What Should We Human Beings Do Now?

In order to avoid the world wide dangers facing us now, I think, we must first ascertain the root from which they grow. And next, we must have as many people as possible with concern for the issue prepare for those dangers and work together to cut the root.

Thus, I would like to offer my personal idea here. I am going to reveal what the root is by referring to the previous two treatises, and then, propose how we can manage to eliminate it.

1. A General View of Human History

First of all, we are to study here how we human beings have evolved. But for this purpose, I think it necessary for us to compare this with the parallel evolutions of individuals and races, because we can find a certain similarity among them.

That is, not long after the dawn of their evolution, they all come to a time when they can commune with spirits in nature. And then, accordingly as they develop their reasoning ability, they improve their practical skills, which leads them to material prosperity. But as is often the case, this ends with the collapse of both mental and physical powers on account of undermining by material desire.

The tendency seen above is common among them, from individuals to human beings as a whole. Therefore, we are going to survey human history with this in mind.

How human beings came to appear is a tough question.

Here, we must pay attention to the fact that they left the jungle, a kind of paradise, and began to live in a plain where there are dangerous animals. We must find the reason why this fact took place.

This is because, during their progress as human beings with developing intellect, they began to get a strong interest in the unknown world around them. And, at the same time, the impulse to bet on a dangerous thing became strong.

In the plain, how to protect themselves against enemies and how to secure food become big concerns. Thus, the intellect is trained further so that it can become an indispensable means of survival. That is, it is trained in one way where it connects a cause with an effect, or vice versa, and also in the other way where it abstracts a concept from the intuitive world on its way to generalization.

In the former, it enables us to bring about desirable results by making and using tools. In the latter, it invents language, which enables us to transmit our will so easily that we can work together very quickly on a larger scale. And once the words are recorded and accumulated as knowledge with the help of the characters that stand for meanings and pronunciation, human beings begin to expand their desires all the more by having the sword of knowledge.

Though, in this way, thinking power was given to human beings as a kind of "fang" for their own survival, it becomes very strong by going through high technical improvement in consequence of the accumulated knowledge, and then, taking advantage of the power of the "fang," the insatiable desire to obtain as much as possible appears.

Incidentally, if one is put into a place such as a tropical paradise where one can survive without difficulties, he will never desire more than enough even if he has the "fang", being satisfied with daily food and material which can be hunted or collected with ease.

In this situation, the idea of accumulation is nothing but nonsense to him. And having no necessity to serve the lower desires such as those for material or survival, his intellect gets purified and he begins to talk with spirits in nature.

In another situation where nature is harsher, as long as he has to live by hunting and gathering, he will never try to get more than enough, either, because the objects of hunting and gathering, that is nature itself, are taken as his parents and brothers who keep him alive,and so their death leads to his own death. Thus, in this situation, he may become aware of the indispensable roles of souls around him such as animals, plants, rivers, mountains, and so on. In other words, he becomes aware of the oneness of all beings in this living universe.

Here, the idea of accumulation will develop, but only simple food such as nuts or grains will be stocked at first.

Now, this harsh condition may cause him to control animals and plants so that he can guarantee his own survival, because as he cannot always get enough food by hunting and gathering, he begins to provide himself with a predictable supply of food by raising animals and plants.

At this stage, and for the first time, the idea of accumulation appears and makes him think strongly about the future.

At first step, in addition to hunting and gathering, he may do the work in his spare time. But as he realizes the importance of it, he will put more and more emphasis on it, and will finally come to live by raising animals and plants alone.

In this case, wherever there are suitable locations, cultivating land will occupy an important position. And then, when productivity becomes high enough to increase the scale of production with the help of developing skills, and enables him to enjoy more and more surplus, he will then try to enlarge the scale of his farm so he can obtain and accumulate more and more surplus. That is, he comes to work hard not for his own survival but for the accumulation of power itself.

In this way, as the population becomes larger due to high productivity, the self-sufficient system of family or of community begins to collapse, and people are confined to their own specific job allotted according to their capacities. And when the barter system or the monetary system begins to develop, many new appetizing objects are revealed, which stir their material desire very strongly.

Corresponding to the fact mentioned above, these phenomena appear as follows. That is, people living in a paradise soon begin to ravage it as the result of pursuing those appetizing objects. And those who are embraced by Father's heaven and Mother's land sell off nature to satisfy their material desire, allowing indiscriminate gathering, hunting and fishing, and so on. And as a result, they have to leave Mother's land the moment nature dies. In other words, it loses its capacity to support them.

