Towards World Peace

Yasuhiko Genku Kimura

The Art of Peace begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace. Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. Foster peace in your own life and then apply the Art to all that you encounter.¹

‑‑Morihei Ueshiba

Relying on the maxim that Principle is not bound by Precedence, we should not limit our expectations of the future; and if our speculations lead us to the conclusion that we have reached a point where we are not only able, but also required, by the law of our own being, to take a more active part in our personal evolution than heretofore, this discovery will afford us a new outlook upon life and widen our horizon with fresh interests and brightening hope.²

‑‑Thomas Troward

When two or three are gathered together in the spirit of the future it begins to dominate them, to break down their isolation, to confer powers, and finally to deliver them into a new unity—as real as their former separation—the progressive development of individualism into a larger consciousness is the solution and destiny of the future.³

‑‑Gerald Heard

Prelude

No global peace has ever existed in the world in recorded history since the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution. Humankind has fought wars always and unceasingly in some regions of the world. The logic of violence, not the law of love, has continued to dominate and control the megapolitics of the world. In this brief essay, I intend to probe into the causes of the persistence of war and the reasons for the absence of peace in the world. I further intend to propose possible and practicable solutions. However, first I will look at inner peace in contradistinction to outer peace, because irrespective of the states of the world, inner peace has always been available to and experienced by some people, and because, in the final analysis, no enduring world peace is possible without humanity knowing and experiencing true inner peace.

1. The Art of Inner Peace

Inner Peace as Ecstatic Silence

One fundamental reason that no enduring peace exists in the world is simply because humanity at large does not know true inner peace. The outer world is the out-picturing of the inner world, which, in turn, in-pictures the inner world in the life-long process of our enworldment. Although the inner and the outer worlds are invariably concomitant and complementary, even as the inside and the outside of a sphere are invariably concomitant and complementary, the creation of enduring peace begins, and can only begin, in and from the inner world of the individual.

Independent of the external environment or circumstance, you can experience and know peace internally. Therefore, you can experience inner peace even when you are in a battlefield, whereas you can experience inner turmoil even when you are surrounded by the serene rhythms of Nature. Surely, Nature’s serenity will in time help heal your inner turmoil and restore your inner peace. Yet, unless you yourself can bring peace into the sphere of your awareness, the outer peace of Nature will not resonate in harmony with your inner Nature. You, and you alone, can bring inner peace into being.

What is inner peace? Inner peace is ecstatic silence or silent ecstasy. Inner peace is the experience of life’s ecstatic intensity that arises from the awareness of silence. As silence is an ever-present reality, it is already and always present right here-and-now as a uniquely significant universal reality. To bring forth peace within, therefore, means to know this silence right here-and-now, and to make it the centering fulcrum of your life.

Relatively few people know genuine inner peace, even though the source of it, silence, is omnipresent, because silence, for the great majority of people, represents not life but death. They do not know that silence is ecstatic. They do not know that inner peace is attainable only at the summit of aliveness, where intelligence enlivens their being with heightened awareness. They do not know that the more alive they become, the more elevated their intelligence is, the more peaceful they will become. Thus, the dread of silence, which is tantamount to the fear of what they conceive to be death, leads them away from peace, whereby away from life and aliveness, and instead, towards death and deadliness—the very state of being which they fear.

The fear of death is the fear of self-annihilation—the fear of self turning into nothing, as though we were a thing that could turn into nothing. As long as we thus ‘thingify’ ourselves, as long as we thus misidentify ourselves with things, we deaden ourselves to the level of things that are in themselves devoid of life. Life takes on a myriad of forms for its manifestation, but Life-as-such is not form. Rather, Life exists as and through its own dynamic in-forming process. Life is the eternal and ever-present reality that in-forms and manifests in and through a virtually infinite variety of forms, which we outwardly call “things.” You are a wholeness-unit or holon of Universal Life that is always in the process of in-forming through a variety of forms, but you yourself are not a form, not the outer distinction that you continuously take on.

Silence, and therefore peace, exists not in death but in life. Even if peace subsisted in death, such peace would be utterly meaningless. Inner peace exists in life, and can only be sought and experienced within the dynamic process of life. The first condition for inner peace, wherefore, is to know that life is not a form or thing as which it manifests but a formless process that in-forms a form or a thing. To attain enduring inner peace, we must first free ourselves from our cognitive habit, or epistemic conditioning, of ‘thingification’ and must see life as it really is—a dynamic process without form that in-forms but is never in itself a form. In thus freeing ourselves from the habit of thingification, we become able to attain the ever-greater aliveness and ecstatic intensity that is inner peace.

Silence is formless. Ecstasy is formless. Therefore, the peace that is ecstatic silence is without form. Because peace is without form, it is not bound by space-time. Because peace is not bound by space-time, it is eternally and universally present. Because peace is universally and eternally present, there exists no distinction, in reality, between inner and outer peace. Inner peace, therefore, simply means the here-and-now harmonic resonance and realization of Universal and Eternal Peace.

Forgiveness and Reconciliation

The second condition for inner peace is the achievement of complete inner reconciliation with the whole—with everyone in the world, past and present, with everything in the universe, past and present, and ultimately with God or what “God” means to you.

