...Most modern wars are fought over political disagreements, which are pretty shallow, ideological battles. What kind of government are we going to have? Capitalism called communism, or communism called capitalism, or what have you? Those wars are fought out of fear. So we’ll say, all right, we’re going to blow those bastards to pieces. We’re afraid of them; we don’t want anything to do with them; we’d like to just get rid of them. Yeah, but if that is your motivation and this is your spirit that you’re frightened of the enemy, you’re not going to be a good soldier – a good soldier is supposed to be courageous. See, you’re not supposed to be afraid. So alright. Say okay, we are not frightened of these people, we just think that theyve been exploiting everybody else, and we are the knight on the white horse with the lance, and we are going to rescue everybody. OK, in you go, and you stir up the same kind of problems. And, everybody says to the knight on the white horse, ‘Hey, arent you a stuffed shirt? You’re holier than everybody else. You offend us by your righteousness. You’re disgusting! You’re not even human. And, after all, you’re a hypocrite. You may come on politically with this white horse, but you have all kinds of rackets back home and you know it.’ Still you courageously won all that courage, you’re not afraid of death, and all that. So, if you’re not afraid of death and all that, the question comes up again. Why fight? What’s the point? Who are you protecting? Are you gonna teach your children to be afraid? And, say I’ll protect my children because theyve been taught to be afraid. I’m the father. Ive learned not be afraid. Why didnt I teach my children not to be afraid? If I had, I wouldnt have had to defend them, because they would have said, ‘It’s just an illusion. We can dissolve out of this body and appear somewhere else.’ Because if that is what happens, and it’s pretty obvious that it is, I mean, when I say that you’ll appear somewhere else, everybody who appears is you – only, you can only experience it one at a time. But, everybody only experiences themselves in the singular. But everybody’s you, everybody’s I, that’s our name, we all share that. So, there’s nothing to worry about in that sense. But, if you know that in your heart of hearts, then obviously the only strategy that is worth anything at all is not to chop everything up, but to love everybody. ~Alan Watts... Video by: Tragedy and Hope
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:02:10 +0000
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