In this way, when productivity becomes high enough with the help of developing skills, a strong material desire appears in human beings and gives rise to the movement at which every soul is taken as useful according to desire, and chained to it. Before this phenomenon appears, and once the survival desire was fulfilled, their interest was directed to metaphysical matters, where their intellect was inspired, and could hear the whole universe whispering volubly. But when this insatiable desire appears strongly, it cannot hear the universe any longer, only representing the world (or nature) as mere objects to be conquered and dominated, which reflects their own slavish desire.

Incidentally, in such a stifled world, human beings cannot help getting another chance to transcend daily life and enter the whole universe (or God itself), trying to emancipate their own vital life from the slavish situation and regain themselves (that is, the whole universe ). That impulse is the very thing which causes the sacrifice itself, the origin of festival. And in this case, the offering is oneself.

But, once the "God," reflecting our slavish desires, is formed and the movement degrades into religious formality, by making an offering in this ceremony to the "God" which is considered to dominate us from the transcendental world, we try to receive new power as a blessing from it in order to dominate other souls.

However, as I mentioned above, the sacrifice is originally located on a turning point in a big wave of "MAYA" where souls can renew their vital life, which each soul has inside its own self. Therefore, when the desire for the "God" for the sake of domination is destroyed, and the new vital life freed from it springs out into the whole universe, we can call it real "sacrifice."

In this way, as productivity becomes higher and the population larger, a great power is formed due to the material desire, and it will begin to control and dominate not only all the souls on the earth but also those on other planets.

In this situation, the growth of souls, which is arranged by the universal spirit, will be twisted and troubled due to the slavish desire, leaving a dark stifled world on this planet. In due course, the whole life, the object of material desire, not emancipated from it will begin to spoil and, at the same time, cause the very subject itself of this control and domination to spoil, too.

Thus, confined in a black hole of material desire, human beings may come to rot away into extinction without being freed at all.

2. What Should We Do ?

Through our survey of human history, we must say that we are now tracing the very route to catastrophe. Most people are seeking only material prosperity, and neglect what the self itself is really eager to become. They discard such an important thing while pursuing various kinds of illusions, haunted by insatiable desire, and regard others as nothing but lifeless matter.

With this situation prevailing all over the world, what on earth should we do? If we have a chance to emancipate our world from this stifled situation, how could we take advantage of it? We have to find the way to emancipation.

First of all, to find the way, we must begin with realizing the essential root which causes such hells as seen around the world to come into being. And as we saw before, we can attribute it to the material desire human beings have.

Some say with reason that they stem from "carnivorousness" or "agriculture and animal husbandry." But with these causes, we still cannot explain why these phenomena have been brought about. Here, we are asked to find a root in place of a cause. And as for the reason why they appear, we can find two separable roots, that is, the survival desire and the material one. And, under the former, they need not be discouraged.

Because, at this step, we eat meat or raise stock and farm land in order to survive. And this is the same case with other animals and plants. For plants need and eat inorganic matter, and animals need and eat plants and animals. Thus, for human beings as well, we are not to blame for eating meat and using the intellectual ability human beings would have for a simple life.

But, on the other hand, once it happens that the intellect gives rise to material desire and becomes the means for that desire to obtain as much as possible, then we human beings are burdened with "the original sin." Thus, in those phenomena under the latter, we must admit that all souls will be chained to the definition of utilitarianism according with the desire, and the slavish condition, totally different from the one under the former, will always remain, because it never knows "enough."

In other words, in the case of the former, as soon as the desire is fulfilled, the slavish condition will end. But here under the latter, it is never fulfilled, and the condition never ends, because, indulging in "nice sense," it pursues more and more wonderful taste, or it takes advantage of animals and plants, trying to chain them to the slavish condition for good. And the movement that exploits souls as if they were lifeless matter is to cover all the souls on the earth.

In such a situation, both "medical science" and "education" cannot achive their duties to cure souls and help them grow in the right direction, only falling into the means for satisfying insatiable desires. All souls are degraded into objects for business.

Here, the very subject having control on the object, as well as the object, as a matter of fact can never develop in the right direction because of slavish desire. In other words, the subject itself is a slave of its own insatiable desire.

We see from the above that today's stifled situation has its root in material desire. Therefore, as a substantial target, we have to aim at and eliminate the material desire. But at first, we must recognize it. And, as the first step of the long way to emancipate those souls confined under insatiable desires, we must begin with that of oneself. Universal revolution in human beings has to be continued inside each individual. Otherwise, no matter what we may free, such as animals, plants, or inorganic matter, so long as it remains inside our selves, the same situation of control will be sure to emerge before long.

Now that we have recognized the substantial target, we must tackle the next problem. That is, how to eliminate it.

Here, I would like to offer my personal proposition.

For making the issue clear, I think the most desirable situation is that all souls, including inorganic matter as well as animals and plants, can co-exist and prosper with others according to their own nature, which the universal law supports.