Throughout the course of our lives, we tend to experience and accumulate memories of discord and conflict, accompanied by sedimentary emotional pollutants such as anger, resentment, or animosity, sometimes without clear conscious awareness. When we experience discord or conflict with the rest of humanity or existence, we experience a sense of inner dissonance, which is a sense of being out of balance with the underlying unity of humanity-as-a-whole and of existence-as-such.

When we thus experience inner dissonance and when we thus suffer from sedimentary emotional pollutants, we can no longer avail ourselves of the experience of inner peace. The state of inner peace is a consequence of the disappearance of inner dissonance, which requires that we forgive and reconcile. We experience inner peace when we forgive ourselves and others, and reach reconciliation with the whole of humanity and existence, particularly with those people who, we believe, have done injustice to us, our family, our group, our community, our country, or our race.

What does it mean to forgive? To forgive means to bestow the honor of being to the person whom you deem has done injustice to you or your relations, and thus does not deserve the distinction of being. The act of forgiveness involves the renunciation of self-righteousness concerning your position relative to past situations in which you deemed some people unworthy of the honor of being because of the injustice they had committed against you or your relations. The renunciation of self-righteousness in turn involves the renunciation of sedimentary emotional pollutants such as antipathy or animosity against people whom you deemed unworthy of the honor of being.

Forgiveness requires that you emancipate yourself from the status of victimhood; that you free yourself from the condition of victim-consciousness. For instance, that you suffer from anger means that you deem yourself a victim of a situation and feel powerless. The same emotional energy that expresses itself as love or compassion when you feel powerful within turns into anger when you feel powerless. Sedimentary emotional pollutants such as anger are a consequence of deeming yourself a victim in an undesirable situation over which you feel you have no control. The mental act of forgiveness empowers you to become the master of the situation in which you previously felt powerless, helpless, or victimized.

To forgive means to proclaim the authorship of the situation wherein you previously felt powerless, helpless, or victimized. At the minimum, you know you have the power to choose the way you respond to the situation. At the maximum, you know you have the power to be the author of the whole situation and how it evolves. Thus, forgiving is a special kind of giving: it is the giving-forward or fore-giving of a new context and new actuality to that which has already taken place in facticity. Forgiving is an act of self-empowerment and a declaration of self-mastery and self-authority. Therefore, you forgive others not primarily for their sake but for yours. And in this act of forgiving others, you come to forgive yourself for your having been powerless.

If a person tries maliciously to defame your character or cast aspersions on you based on false accusations, you may experience anger against that person. If a person unjustly commits crime against your relations, you may experience anger against that person. However, so long as you harbor anger within, no matter how justifiable your anger may be, it will inevitably poison your system, diminish your aliveness, and disturb your inner peace. Through the act of forgiving, you can release yourself from these sedimentary emotional conditions caused by anger through giving yourself a new context wherein to hold and interpret the person’s malicious or evil action, and thereby to restore your inner peace.

The Principle of Justice

Forgiveness, however, is not a denial of injustice, nor is it a condoning of evil. The Principle of Justice dictates that those who commit vicious, malicious, or evil action will eventually have to pay for their action. The morally and ethically right action for you to take is not to retaliate but to let the Principle of Justice work out its way—cosmically as well as through the system of justice elected in our civil society. Let me quote from my essay, “Ethics, Politics, and Plenitude” included in Think Kosmically Act Globally⁴:

… The Law of Balance states: Every action is simultaneously balanced by an equal and opposite reaction, and sequentially repeated in reverse polarity.⁵ The Principle of Justice means that there is a just consequence to all of our thinking, speaking, and action in accordance with the immutable Law of Balance—that justice is always done in the whole context of human life without exception, as every action is always inexorably balanced by its reaction simultaneously and sequentially.

From the Law of Balance it follows that you will be the recipient of not only the equal sequential reaction of another human being to your thinking, speaking, and action but also of the equal simultaneous self-reaction to your thinking, speaking, and action. Therefore, when you love other human beings, simultaneously you self-bestow love upon yourself, while sequentially others will surely return their love to you; whereas when you hate other human beings, simultaneously you self-bestow hate upon yourself, while sequentially others will surely return their hate to you. When you love another human being, you love humanity, including yourself; whereas when you hate another human being, you hate humanity, including yourself. Thus, if and when you understand this Principle of Justice, you will naturally start practicing the Precept of Justice, which states: Think about others as you would wish them to think about you. Speak to others as you would wish them to speak to you. Act towards others as you would wish them to act towards you.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Through this immortal statement, Jesus elucidates the Principle of Justice to those who are ignorant of it, and wherefore whose judgment is not in accordance with it. Jesus does not categorically deny judging, but denies only the kind of judgment made in ignorance of the Principle of Justice and in the absence of self-responsibility of thinking, self-commitment to truth, and self-awareness which is coexistent with such self-responsibility and self-commitment. Within a general ideospheric environment of such ignorance and absence, if you judge another person, the same judgment will be returned to you based on the same metric that you used to judge him, and thus you contribute to the repetition of the same errant pattern in the world. You behold a mote in the eye of another, forgetting that you have a beam in yours, while thinking that you have none. Someone else, likewise, will behold a mote in your eye, forgetting that he likewise has a beam in his, while thinking that he has none.

