The ending of conflict

It is not only in this Western world but in the East and Far East, and West, everyone is trying to become, or be, or avoid, and so on.
The ending of conflict

BENGALURU: What is it that we are trying to become, all of us? Physically we want more money, better house, better position, more power, more money, a better status. Biologically, if one is not well, to become well. Psychologically, that is the whole inward process of thought, consciousness, the whole drive, inwardly, is from the perception or the recognition that one is nothing, actually, but to become, move away from that, through education, through university – if one is so-called lucky enough to go to any university – get a good career, job, that will give you position, money, etc. etc.

Psychologically, inwardly, there is always the escape from ‘what is’, always running away from that which I am, with which I am dissatisfied to something which will satisfy me. Whether that satisfaction is deep contentment, happiness, a projection of thought as enlightenment, as acquiring greater knowledge, this is the process of becoming – I am, I shall be – right? That involves time. Now the brain is programmed to this. All our culture, all our religious sanctions, everything says, ‘become’ – right? You see this phenomenon all over the world.

It is not only in this Western world but in the East and Far East, and West, everyone is trying to become, or be, or avoid, and so on. Is this the cause of conflict, inwardly and outwardly? Inwardly there is this imitation, conformity, competition with the ideal. And also outwardly there is this competition between so-called individuals of one group against another group, nation against nation and so on. So inwardly and outwardly there is this drive to be and become something.

We are asking: is this the basic cause of our conflict? Or man is doomed forever as long as he lives on this marvellous earth, doomed to perpetual conflict? One can rationalise this conflict, say nature is in conflict, the tree struggling to reach the sun is in conflict, and that is part of our nature because through conflict, through competition, we have evolved, we have grown into this marvellous human beings that we are.

This is not being said sarcastically, this is what most of us do think. So our brain is programmed to conflict. And we have never been able to resolve this problem. You may neurotically escape into some fantasy and hold on to that fantasy and be totally content. Or imagine that you have inwardly achieved something and be totally content with that.

And any questioning, any doubt, any scepticism that must be exercised by an intelligent mind, must question all this: why human beings after millions and millions of years, from the beginning of man, we have lived with conflict. There are in those caves where man is fighting evil in the form of a boar, or this or that. From the ancient times of the Sumerians, there has been conflict, the Egyptians and so on up to the present evolution of man he has lived in conflict. We have accepted it, we have tolerated it, we have said it is part of our nature to compete, to be aggressive, to imitate, to conform, is part of this everlasting pattern of conflict.

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