For that very reason, although human beings are the root of these hells, so long as they are also souls of the whole universal life, they should not be exterminated, but, according to their nature, they have to be brought back to the right direction, which the universal law is always demanding. The true nature is, with the material desire for existance at the bottom, the survival, the sexual, and the intellectual one, in that order, and the desire to fuse into the supreme being comes at the top of this hierarchical structure.

Therefore, the soul which is to become a human being would never be content with only the material desire, trying to develop and approach God as closely as possible according to its nature. If it can develop itself into "Ερωσ," "Μουσα," and "Αγαπη," following the universal law, then it never occurs that it should dominate others and deny their proper growth under stifling conditions. And in case growth is troubled by the contradictions which the universal life itself has, so long as they are caused by those that are struggling to find the right direction, they are never to blame.

For this reason, we must think about how we can transform the horizontal movement the material desire has at bottom into the vertical one toward the supreme being.

First of all, we need awareness.

We must know the nature (ie, emptiness) of the power which gives rise to the hells around the world. And then, we ought to analyze it into recognition. By doing so, the material desire will cease to flourish and gradually wither away.

Secondly, we should change to a certain extent the kind of desire we have by adopting a commandment for daily meals.

I think that taking more vegetables and grains and less meat is recommended especially in rich countries so that people can keep themselves in good health and make their intellectual ability fairly high. Eating too much meat makes blood impure, stopping the development of the intellect and developing the lower desires, which we hope to avoid.

The power inspired in such a way, this time, should be directed to creative activities. And in this case, these activities never mean the limited fields such as literary arts, fine arts, and so on, but the way of struggle itself in life.

As we saw above, in order to free souls from this stifling situation, we need to conduct the huge power of material desire wandering at the bottom up toward the perfect vacuity. In other words, for rooting out material desire, we should not demand resignation, because it never applies to the well-known law which shows us that energy itself cannot be destroyed and continues to exist, taking different forms. Therefore, we should transform the wandering power toward the vertical direction into creative power. I think this is the most important thing to do now.

I don't know whether we can achieve it on a world-wide scale or not. As there is no other way left, we must depend on it. We will never be able to change anything by putting the vectors at the bottom together. Only by emancipating them from the stifling situation at the bottom of beings, and by conducting them up toward the perfect vacuity, will the world change from its basis.

Incidentally, from a metaphysical view point, "religion" itself has its origin in the fact that souls are always trying to develop themselves as faithfully to the voice of God as possible. Therefore, we should handle "religion" not at the level of mere belief or prayer, but at that of the embodiment of the universal law, that is, the path for the perfect vacuity following the voice of God.

The "religion" reflecting self is nothing but the rationalization of its desire. If conducted by it, we never keep our feet on the path for the perfect vacuity. On the contrary, it will prevent us from embodying the voice of God in this world.

3. About Nihilism

Finally, I have a remark on nihilism.

As we saw above, those who are manupulated by the material desire consider nature as mere illusion represented by the light of intellect, and try to exploit and exterminate it as if it were lifeless.

This egotism, which leads a person to regard oneself as everything and others as nothing, will be spoiled without being able to feed its corpulent soul. For it comes to realize that it is impossible to satisfy its own desire in a well-controlled society such as at present. Thus, dragging the strong insatiable desire, it will end up looking down upon not only others but also itself as nothing.

But here, we must pay attention to the fact that this "nihilism" is merely put on the same stretched line as egotism is, and it is only a phenomenon brought about by the material desire. Therefore, in such a case, it can be expressed as "nihilistic egotism."

And now the soul, whose material desire is collapsing and who is succeeding in freeing itself, will come to realize the nature of the desire itself, that is, the meaninglessness which all beings in the universe have. This shows that, being away from egotism, it is awaking to nihilism in an original sense. But even when it represents the nature of the desire and feels emptiness, we can perceive its sprout.

Now let's try to analyze it and obtain universal knowledge.

That is, the nature of the world represented by the desires, ･････it is nothing but illusion.

And the nature of the desires itself in the state of constant becoming, ･････ it is nothing but uncertainty.

And the nature of the motion the whole universe has, ･････ it is nothing but meaninglessness.

Thus, all the souls in the universe keep nihilism inside themselves. It is never brought about in the process of human history. Whether it appears or not depends totally upon whether or not we can become aware of it. And great religious persons, such as Christ, Buddha,Mohammed, and so on, would never fail to become aware of it.

Incidentally, I think we human beings must receive the baptism of this nihilism so that we can emancipate all souls from the aggressive situation against them. Because, it is not until the slavish desire is crushed by some chance that we can realize the following. That is, the things we used to think as everything turn out to be nothing, and the very thing we used to think as nothing is everything.

And from then on, trying to jump into the perfect vacuity, we keep our feet on the right path toward it following the voice of the supreme being.

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