The Principle of Justice implies that we cannot fake the character of a human being and his action as we cannot fake the nature of the universe and its phenomenon, and that we must judge the character of a human being and his action in accordance with the Principle of Justice as we judge the nature of the universe and its phenomenon in accordance with the Law of Balance and other laws of Nature—with the responsibility of thinking and commitment to truth that are essential to and integrant of our search for knowledge. Human consciousness is volitional. Human action is volitional. At every moment of our waking hours, we are faced with the responsibility of making a choice. And as volitional beings, we must judge people and situations in order to make choices in life. The question is not “to judge or not to judge?” which is not even a valid question, but “on what is our judgment based?” The Principle of Justice states that our judgment of people and situations must be based on the knowledge of the immutable Law of Balance, and its subset, the Principle of Justice itself—and wherefore on the ethical principles of Thinking and Knowing, of the responsibility of thinking and commitment to truth—and of Love that is the Law of Balance being manifest in the act of giving and regiving.

No human being is infallible. All of us from time to time err in our judgment. However, that should not be the reason for forfeiting our responsibility, as conscious beings, to think and know or to judge and evaluate. By the very fact of being conscious, not only are we qualified but also we are required to judge and evaluate the characters of other people and their actions as well as, more importantly, the characters of ourselves and our actions. Therefore, the precept of non-judgment is fundamentally against human nature, and therefore unethical. A precept that we need instead is the Precept of Justice aforementioned, which is based on a sound judgment of ourselves and others in accordance with the Principle of Justice: Think about others as you would wish them to think about you. Speak to others as you would wish them to speak to you. Act towards others as you would wish them to act towards you.

The question may arise: What about malicious people? How are we to think about, speak to, and act towards them? The answer is: Exactly how they should be thought about, spoken to, and acted towards in accordance with the Principle of Justice but with compassion. Malicious thought should be judged as malicious; malicious speech should be judged as malicious; malicious action should be judged as malicious—but with compassion. People who perpetrate malicious thought, speech, or action are ipso facto held responsible and treated accordingly by the Law of Balance—by the Principle of Justice. Our conscious judgment of and volitional action towards them must adhere to the Principle of Justice but with compassion. An intrinsic suffering exists in a malicious thought, speech, or action that is suffered by the perpetrator. Compassion means to suffer together (com, together + passion, to suffer) with love. By judging the perpetrator in accordance with the Principle of Justice, whereby holding him accountable and treating him accordingly but with compassion, we give the perpetrator and humanity through the perpetrator a chance to end a karmic repetition of the vicious, even malicious, circle that characterizes a world that has gone astray. This giving of a chance to end a karmic repetition is a part of what it means to forgive.

Forgiveness leads to reconciliation, which is the recognition-restoration of the unity of humanity as a whole and existence as such. When you are reconciled with the whole of humanity and of existence, you feel that you are divinely embraced by a Universe of Love. A profound, cosmic sense of gratitude will arise within you, which gratitude fills your heart and soul with silent ecstasy—with eternal peace. Then, you are in peace, for you are at peace with the Universe.

Inner Peace and the Meaning of Life

The greatest hindrance to forgiveness, and self-mastery as such, is obstinate self-righteousness. Forgiveness requires that you renounce your self-righteousness even if or when you think you are right or innocent. What we witness in the world, instead, is the epidemic of self-righteousness even if or when people are obviously wrong or guilty. A conspicuous example is a group of international terrorists that see no wrong in their violent and destructive action; so far as they are concerned, their massacre of thousands of innocent people is completely justified or is even ‘holy.’ Another, less conspicuous but more prevalent example is the ordinary person who refuses to admit that he has made an error or has been wrong in a situation. We have all met that ordinary person in our lives. We may even have been that ordinary person ourselves. In point of fact, it is the exception, not the norm, that a person readily admits that he has been wrong in a situation. Instead, people normally cling to their self-righteousness, as though it were as serious as a matter of life and death. Why?

Beyond the Freudian “will to pleasure” or the Adlerian “will to power,” there exists in the consciousness of the human being what Viktor Frankl termed the Will to Meaning.⁶ We human beings are spiritual and intelligent beings that seek meaning within the whole scheme of existence. Because of our conceptual and symbolic consciousness, we are existentially thrown to seek and attain meaning through the life-drama which we compose from our life-as-lived. Our drama is the meaning-rich context in and with which we make sense out of our life and attain meaning in life. The ‘I’ or the ego-self that is the hero in our drama functions as the nexus of meaning within the matrix of meaning, which is the whole of existence or the universe that is written-in as the subtext of our life-drama.

That you are right means that you are validated as the nexus of meaning in the whole scheme of existence; and that you are validated in the whole scheme of existence means that your life has a valid meaning and, therefore, is worthy of existence in the universe. Your ego-self thus existentially requires that it be right within the whole context of your life-drama identified as your life. If your ego-self is proven to be wrong, the whole edifice of your life will lose its meaning and value for you. You will feel that your life is crumbling or even collapsing. You will feel that you are perishing spiritually. This is the fundamental psycho-existential reason that people cling to their self-righteousness. Therefore, the issue of whether or not you are right is indeed a matter of life and death, because human life as such requires that it be meaningful within the whole context of existence.

