explains and describes, but together like two old friends sitting in the shade of the trees, talking about all this, not merely intellectually but with hearts disturbed, being greatly concerned about what is happening in the world and what is happening to ourselves. Like two old friends who have an amiable conversation, not convincing or stimulating each other, not sticking to their own opinions, judgements and conclusions, but two old friends who have lived together, walked together, seen many things of the world. You and the speaker are like that, so that we can think together. Not what to think or how to think, but observe together; observe the same tree, the skies, the birds, and the astonishing beauty of the mountains. And so together, actually together, not you listening to the speaker, but together exploring the question of whether we can live in peace. Not only you and I, but the rest of humanity, because this earth is ours, not American or English or French. It is our earth. We are its guests and we have to live here peacefully.

And one friend says to the other: what is the cause of all this? If one can find the cause, then the effect, the symptom, can end. War is a symptom. The cause is very, very deep and complex. Just as when you can find the cause of a disease, that disease can be cured. So the two friends talking over together ask: what is the cause of all this? Why have human beings become like this? So thoughtless, only concerned with themselves, with nothing mattering except their own desires, urges, impulses, their own ambition, their own success, whether in business or academically. And also psychologically, inwardly, we want to be somebody, to become somebody.

So please, one says to the other, do listen carefully. Is there psychological evolution at all? That is a very, very serious question. Is there becoming at all, psychologically? Is there becoming, inwardly achieving, from what is to what should be, from misery to some form of happiness, from confusion to enlightenment? Moving from that which is to what should be, that is becoming and that becoming implies time. And this becoming, each one trying to become something psychologically, may be the same movement as physically for a priest to become a bishop, a clerk to become an executive. It is the same movement, the same wave, brought over to the psychological realm. The friend says to the other, I hope I am making myself clear. He replies, you are not quite clear, go into it a little bit more.

In all religions and the psychological world, the idea of change is to become. I am confused, I must change this confusion to become clear. I quarrel with my wife, but the change is to end quarrelling, to move from violence to non-violence. In other words, there is always the attempt to be something that is not. So the friend says, that is fairly clear – fairly, not too clear – but we’ll go on with our conversation. It is a lovely morning, we have plenty of time, the sun is warm and the shadows are many. And the shadows matter as much as the sun. There is great beauty in the shadows; but most of us are concerned with light, enlightenment, and we want to achieve that. The very idea of psychological achievement may be one of the factors of conflict in life.

So the friend says, let’s examine that. What is it to become? Is that the fundamental cause of division? Division must exist, the other explains, as long as there is the psyche, the self, the ‘me’, the ego, the person, that is separating himself from the other. But the other says there has been a long history of this; this is the human condition. We have been trained, educated to accept religiously and economically that we are individuals, separate from the rest of humanity, separate from another. And the friend says, is that so? Are we really individuals? I know this is the tradition. This is what all religions have said: separate souls in Christianity, Hinduism, and so on. But together, you as the friend and the speaker as the other, are going to examine whether we are really individuals at all. Be patient, please. See all the implications of it before you deny or accept. Now you accept that you are an individual; it is your conditioning that you are free to do what you want to do. And the totalitarians deny this; they say you are just a cog in the social structure.

So, we are questioning not only that psychological becoming may be an illusion, but also that psychologically we are not separate, whether we are individuals at all. Or we are like the rest of humanity. The rest of humanity is unhappy, sorrow-ridden, fearful, believing in fantastic romantic nonsense; they go through great suffering and uncertainty, like you. And our reaction, which is part of our consciousness, is similar to another’s. This is an absolute fact. You may not like to think about it, you might like to think that you are totally separate from another, which is quite absurd. So your consciousness, which is you – what you think, what you believe, your conclusions, prejudices, vanity, arrogance, aggression, pain, grief, sorrow – is shared by all humanity. That is our conditioning, whether you are a Catholic or a Protestant, or whatever you are.