"Peace is much more than absence of conflict.
It involves, above all, democracy and development."
These were the words of UNESCO Director-General
Federico Mayor at the opening of a culture of
peace conference in Moscow this May. (Unesco
Sources,June 1999)
Representatives from different parts of the world
attended the International Forum for "a Culture
of Peace and Dialogue among Civilizations in the
Third Millennium." The forum aimed to draw
the attention of public opinion to the fact that
a culture of peace and dialogue between different
peoples and civilizations requires the acquisition
of a general culture-cultural, civic and social
awareness-and civil society therefore plays an
important role in establishing the conditions
allowing for the development of this culture of
peace and dialogue.
Culture is the equivalent of the use by the Romans
of the word for the humanities, humanitas.
To humanize is to render humane, to mellow, to
make gentle by overcoming cruelty, indifference,
brutality. To be cultured is to be made more humane;
to unfold the sensibilities common to humanity;
to bring out the kind feelings, dispositions and
sympathies of human beings. Culture is thus truly
the cultivation-that is its derivation, from the
Latin, cultura-of the nobler qualities;
the training, the refining of the moral and intellectual
nature.
And whence springs such humane culture? From the
intellectual recognition that humanity is a great
Brotherhood. Humanity is one and indivisible,
but the mind must perceive this fact, must understand
the Laws of Brotherhood, must realize the Great
Self of which we are all integral parts. There
is an intimate connection between true culture
and peace. Both are of the spirit. When people
recognize and practise Brotherhood, they will
cease to follow the law of the jungle, which is
that of violence, and will exemplify instead the
Law of Love. In mutual co-operation they will
become true brothers and when Brotherhood is lived
up to, Peace will be established. We all dream
of a World Order, of World Unity, of Concord and
Understanding. These will all come when human
minds recognize the reality of the One Self and
begin to act for and as the Self of all creatures.
Thus the Peace of the Spirit and the Culture rooted
in Brotherhood are so intimately related that
the one cannot be without the other. It is Culture
that transcends all differentiations and varieties
of form which is the foundation for lasting Peace.
Countless cultures around the world have disappeared,
along with the myths that once united them. Authors
Stanley Krippner, Ann Mortifee and David Feinstein
write in The Futurist of the need of creating
a new unifying mythic vision for the future-using
the word "myth" in the sense of an expression
of the customs, traditions, institutions, attitudes,
etc., of a people:
If we are going to avoid the fate of the Easter Islanders, we must change
the myths that are leading us toward extinction
and find inspiring visions of a plausible and
appealing future. The old myths have collapsed,
but no new ones have emerged to fill the vacuum.
For transformation to occur, human beings must
actively shape the future, an enterprise that
goes to the heart of mythmaking. If we are each
a cell in what Peter Russell calls "The
Global Brain", then this is an individual
as well as a collective venture.
Framing a problem in mythological terms can
point toward solutions at deeper mythic levels.
For centuries, the guiding myth of Western culture
has been what might be called the "Grand
Narrative of Progress." It is the story
of movement toward a goal-achievement, improvement,
and conquest. Modern science and technology
have propelled this myth, extending the human
life-span, harnessing natural resources and
the power of the atom, carrying sounds through
the atmosphere, and exploring outer space by
defying gravity itself….
But as the Grand Narrative of Progress came
to dominate other values and views, it cast
a malignant shadow….Indeed, the Grand Narrative
of Progress is a myth that stands in need of
criticism…
Philosopher Sam Keen has urged us to shift from
the myth of progress to a myth of sustainable
growth in order to create the compassionate
political order needed to avert humanity from
its self-destructive course. Keen has identified
some of the radical changes in values and principles
of political action needed to achieve the myth
of sustainable growth. They include:
Shifting personal identity from the egocentric
to the community-rooted person.
Shifting from competition to economic co-operation.
Shifting from sanctified violence and the myth
of just wars to peaceful means of conflict resolution.
Shifting from population explosion to zero population
growth.
Shifting from a secular view of nature as raw
material to the belief that nature is sacred.
Shifting from a world divided between the poor
and the rich to a more just distribution of
wealth and resources….
Yet, if systems design and policy planning veer
away from the Scylla of the Grand Narrative
of Progress and the Charybdis of the a Millennium
Myths, it is still possible to foster mythologies
based on sustainability and connection. The
inhabitants of Island Earth can avoid the fate
of the Easter Islanders as we set sail for the
twenty-first century.
The belief that natural phenomena and objects, like
rocks, trees, the wind, heavenly bodies, etc., are
alive and have souls, is ingrained in tribal societies.
This view that all life is produced by a spiritual
force separate from matter is called animism by
anthropologists.
Some present-day investigators portray animism as
a useful and universal human tendency. Despite Western
canons of thought that rigidly divide animate and
inanimate, human and non-human, natural and social,
people in modern societies tend to hold animistic
convictions with no less fervour than members of
primitive nonliterate societies. As stated by Bruce
Bower (Science News, June 5):
In hunter-gatherer societies, according to this view, keen
attunement to the subtleties of trees, stones, heavenly bodies,
and other facets of the world becomes a kind of conversation
with these entities; it amounts to socializing with them as beings
in their own right….
"Habitual movements of the sun in the heavens, of trees
in the wind, of animals and humans as they go about their everyday
tasks take place as part of a total life process of continuous
birth, through which the world itself is forever coming into
being," Tim Ingold [of the University of Manchester in England]
maintains. "In short, living beings do not move upon the
world but move along with it."…
Consider the ease with which people see life forms in the smudgy
blots of a Rorschach inkblot test and name and talk to ears,
computers, and other valued possessions. Think of the many writers
and poets who avidly animate the natural world and human-made
objects in literary descriptions. Even scientists find it difficult
not to assume that nonhuman animals, natural phenomena, and theoretical
entities operate on the basis of intentions and beliefs….