We all have our life-drama, and we all have our ego-selves, because we human beings are existentially thrown to seek meaning through the composition of our life-drama, and because a drama requires a main character or a central locus, which serves as the nexus of meaning. The problem is not primarily that we have our egos or our drama, but that we are often unwilling, unequipped or unable to upgrade our egos and revise our drama. Negative self-righteousness is the attempt at obstinately keeping the same old drama and the same old ego against the evidence that we need to upgrade our ego-self and revise our life-drama in accordance with the new expanded reality disclosed through the new situation in which we find ourselves. When we are negatively self-righteous, we are oblivious to the fact that we are the Author-Playwright of our life-drama and our ego-self. When we are negatively self-righteous, we are bound to keep the same old drama and ego in and with which we have heretofore lived.

There are many people who do not know who they are and what the meaning of their life is. The edifice of meaning that they build through the construction of their life-drama is very precarious, and they feel its precariousness. The reason that they cling to their old drama and old egos and that they become obstinately self-righteous, is because they feel, deep down, that the meaning of their life is a fabrication, woven only by the threads of illusory material. The true nexus of meaning is not the ego-self that is written into the drama but the Author-Playwright of the drama itself. The true matrix of meaning is not the life-as-told that you as the Author-Playwright write but the Life-as-lived that you as the Author-Playwright live through in actuality. As you as the Author-Playwright revise your life-drama and upgrade your ego-self in accordance with the new facets of reality disclosed to you, you realize that you are an Author-Playwright amongst the multitudinous Author-Playwrights of various distinctions who are the myriad projections or extensions of the Cosmic Author-Playwright whose divine production is the Universe itself.

When you thus realize your cosmic authorship, your life-long search for meaning comes to the end. For, you now know the meaning of your life. You now know that you are a Cosmic Nexus of Meaning, and that you are a meaning giver within the matrix of meaning that is the Universe. With this knowledge, the destinal resolve arises within you as your self to express and manifest your singular cosmic destiny as its author-playwright and actor. In the arising of your destinal resolve, all uncertainty concerning yourself and your life disappears, and deep and abiding inner peace begins to enliven your whole being with its silent but ecstatic intensity. Therefore, the attainment of your destinal resolve in which to abide and from which to live is the third condition for inner peace.

When you fulfill the triune condition, or the sine qua non, of inner peace as ecstatic silence that is expounded above, inner peace will become your natural, abiding state of being. The first condition for inner peace is to know that life is not a form or thing as which it manifests but a formless process that in-forms a form or a thing. Thereby, you attain ever-greater aliveness and ecstasy. The second condition for inner peace is to achieve complete reconciliation with the whole of humanity and existence through forgiveness. The third condition for inner peace is to attain, abide in, and live from your destinal resolve.

The sine qua non of inner peace is attainable by any ordinary person who so desires. If we are really serious about world peace, we must know that if we ourselves do not have the commitment to and experience of inner peace, we are not really qualified to partake in the act of creating world peace.

2. Towards World Peace

The Reasons for Violence and War

The reasons for the continuing presence of violence and war are: (1) A significant number of people exist who derive various forms of often-pathological benefit or power from violence and war, often using religious or political ideologies as a way to justify their action and exploit others; (2) A significant percentage of humanity accepts victimhood and suffering as an inevitable way of life without the knowledge that one’s life is the out-picturing of one’s thinking and that our world is the out-picturing of our collective thinking; (3) Humanity as a whole has not yet developed the capacity to sustain a peaceful dialogue with others who hold different or opposing points of view, beyond agreement or disagreement, and transcending adversarial argumentation. All of the essential reasons for the presence of war and violence are internally derived. That is, external conditions or circumstances such as poverty or scarcity in the world are not real reasons for or causes of violence and war.

The Art of War

Based on the above analysis concerning the reasons for the presence of violence and war, solutions can be identified for each of the causes as follows:

(1) A significant number of people exist who derive various forms of often-pathological benefit or power from violence and war, often using religious or political ideologies as a way to justify their action and exploit others.

Criminal perpetrators of war and violence who derive often-pathological benefit or power from the use of physical force against other humans understand and respect only a greater physical force or power than their own. They do not respect human right but only human might. They do not respect the language of metaphysical ideas but only the language of physical force. They use religious beliefs or political ideologies only to exploit, manipulate, and control their followers so that they can supply their followers with a meaning or purpose of life for which to kill and to die, but they themselves do not believe in their professed beliefs or ideologies. The great majority of well-meaning people do not understand this at all.

