Conflict And Resolution
From Pandemonium To Reverence
Establishing a harmonious and creative existence is the core motivation of religions, spiritual practices, honorable livelihood, and honest governments; while poverty, famine, disease, corrupt politics, and relentless wars, have only increased during the brief history of humanity.
Whether we observe suffering from a distance or are directly immersed in the profane and painful, those exhausted by conflict are inevitably driven to question whether there can be liberation from incessant deception and irreverent destruction.
Despite the best efforts of those with good intentions, a perpetual and divisive degradation of the Earth’s human family persists. Devastation has been normalized under the assumption that bloodshed is justifiable, particularly in retaliation for perceived wrongdoing. The self-righteous disregard the consequences of increasing armaments and using violence to resolve differences.
Antagonistic individuals and civilizations that have resorted to brutality as a means to an end fail to recognize the folly of applying force to regain balance. Short-term results or fleeting satisfaction is often justified. However, no individual or nation has evaded the ever-repeating outcome when relying on death and destruction to affect change. The aftermath is always the continuing degradation of life.
The result of outward rage and ravage, whether by an individual or a society — is ultimately self-destructive.
Abusers who destroy families, warriors who slaughter, leaders who benefit from division and rule with threats, and empires that dominate with force — eventually fail and fall — succumbing directly or indirectly to the fury they have engendered.
Despite this recognizable syndrome, strife and war continue to dominate human existence and technological development. Humanity’s spiritual growth has not evolved, while means of violent interaction proliferate. Over recent centuries, weaponry on the planet has become capable of destroying entire cities and civilizations from afar. Enemies compete for the ultimate power; a self-righteous nation can annihilate most life on Earth.
The story of Sisyphus, condemned to push a boulder up a mountain for eternity, is analogous to the plight of humanity. He never reaches the peak; the stone repeatedly rolls down to a valley below where his torture must begin again. The moral of the Greek myth is often misconstrued and simplified as the epitome of a great struggle that repeatedly fails.
However, the duplicitous King Sisyphus was sentenced to this fate for his relentless murderous behavior. His task is a reminder of the futility of violence; the true moral of his story has been lost.
Throughout history, there are enlightening accounts of exceptional individuals who defied the fleeting satisfaction of repetitive hostility and carnage. One such tale unfolded in the high mountains of Tibet about a thousand years ago.
Milarepa was a young teen when his father died. In the wake of his death, he witnessed the greed of relatives and neighbors who stole his family’s land and belongings. His impoverished mother encouraged him to study and strengthen himself, so he could return and seek revenge on those who had done them wrong.
After training in the deadly arts, Milarepa exacted penance on those who drove his family into poverty, and the town and its people paid heavily for their misdeeds. His actions caused many deaths and when survivors sought to kill him, he invoked a hailstorm that destroyed their crops.
Milarepa realized the extent of the damage and suffering he had caused and the anger it engendered against him. He departed his village overcome with regret, as he recognized the folly of retribution. Knowing ignorance had driven him to violence, he sought a teacher who could impart the foundations of a noble path.
After much torment during a painful quest, he found a renowned wise man who reluctantly took him on as a student. His training began with moving large stones from a riverbed and building a tower on a mountain above. Unlike Sisyphus, Milarepa was able to accomplish the monumental challenge, yet when finished, his teacher commanded him to return the stones to the valley below. Only after completing this thankless work repeatedly, did his teacher begin to impart a higher knowledge to his willing student.
The cyclical nature of all things can only be learned through experience. Ultimately, Milarepa recognized this concept as applied to the folly of revenge. He fully embraced compassion and love and for the remainder of his life, applied his powerful spirit to teaching and spreading kindness. He is one of the most revered characters in Tibetan history, having had the personal power to reject the emptiness of reprisal and transform himself into an embodiment of peace.
Inspirational tales of the past have been overshadowed by the immediacy of challenges in the contemporary world. Hate and sadness thrive, with a barrage of irreconcilable divisions that are driving humanity to an existential precipice.
Yet every individual continues to desire to love and be loved.
This apparent contradiction reveals an encouraging dynamic. The change of course in human events depends on the renewal of our compassionate core. Honest and supportive governments, altruistic social movements, the renaissance of traditional arts and sciences, and individual enlightenment are the foundations of true progress. All of these are interdependent — and when flourishing simultaneously and symbiotically — result in harmony and creativity.
Those who continue to justify vengeance will suffer the destiny of Sisyphus. A better world will come with an understanding of the path of Milarepa and others like him, with reverence for peace as a way of life.
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HIERARCHICAL, fully interdependent mass-societies MUST crumble and will vanish; its intrinsic due to human flaws (and increasingly technical ones!!) and get out-of-balance for good leaving unseen horrors in their wake.
Any group of self-responsible, self-sustained, EGALITARIAN individuals that counts less than the Dunbar's # can and will survive under the most adverse conditions.
Deep Forest once made a song with lyrics that read: Deep in the jungle, there live some little men and women; they're our past and maybe, maybe our future ...
Seems we're getting closer by the day and hopefully, there will be some forest left ...
Maybe, the human species is just a quirk of Nature, not designed to last for long.