Conquer None, but Oneself!
After humankind’s trial and error in conquering things, we have come to a dead end.
Our attempt to conquer nature now knows no gain, but only error and extinction. Our attempt to conquer men now meets no merit, but only error and exhaustion.
The winner produces enmity, because in suffering the defeated one lies down.
Being settled beyond victory and defeat, comfortably in peace one lies down.
- The Dhammapada, 201
The one who desires happiness causing others’ suffering
Is not freed from enmity but entangled in the snares of enmity.
- Op.cit., 291
Enmity is never appeased by enmity here,
but by non-enmity. This is the truth forever.
-Op.cit., 5
Human suffering comes from the delusion of independent and eternal ego. There is no such thing as the self-same, self-sovereign self. Our delusion and desire create bubbles of ego and economy in the great sea of eco-system. Bubbles burst but the sea remains.
Self-centeredness ends in wars, the worst, wishful, wasteful invention institutionalized by human civilization. The world spends 1.5 trillion dollars yearly and invaluable lives producing nothing good, but sacrificing all. The pyramidal system is a one-way ticket to destruction and death, with no return-ticket to saving and life.
What is suffering, if anyone asks this,
Mind separating men, please answer this.
- Ryôkan
Human right and wrong is the matter of a dream.
- Ryôkan
Eventually no one can conquer anyone except oneself. Even a one-inch worm has a half-inch soul. The human soul is unconquerable. In the end, no one can conquer anything. Even a single molecule contains the truth of the whole universe wrought throughout time and space.
Better than conquering thousands upon thousands in war
is conquering oneself. Then is one the greatest war victor.
Better is the conquering of self than the conquering of others,
by the self-controlled person always in restrained action.
Even a god, spirits, Death Devil, and Brahma
cannot overturn the victory of such a person.
-The Dhammapada, 103-5
Truth is the factors and function of the entire universe intertwined and interacting as a dynamic, holy (wholly wholesome) system. No one should be deluded or deviate from it. An Upanishad passage employed by the people of India as their national emblem states it concisely:
Truth only wins. - The Mundaka Upanishad, 1.2.5
In the end, delusions and desires win nothing, but only collapse upon themselves like iron consumed by rust. Only truth wins, not untruth. Truth always wins because it is the total universal system, beyond selfish, superfluous delusion and desire.
By oneself indeed evil is done, by oneself one is defiled.
By oneself evil is not done, by oneself one is purified.
Purity and defilement depend on oneself.
No one else purifies another.
- The Dhammapada, 165
Rosan, Truth only wins. I like that. Somewhere in the Old-Testament is a statement that says something to the effect that God’s only limitation is to be true to His(Her,Its) nature. Maybe someone can help with location and correct quote.
It is also my understanding that our ego causes the damage to ourselves and the environment. The function of all religions being to assist us in transcending the ego. Reading the quotes in the blog makes me realize how much all religions have in common.
True or truthful is a form of being.
What can one person do when thousands want war?
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Polonius in Hamlet by Shakespeare
Dear Edward Smith,
Thank you for your comment.
Religions means reunion, reunion of mind/body, self/other, here/there,…
Religions aim at holiness (wholesome whole) from sinfulness (separation, selfishness).
Religions fall in selfishness driven by karma (self-survival action).
Thus, we need to stop past bad karma and start new good karma.
Let us reunite with truth, goodness, beauty and holiness and enjoy them.
Dear Another,
Thank you for your words and quotation.
Truth is the norm of forms in becoming. All forms (phenomena) are interdependently originated, changing and ceased. So, we observe the truth/law of Dependent Co-origination of all phenomena in change.
We become truth and peace, if delusion and desire cease.
Dear Cara,
Thank you for your comment.
You are not alone feeling so, but not alone in the wide world.
There are many a person, many people, many plants, many planets in peace.
They are essentially peaceful and truthful in normal states in systems.
Wars are abnormal states in disunion, dispute, disintegration, disruption.
Are you in truth, peace, goodness, holiness?
Do you want untruth, war, badness, sinfulness?
If you do not want wars and becoming warior, killing and killed,
why not remain in truth, peace, etc. and let others do so?
Then you will never regret and ever rejoice limitless life, light, love, liberation,…
Truth is,
change an illusion.
We are born in truth,
any change is the illusion.
Thank you for your reply.
All is interrelated. Can one be in peace when surrounded by violence?
Dear Another,
If no change, how could you be born?
All phenomena are in dynamic change.