The great majority of well-meaning people do not understand the criminal mind of the perpetrators of violence and war. Therefore, they do not understand the fact that the Art of War is a necessary component of the Art of Peace. The ancient Chinese strategist-authors, Sun Tzu and Sun Bin, have left for posterity two of the most comprehensive and penetrating treatises ever written on the Art of War.⁷ They show that by taking a thoroughly rational approach to the problem of conflict and war based on universally-tested philosophic and strategic principles, not only can we bring a war to a victorious resolution but also we can deflect or altogether eradicate the very impetus to war. Although today the typology of war has shifted from state-versus-state war to international or transnational terrorism, and the technology of weaponry used for war has advanced dramatically from the time of these Chinese strategist-authors, the fundamental philosophic and strategic principles that they propounded for the purpose of winning or eradicating a war still remains relevant. Therefore, from my own translation,⁸ let me quote some pertinent statements from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War:

From Chapter One: Initial Assessment

War is a matter of grave importance to the state, a ground of life or death, and a path of survival or ruin. Therefore, it is a subject that calls for careful examination.

To examine the nature of war, we need to appraise it in terms of the five critical factors:

The first critical factor is Tao; the second is Heaven; the third is Earth; the fourth is Leadership; and the fifth is Policy.

Tao means the Cosmic Principle, the understanding of which causes people to accord their will with that of their leader, and thereby to share their life and death with their leader without fear.

Heaven means the effect of night and day, of hot and cold, and of changes of seasons. In other words, it is the movement of natural forces, beyond human control, in accordance with which military operations must be conducted.

Earth means the measure of the distance, the condition of the terrain, the characteristics of the land, and the portent of life or death.

Leadership means intelligence, integrity, benevolence, courage, and firmness.

Policy means the governing principles of the organization of army units, of the appointment and administration of officers, and of the management of military supplies and expenditures.

There is no general who has not heard of these five factors. Those who master them win; those who do not master them lose…

War is a game of deception, meaning invisible intention. Therefore, feign incompetence when in fact competent, feign being unprepared when in fact prepared, appear to be near when in fact distant, and vice versa. Entice the enemy with the lure of gain. Strike the enemy with the tactics of confusion. Be doubly prepared against the enemy when it boasts substantial strength. Avoid the enemy altogether when it is indeed formidable. Perturb the enemy by provoking angry reaction. Make the enemy haughty by pretending to be deferential. Exhaust the enemy if it is rested. Divide the enemy if it is united. Attack where the enemy is least prepared. Strike when the enemy least expects. These are the subtle art of deception that the strategist uses to bring sure victory but never discusses or codifies prior to the war…

From Chapter Three: Strategic Offensive

To attain one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of excellence. To subdue the enemy without a battle is the true pinnacle of excellence…

Know yourself and know your enemy. Then, you will never be in peril even in one hundred battles…

From Chapter Four: Military Formation

To foresee a victory which the ordinary people can also perceive is not the acme of excellence. To attain a victory for which you become universally acclaimed is not the acme of excellence. These are like lifting a strand of thin hair in autumn, which is no sign of strength, or like being able to see the sun and the moon, which is no sign of superior vision, or like being able to hear a thunderclap, which is no sign of acute hearing. Those whom the ancients called a master of war conquers an enemy already defeated. Thus, the victory attained by a master of war gain him neither fame for his wisdom nor recognition for his valor, because he ensures victory before entering the war by defeating the enemy already defeated. Therefore, he who is a master of war captures the position of invincibility, and misses no opportunity to defeat an enemy destined to lose. Hence, a victorious army achieves its victory before seeking a battle, whereas a vanquishing army fights a battle before seeking a victory…

From Chapter Five: Strategic Momentum

Momentum is like the torrential water that tumbles along boulders. Timing is like the strike of a hawk that breaks the body of its prey. The momentum of a master of war is overwhelming, and the timing is precisely measured. His momentum is like a fully drawn crossbow, while his timing is like the release of the arrow. Therefore, the master of war seeks victory through the momentum and does not depend on his subordinates. He is able to select his subordinates and lets the momentum take over them…

From Chapter Six: Emptiness and Fullness

The ultimate in the formation of army troops is formlessness. Because it is formless, even the most penetrating spies cannot pry in nor can the most informed lay plans against it. A master of war lays plans for victory in accordance with the forms of the enemy, but the ordinary people do not understand his plan. Although they can see the outward forms of victory, none of them understands the formless formation that has brought forth victory. Therefore, as it is a formless formation, after a victory is won, the same formation will never be repeated again, but an infinite variety of formations will be created…

From Chapter Eight: Nine Varying Tactics

There are five weak character traits that are dangerous in the leadership of an army: (1) those who are too ready to die may be killed; (2) those who are too intent on living may be captured; (3) those who are too quick-tempered may be insulted; (4) those who are too proud may be disgraced; (5) those who are too tenderhearted may be troubled. These five character traits constitute serious faults for a commander, and can prove to be calamitous…

So long as there are human beings who derive often-pathological benefit or power from violence and war, it is our solemn responsibility as conscious, life-respecting individuals to be prepared to defend ourselves individually and collectively against their attempt at violating our rights as well as our lives by means of physical force through understanding the Art of War as applied to our particular time and situation.