Animism in modern societies arises through a process of attaining
familiarity with specific aspects of one's surroundings. In the
high-tech world, however, it may be mechanical and electronic
entities that are treated as at least potentially conscious.
The distance from a chess-playing computer to a silicon comrade,
for example, seems particularly short.
Ingold agrees that as people forge closer relation with features
of their environment, animism flourishes.
There is a growing belief, endorsed by some scientists, that there is nothing
inanimate in nature and in the universe. Every
natural phenomenon, every object, every entity,
is thrilling and throbbing with life.
There are certain common symbols recognizable in
most of the world's cultures, and the dragon is
one of them. Yet, in different traditions it has
acquired different connotations. Rachel Hajar writes
in The World and I of the beliefs associated
with the dragon.
Today, we tend to dismiss mythical beasts as relics from a
superstitious past. Yet, in modern fiction and art worldwide,
dragons survive. Myths are more than simple tales from a primitive
past. They are an important means of validating that our ways
of governing and organizing ourselves are part of the natural
order. Linking and incorporating a variety of perceptions and
themes, myths can have multilayered meanings. Myths endure because
they belong to the realm of the sacred; they reflect in symbols
the deepest concerns of our minds.
Dragons figure prominently in recitals of the creation, maintenance,
destruction, and restoration of cosmic order. Whether negative
or positive, dragons remain potent symbols of nature beyond man's
control. Besides reflecting the role of cosmic order in human
affairs, there is another dimension to dragon lore, and that
is our struggle to master the dark, demonic forces of our nature
to attain harmony with our true inner self.
Many today think of the dragon as the incarnation of evil,
darkness and other negative forces, yet in antiquity it had quite
a different connotation. "No peoples or nations except the
Christians gave the significance to the Dragon that is given
to it now," says The Secret Doctrine (I, 657).
In Occult symbolism, the Dragon, or Serpent, represents Divine Wisdom.
We find….the "Dragons" held throughout
all antiquity as the symbols of Immortality
and Wisdom, of secret knowledge and of Eternity;
and the hierophants of Egypt, of Babylon, and
India, styling themselves generally the "Sons
of the Dragon" and "Serpents."
(S.D., II, 379)
The "Dragon of Wisdom" is the One,
the "Eka" (Sanskrit) or Saka…The
"One" and the Dragon are expressions
used by the ancients in connection with their
respective Logoi. Jehovah-esoterically (as Elohim)-is
also the Serpent of Dragon that tempted Eve,
and the "Dragon" is an old glyph for
"Astral Light" (Primordial Principle),
"which is the Wisdom of Chaos." Archaic
philosophy, recognizing neither Good nor Evil
as a fundamental or independent power, but starting
from the Absolute ALL (Universal Perfection
eternally), traced both through the course of
natural evolution to pure Light condensing gradually
into form, hence becoming Matter or Evil. It
was left with the early and ignorant Christian
fathers to degrade the philosophical and highly
scientific idea of this emblem (the Dragon)
into the absurd superstition called the "Devil."…The
Pagans have always shown a philosophical discrimination
in their symbols. The Primitive symbol of the
serpent symbolized divine Wisdom and Perfection,
and had always stood for psychical Regeneration
and Immortality….Yet they all made a difference
between the good and the bad Serpent (the Astral
Light of the Kabalists)-between the former,
the embodiment of divine Wisdom in the region
of the Spiritual, and the latter, Evil, on the
plane of matter. Jesus accepted the serpent
as a synonym of Wisdom, and this formed part
of his teaching: "Be ye wise as serpents,"
he says. (I, 73-74)
Materialistic people are lonely, according to Dr.
H. B. Danesh, a psychiatrist. "They are alone
in the journey of life, in their struggle for existence,
and in their happiness and sadness. They are preoccupied
with themselves, their health, their success, their
position in society, their acceptance by others,
their need to love and be loved." Such people
seek power in their quest for security and become
competitive in their attempt to feel worthy. Power
and competition combined in the lives of the lonely
and the insecure, become potent sources of destruction
and violence, according to Dr. Danesh.
Detailing the theme in this book, The Psychology
of Spirituality, he argues that
The materialistic approach does not help in fostering positive human
relationships. Such people drift apart, become
suspicious of one another and become incapable
of meaningful communication and intimacy. Alienation
and mistrust are the end results.
The spiritual person, on the other hand, acts
on the premise that man is made for relationships.
He is conscious of the interdependence and unity
of the human race. Spiritual people feel a closeness
to one another as they look to the same source
for meaning, inspiration and love. Relationships
among them may remain loving and secure. It
is easy for them to overlook the shortcomings
of one another; not to be unduly disappointed
or angry when expectations are not fulfilled….
In the case of the spiritually-minded, the power
of love functions as a magnet that draws people
together, eradicates estrangement and service….The
root of many problems in interpersonal, marital,
familial and international relationships today
is the absence of fidelity….
Dr. Danesh feels that we are approaching a new
era in which science and religion are reconciled
and a profound change in attitudes and habits
is needed. This would mean diligently searching
for the truth, wherever it comes from; unconditionally
loving one another; and seeing planet Earth
as our collective home rather than as a battlefield
of divergent ideologies, interests and backgrounds.
(The Times of India, August 17)
PEACE is not absence of war, it is a virtue, a state
of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence,
justice.
-SPINOZA. |
