For want of a nail...

Cause links on to effect, until a single assassination has led to a holocaust, nuclear destruction, and the threat of destroying our whole species. We need to stop this. We need to think in a new way.

At the beginning of the 20th century, trouble was brewing in Europe. The Industrial Revolution had transformed societies, bringing steam trains to quiet backwaters, mass-production, and urbanization. The British and German Empires were flexing their muscles; the Ottoman Empire was declining; the Austrio-Hungarian Empire wrestling to unite its national groups; and Imperial Russia was reeling from its first revolution. These various powers were tenuously held together with a patchwork of treaties and alliances, and at its center, the Balkans: the “powder-keg of Europe”.

Then the keg blew. On June 28th, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed by Serb Nationalist Gavrilo Princip during a formal visit to Sarajevo. This triggered a series of diplomatic events that led to the beginning of World War I, 15 million deaths, and the eventual devastation of Germany.

Rather than "the war to end all wars", WWI just led to worse. The severe punishments dealt out to Germany allowed Adolf Hitler to rise to power. This in turn led to World War II, with 73 million military and civilian deaths, a holocaust and attempted genocide – and the use of nuclear weapons by the United States. This weapon started its own chain: the United States and the USSR started a cold war, stockpiling nuclear weapons. The fate of the human race hung on Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD): if one side fires, both will end up dead. (Similarly, before World War I, Europe thought its “balance of power” would keep it from war.)

More powder-kegs were created. As well as advancing weapons of mass destruction, World War II led the UN to create Israel as a country for the Jewish people. This attempt at peace-making has led to tension, hostilities, and outright war in the Middle East for the last 60 years. The cycle of hatred, fear and violence just keeps going.

Was it all down to one death? What if Archduke Ferdinand had never been assassinated? What would the world look like—dramatically different, or is the cycle of fear and violence inevitable? Were the dominoes already in place; was it only a matter of time before first domino fell? Nobody knows. But we do know that when that first domino fell, the world wasn’t such a dangerous place. We weren’t capable of destroying our own species.

Can we carry on like this? In 2010, almost 100 years later, knowing that we’re able to kill our whole species, can we blindly wrap ourselves in our own flag, quiver at the sounds of our own politicians’ preaching the fear of the unknown, and hope and pray MAD will keep us safe from people who want to harm us? I believe we can’t. And it’s the natural selection of our own species that will end this level of thinking.

Albert Einstein once said “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them”. In response to having invented the H-bomb, he and Bertrand Russell wrote in the Russell-Einstein manifesto, “We have to learn to think in a new way … Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”

With Einstein’s wisdom, with our instinctive survival mode of natural selection, I believe it is time for the human race to evolve and raise its consciousness to a new level of thinking. It’s not enough to stop the next domino from falling: we need to remove the dominoes from existence completely.

The cycle for fear and violence has to end. So what’s the solution? I think, deep in our hearts, everyone knows the true solution – TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. The most difficult thing on the planet to do is what the human race needs to do now. And I believe we have it in us, as a species, to evolve to this challenge.

But the greatest of these is Love

How can religion, a touchstone of morality and compassion, seem to create hatred? Perhaps it’s not religion that’s at fault, but how we attach ourselves to religion. If we detach our egos from our beliefs, we can follow our beliefs more truly – and learn to love.

How can religon invoke hatred? Some argue that the problem is believing in one true God. If you believe that, you have to be partisan and believe the other religions just have it completely wrong. But let’s look more carefully at the monotheist religions. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all Abrahamic religions, named after Abraham, the father of Israel. Abraham had two sons: Isaac, through whom the Christian and Jewish lines descend; and Ishmael, the ancestor of Muhammad, the Muslim prophet of God. That first divide sowed the seeds of the Crusades: almost two hundred years of bloodthirsty war. Christianity and Judaism separated with the birth of Jesus. Years of anti-Semitism and persecution followed, while Judaism and Islam still fight a horrific battle over their shared Holy Land. Did religion cause this violence?

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all preach love – above all. In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus says, “The greatest of these is Love.” Judaism says that God chose the Jewish people to set an example of holiness and ethical behavior, through what they do. In Islam, one of the five pillars of faith is charity, or zakāt. This is literal charity, giving 2.5% of their wealth to the poor, but it’s also more: it’s sharing happiness among God’s creation, be it through kindness, smiles, or taking good care of the environment and animals. Sikhism, another major monotheist religion, declares that everyone is equal and should be treated equally, and that a good life involves meditating on God and good deeds to others.