Today’s terrorist leaders are bona fide criminals, just as the dictators of the past, such as Adolf Hitler, and criminals need to be brought to justice in accordance with the law of justice as stipulated within our jurisprudent justice system. Terrorism by definition is an organized and premeditated act of violence intended to terrorize the populace of the world. Terror being intense, overpowering fear, if we succumb to fear or terror provoked by the threat of force and violence presented by the terrorists, we have already lost the battle against them. If people study and understand the basic philosophic and strategic principles of the Art of War, they will be able to release themselves from the fear of violence and war, for not only does the Art teach them the art of conflict resolution and eradication but also it instills in their mind the Strategic Mindset, a mindset indispensable in a world dominated and controlled by the logic of violence. As Francis Bacon says, knowledge is indeed power. Thus, Sun Tzu states: Know yourself and know your enemy. Then, you will never be in peril even in one hundred battles. Let me quote from The Art of Peace by Morihei Ueshiba,⁹ the originator-master of Aikido (a school of martial art based on the spiritual principle of cosmic harmony), one of the greatest martial artists who ever lived:

The Art of Peace is not easy. It is a fight to the finish, the slaying of evil desires and all falsehood within. On occasion the Voice of Peace resounds like thunder, jolting human beings out of their stupor.

The Way of a Warrior, the Art of Politics, is to stop trouble before it starts. It consists in defeating your adversaries spiritually by making them realize the folly of their actions. The Way of a Warrior is to establish harmony.

The Art of Peace does not rely on weapons or brute force to succeed; instead we put ourselves in tune with the universe, maintain peace in our own realms, nurture life, and prevent death and destruction. The true meaning of the term samurai is one who serves and adheres to the power of love.

Each and every master, regardless of the era or place, heard the call and attained harmony with heaven and earth. There are many paths leading to the top of Mount Fuji, but there is only one summit—love.

Therefore, my first proposal for the creation of world peace is that people learn the Art of War in the context of the Art of Peace.

The Art of Thinking

(2) A significant percentage of humanity accepts victimhood and suffering as the way of life without the knowledge that one’s life is the out-picturing of one’s thinking and that our world is the out-picturing of our collective thinking.

As a prevailing outgrowth of the Newtonian worldview originating in the 17th century, the western world en masse has subscribed to a metaphysics based on the primacy of matter, which Gerald Heard, Elisabet Sahtouris, and others call “mechanomorphism.”¹⁰ Mechanomorphism affirms that the primary constituency of the universe is lifeless, mindless matter out of whose accidental combinations the universe has evolved. Physics-centric modern science, which is in reality the Newtonian Natural Philosophy minus the Creating Intelligence or “God;” Darwinian or Neo-Darwinian Theory of Evolution, which ascribes the mechanism of evolution to the process of accidental natural selection; and Freudian or Neo-Freudian Psychology, which deems the unconscious psychic drive to be the prime mover of the human psyche, are all variations on the same theme of mechanomorphism.

According to mechanomorphism, Mind is a byproduct of the accidental combinations and evolutions of matter, and Thought is an epiphenomenon of the material functions of the brain. Therefore, based on the mechanomorphic view, we human beings are forever doomed to remain an effect of unconscious and accidental material forces within which there is no causation or causality. In other words, the human being, like everything else in the universe, is a product of the unconscious and accidental forces of dead matter. Mechanomorphism leads people to view themselves as effects or victims of external forces that are essentially mindless. Viewing themselves thus, people come to accept victimhood and suffering as inevitable. Therefore, technology, in the context of mechanomorphism, becomes the means to achieve ever-greater control over ever-larger portion of the material universe. Weapons of mass destruction are typical examples of the mechanomorphic technology.

Mechanomorphism is the modern version of the notion of the external God of Wrath. For Newton, God was the benevolent Creator or Designer of the colossal machine called the Universe. For mechanomorphists, that colossal machine itself is the external God (or God-substitute), albeit lifeless, mindless, and, in theory, Godless. In the mechanomorphic universe, there can be no solid foundation for value or meaning, and therefore no solid foundation for ethics or morality. Mechanistic existence arising from dead matter does not require, nor is it capable of, ethics or morality, which presupposes volitional consciousness and causative mind. For this reason, no Science of Value exists within modern science, which is devoted exclusively to the Science of Fact.

In the 19th century, against the tide of mechanomorphism, there arose a philosophic movement, which came to be called the New Thought Movement, of which Thomas Troward was one of the foremost pioneers.¹¹ Although not directly connected, Walter Russell was completely aligned in his philosophy with this Movement—with the additional dimensions of Art and New Science, which made him a singular and incomparable genius of the 20th century. The New Thought Movement was indeed new in its expression, but the philosophy it propounded had always been an integral part of the esoteric knowledge found throughout history in the West as well as in the East.

