Contemplative Inquiry

War, fear of war  and preparations for war have increasingly marked the 2020’s. The problems with this approach to international conflict seem to have been forgotten by the world’s key decision takers. Yet they have  been known for a long time. Tradition says that Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching in about 500 BCE, two and a half thousand years ago. This puts him in the ‘Warring States’ period of Chinese history, when the country was divided into several competing kingdoms. Two verses from the Tao Te  Ching  outline Lao Tzu’s views on war. They deserve careful contemplation.

30 NOT MAKING WAR

A Taoist wouldn’t advise a ruler

to use force of arms for conquest;

that tactic backfires.

Where the army marched

grow thorns and thistles.

After the war

come the bad harvests.

Good leaders prosper, that’s all,

not presuming on victory.

They prosper without boasting

or domineering or arrogance,

prosper because they can’t help it,

prosper without violence.

Things then perish.

Not the Way.

What’s not the Way

soon ends.

31 AGAINST WAR

Even the best weapon

is an unhappy tool,

hateful to living things.

So the follower of the Way

stays away from it.

Weapons are unhappy tools,

not chosen by thoughtful people,

to be used only when there is no choice,

and with a calm, still mind,

without enjoyment.

To enjoy using weapons

is to enjoy killing people,

and to enjoy killing people

is to lose your share in the common good.

It is right that the murder of many people

be mourned and lamented.

It is right that a victor in war

be received with funeral ceremonies.

Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Power and the Way Boston & London: Shambhala, 1998 (A new English version by Ursula K. LeGuin with the collaboration of J. P. Seaton, Professor of Chinese, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

See also:

https://contemplativeinquiry.blog/2019/08/06/  (The Tao of Ursula K. LeGuin)