Other religions also put love and compassion at the center. For example, the Hindu ethical code, Dharma, asks its followers to act in service to God and to humanity. Shinto, a Japanese faith, promotes harmony and purity in everything – not just in actions, but in a pure, sincere heart. Paganism says, “An’ it harm none, do as you will.” Buddhism has five precepts that all its believers should follow, and the most important is "Avoid killing or harming any living thing."

So what’s going wrong? The hatred and violence didn’t end with the crusades. It’s not restricted to the war in the Middle East, or to terrorists. It breathes every time we look at hate and suspicion at those who don’t follow our beliefs. It breathes when we condemn people who don’t do what we think is right. It breathes when we think like the Pharisees. It breathes in every angry hate-filled campaign. But however strongly we feel about something, hate, anger, and violence can never be right. You can’t defend your religion by breaking its most important rule – love. So what do we do?

The religions aren’t wrong – they preach love. We’re wrong. It’s not religion that’s at fault, it’s how we relate to our religions. The problem is the ego-mind, which says “my beliefs”. The important word must never be “my” – it must be “beliefs”. The belief must always matter more than ourselves. We have to let go of our egos and our need to be right, so we can put the true message first. And the true message doesn’t say hate the unbeliever, scourge them into obedience, harangue them into belief – it says LOVE. Love everyone. Help everyone. Hurt no-one. And as that little voice rises up saying, “Yes, but…” – let go of it. That’s not the religious creed speaking: that’s the ego, needing to be right. Let go.

The key is detachment. The ego will always exist and want to be right, but we don’t have to obey it. We can put our beliefs above our egos. And until we do, we’re like hungry people holding a recipe for cake, saying “Isn’t this great?” But the recipe isn’t the cake – it’s how to make cake. Having the recipe is not eating the cake. We have to follow the recipe. The recipe says, in every different language, love one another. This has to be more important than being “right” and not following the recipe can never be right.

In the end, no matter what religion you practice, spirituality is not an intellectual exercise that is either right or wrong. It's a state of being, where you experience light, love and a feeling of connection. The need to be right only puts up a wall to this state of being. Detachment from our ego-mind’s need to be right tears down this wall and opening our hearts magnifies the experience of this state. And for the human race to learn how to detach ourselves, while practicing our most fundamental beliefs, will be the corner stone of our spiritual growth and evolution.

How can we detach? The ego says, “But they’re wrong!” – let go. We mustn’t attach to religion, pinning our egos to it – we must follow the beliefs. And the same is true of this blog: this is not The Way, this is a way. And here are some of the ways to detach. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

• • Christianity: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (New Testament)
• • Christianity: “Now these three remain – faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (New Testament)
• • Islam: “Yet of mankind are some who take unto themselves (objects of worship which they set as) rivals to Allah, loving them with a love like (that which is the due) of Allah (only) - those who believe are stauncher in their love for Allah.” (Al-Baqara)
• • Hinduism: “One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus is untouched by water.” Bhagavad-Gita
• • Buddhism: "Whenever thinking imbued with sensuality [or ill will or harmfulness] had arisen, I simply abandoned it, destroyed it, dispelled it, wiped it out of existence." (Thanissaro)
• • Buddhism: “When his mind is rightly-gone, rightly developed, has rightly risen above, gained release, and become disjoined from sensual pleasures, then whatever fermentations, torments, & fevers there are that arise in dependence on sensuality, he is released from them. He does not experience that feeling.” (Thanissaro)
• • Sikhism: “The answer is simple: without this absolute surrender of the last vestiges of ego and selfhood and without such complete absorption in the object of one's love, one cannot attain that unwavering concentration of all one's faculties which is the prerequisite of all inner progress. Absolute love and self-surrender are only other aspects of complete and flawless concentration.” (Adi Granth)
• • Judaism: "You shall not covet...anything that is your neighbor's... You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or anything that is your neighbor's. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also". (Old Testament)
• • Baha'i: “by detachment is intended the detachment of the soul from all else but God.” …and… "The essence of detachment is for man to turn his face towards the courts of the Lord, to enter His Presence, behold His Countenance, and stand as witness before Him." (Tablets of Baha'u'llah)
• • Taoism: “Fame or Self: Which matters more? Self or Wealth: Which is more precious? Gain or Loss: Which is more painful? He who is attached to things will suffer much. He who saves will suffer heavy loss. A contented man is rarely disappointed. He who knows when to stop does not find himself in trouble. He will stay forever safe.” (Tao Te Ching)