The New Thought Movement and the Russellian Philosophy propound that the Universe is the continuum of Mind-Matter, wherein Mind denotes the realm of Cause and Matter denotes the realm of Effect. Mind thinks. The thinking of Mind is the reality of causation. Thus, in the thinking of Mind the power of causation lies. Mind thinks, and this Mind-thinking is the cosmic process of in-forming forms. Through the act of thinking, Mind materializes as Matter. Matter is the out-picturing of Mind within Mind. The human mind is that extension or projection of Mind which replicates the thinking of Mind. The thinking of Mind that thinks the Universe replicates itself in and through the human mind. Therefore, the human being as a thinking being has the power of causation through thinking.¹²

According to this philosophy, which I recommend that humanity try out in lieu of mechanomorphism, we cause our lives through our thinking. Our thinking is the cause of the effect that is our life. Our collective thinking is the cause of the effect that is our world. Once we realize our power in the causation of our lives, we also come to realize the inescapable fact of our responsibility. Therefore, if you see yourself as a victim, it is you who have thought your self into a life where the actuality of your life matches your thought. Your victimhood is an actuality that you have created through the power of your own thinking. All of your suffering will disappear from your life if you realize that it is your thinking that is the cause of your suffering, and if you begin to give up your suffering and to substitute it with joy.

Humanity has no need whatsoever to be victimized by terrorists. Humanity has no need whatsoever to suffer from violence. If people realize that it is they themselves who are responsible for their suffering and victimhood, that they have the power to change not only their lives but also the world through thinking new thoughts, and that a world free of violence and war is entirely possible. If such a world is the collective thought of humanity at large, then humanity will be able to bring forth a radical transformation on this planet. Quoting again from “Ethics, Politics, and Plenitude”:

The source of power is thinking. It is your thinking that moves and transforms your life. It is our thinking that moves and transforms our world. The art of living is indeed the art of thinking. What you think will determine your future. What we think will determine our collective future. Therefore, a new world will only come if and when we think new thoughts.

Therefore, my second proposal for the creation of world peace is that people learn the Art of Thinking in the context of the Art of Peace.

The Art of Dialogue

(3) Humanity as a whole has not yet developed the capacity to sustain a peaceful dialogue with others who hold different or opposing points of view, beyond agreement or disagreement, and trans-cending adversarial argumentation.

The reader of this essay might find some disagreement with some or even all of the points I make. Our disagreement, however, does not mean that we need to kill one another in order for one of us to prevail over the other. Yet, this is exactly what has been happening in the world throughout the ages. The reason for this atrocity I have already explored in the Inner Peace and the Meaning of Life section. When people encounter a worldview that is different from their own, they feel threatened, if their worldviews rest upon a precarious ground. In other words, quoting from my “A Letter to the History Makers”:¹³

People are intolerant of others with differing viewpoints because deep down they are uncertain of the validity of their own beliefs, and do not want to face the possibility that they may not know the truth after all.

The Art of Dialogue is an extension of the Art of Thinking and an expression of the Art of Peace. The Art of Dialogue requires dialogical thinking in contradistinction to monological thinking. Dialogical thinking is the We-Think in contradistinction to the I-Think, which is monological thinking . Dialogue is the process of We-Think wherein you and I think together in and from the Source of Thinking-qua-Being where you and I are one. The We-Think process that is Dialogue is a dynamic and creative logic-space wherein our individuality and universality co-exist without logical or ontological contradiction.¹⁴ In Dialogue, we are required not to lose our independence and independent thinking, while constantly coming from the Source of Thinking-qua-Being where we are one with others.¹⁵

Dialogue in the sense that I am defining it here requires that we develop a dialogical mindset, that we develop the capacity to think dialogically in and from the Source of Thinking-qua-Being even while we are alone in dialogue with ourselves. As a first step, Dialogue requires that we develop the capacity to sustain a dialogue with others who hold differing or opposing points of view from our own, which include those who hold differing or opposing points of view in regard to the dialogue process itself. It is interesting to observe that some experts or proponents of dialogue do not agree with one another, proclaiming that their dialogue process is the best and most advanced process, and, for that reason, cannot even start a dialogue. When humans gather together for a discussion or dialogue, often they end up only throwing their opinions around without anyone ever learning anything from anyone else. This scenario becomes more pronounced, especially when so-called experts or intellectuals gather together.

Therefore, we must face the sober truth that we human beings, including, or rather especially, the experts and intellectuals amongst us who know more than the rest of us, have not necessarily developed the wisdom that consists in the capacity to sustain a peaceful and constructive dialogue with others who hold different points of views from our own. Therefore, the We-Think, in my definition or in any other definition, is practically absent in the world. For this reason, Dialogue is not a means to a solution, but, ipso facto, a solution, a higher-order solution, for world peace.

If a large group of people who hold diverse worldviews can come together and can sustain a dialogue for the creation of world peace, world peace will have been created on the planet to the extent that the dialogue has been peaceful and constructive. In fact, the subject of the dialogue does not even need to be world peace, for the dialogue itself, if sustained in a manner that is dialogically constructive and peaceful, is a powerful peace-generating process.

Fortunately and encouragingly, there exist visionary leaders who are in action to develop a culture of dialogue around the world:

Akio Matsumura, a former United Nations official and presently Executive Director of Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, has masterminded a series of global forums of spiritual and parliamentary leaders to have a series of dialogues by transcending their differences and by breaking their own cherished cultural taboos. For instance, in the 1990 Global Forum held in the Kremlin, Moscow, Mikhail Gorbachev courageously broke the Communist taboo and invited hundreds of world religious leaders in to the Kremlin for the first time in Communist history. During the same Forum, ten Jewish delegates performed the first Jewish religious service ever held in the Kremlin at sundown on a Friday.

Ashok Gangadean, philosopher and world expert on Dialogue/dialogue, who can not only actually sustain a dialogue with anyone but who also really teaches the process of deep dialogue, through his Global Dialogue Institute and other Institutes as well as his books and lectures, has been pivotal in the initiation of the process of creating a culture of dialogue around the world, including the transformation of the education system in Indonesia based on dialogue and dialogical thinking.

There are many others who are equally committed and in action for the transformation of the world and the creation of world peace through the dialogue process.

Therefore, my third proposal for the creation of world peace is that people learn the Art of Dialogue in the context of the Art of Peace.

A Call for Action

The Bible states that many are called but a few are chosen. If this is the case, what makes those few who are chosen so special? What makes them so special is that they choose on their own volition to be chosen. So very few indeed choose to be chosen and take responsibility for living a life that is inspired and impassioned. Responsibility means the ability to respond. When you look at and listen to the world without and the self within, deeply and penetratingly, you can hear a call of the world and a call of the soul resonate to move you into action. In this resonance of the calls of the world and the self you choose to be chosen, and when you choose to be chosen, you realize that you have already been chosen and that you have no choice but to choose to be chosen. Commitment arises with this realization. Committed action arises with this realization.

The Art of Peace that comprises the Art of War, the Art of Thinking, and the Art of Dialogue requires sustained commitment, action, and cooperation on the part of the people who share the vision for peace within and without. The Art of Peace requires that the people who share the commitment to peace within and without practice it in the form of constant and consistent daily discipline. The Art of Inner and Outer Peace requires focused participation of the committed people who have chosen and continue to choose to be chosen by their own singular cosmic destiny. As Akio Matsumura told me, it is the one percent of humanity who is committed that changes the world, and not the remaining 99% for whom talk is never deep but only cheap.

Each of the three Arts, the Art of War, the Art of Thinking, and the Art of Dialogue, requires a concerted effort for its dissemination to make an impact in the world. Our own work through The University of Science and Philosophy and its ethical action division, The Twilight Club, is primarily focused on the development and dissemination of the Art of Thinking. The science aspect of our work concerns research and development in the comprehensive study of Cosmic Thinking as originally discovered and formulated by Walter Russell. The philosophy aspect of our work concerns research and development in the integral study of the Science of Thinking and its application in the human creative process, including the creation of world peace.

There are people and organizations that have more expertise than we in the areas of the Art of Dialogue and the Art of War, with whom and with which we work or will work in our commitment to the spiritual transformation of humanity and to the creation of a New World in which the Law of Love, rather than the logic of violence, will prevail. My triune proposal for world peace is intentionally not detail-oriented but broad-based, because each person who is aligned and committed should fill in its details based on his or her own thinking, commitment, and expertise in order to make it his or her own.

In truth, not many but all of us are called. However, whether or not you will choose to be chosen is entirely up to you. This brief essay serves, therefore, only as a reminder and invitation. May peace prevail within you and in the world, as individually and collectively we move towards peace.

Note:

1. Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace, translation by John Stevens, Shambhala, 1992.

3. Quote from Logic and Nature by Oliver L. Reiser, included in Logic and General Semantics, edited by Sanford I. Berman, The International Society for General Semantics, 1989.

4. Yasuhiko G. Kimura, Think Kosmically Act Globally, The University of Science and Philosophy, 2000.

6. Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, Beacon Press, 1963.

7. Sun Zi, The Art of War, Sun Bin, The Art of War, People’s China Publishing House, Beijing, 1995.

8. At Metaconsulting Institute of which I was Founder/Director, for my nine-month business program, Leadership and Strategy Consortium, I translated and used as one of the texts Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. To date, the translation has never been published.

9. Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace, translation by John Stevens, Shambhala, 1992.

10. Willis W. Harman & Elisabet Sahtouris, Biology Revisioned, North Atlantic Books, 1998. Gerald Heard, The Third Morality, 1937.

11. Amongst Thomas Troward’s books are The Creative Process in the Individual, The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science, The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, and The Law and the Word, all published by DeVorss Publications.

12. Walter Russell, The Universal One, The University of Science and Philosophy, 1974, Copyright 1926. Also see my essay, Metascientific Foundation of Neo-Russellian Cosmogony, in this issue of The Cosmic Light.

13. Yasuhiko G. Kimura, A Letter to the History Makers, included in Think Kosmically Act Globally, The University of Science and Philosophy, 2000. Pamphlets of A Letter to the History Makers are also available from The Twilight Club/Center for Evolutionary Ethics, a division of The University of Science and Philosophy.

14. See the section on “Trans-Aristotelian Logic” in Metascientific Foundation of Neo-Russellian Cosmogony in this issue of The Cosmic Light.

15. Although I developed my thinking concerning dialogue independent of Ashok Gangadean’s work, since our meeting in 2000, his work has enriched my understanding greatly. Readers interested in a deep study of dialogue/Dialogue are referred to his seminal work, Between Worlds: The Emergence of Global Reason, Peter Lang, 1998.