The world is spiritual in nature

by Nagalingam KUMARAKURUPARAN

The word ideology does not possess a clear and settled meaning on which all its users are agreed. The term refers to systems of belief about human conduct; but as to what kinds of systems and belief and conduct are to be included under it, and what excluded, opinions wary. Some call religious beliefs ideological; others restrict the term to political beliefs alone. Then there are words with subtle variations in meaning such as principle, philosophy and ideals. So, the content of the beliefs that make the ideology; on this usage ideologies may therefore be moral, religious or political, or these and any other mixed together.

Mural against hatred.

Examples of principles are telling the truth and keeping promises: Examples of ideals are the disposition of forgivingness and the state of peace.

A principle commends a single type of action, while an ideal commends a state of affairs to which many types of action make their contribution.

Social problems

Philosophical problems can arise out of, and can exert a profound influence upon, our personal and social problems.

Not a single day passes without violence at one place or the other in the world. There is nothing new about ideological conflict; it is an old as religion itself. The faithful have struggled with one another in the names of their faith is all down the ages, just as they are doing now. What is new in our time is that the faiths for which men seek and destroy it have become more social than religious in their inspiration and that men's powers of destruction have become so great as to threaten the existence not merely of the chosen victims but of all mankind.

Moral attitudes

Philosophical analysis can enlighten our moral attitudes, aspirations and decisions.

Everyman must always ask himself however casually and faintly; what am I? What should I be? In what joint faith should we proceed? Each of us now faces this question too; How are we to think about faith in the age of science?

We face this question together, but we can only come to grips with it from our own positions. We must all recognise that, however necessary our faith is to ourselves, we can no longer seek to impose it on other men by force; since force, which has been a chief means of change throughout the human past, has now become so intolerably dangerous that we men must find out how to live and change together without recourse to it.

Faith

We must all accept the fact that faiths must now live side by side in peace; we must all find a way of holding our own faith tolerantly; but each must do this for himself, in his own style, and setting out from where he stands. The root cause of the war and violence that we see everywhere today, is the conflict within individual minds. Therefore we have to bring about a change in the minds of the individuals. When the individual minds are transformed, society will transform.

A community comprises individuals. It is the conflict in our minds that manifests externally as war.

When a transformation takes place in the human mind, then society changes automatically.

The antidote to conflicts in society is understanding and practising Dharma in our day-to-day life.

Tradition of Dharma

The timeless tradition of dharma ideals is the antidote which can keep your own nature in balance with creation, which includes flora, fauna, ecosystems and all mankind.

Dharma (Dhamma in Pali) is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Dhri’, which means to uphold, carry, bear and sustain the multifarious transactional equations of humans in consonance with the natural laws of creation, so that harmony results. There is a universal Dharma which illuminates creation. There is a dharma for spiritual enlightenment, a Dharma to govern and rule, dharma of an individual in society, as a parent, offspring, spouse, sibling or relative. Dharma upholds both worldly and other worldly affairs. Rulers are protectors of Dharma.

All beings in creation, sentient and non-sentient, have a core Dharma that is like the ‘Saltness’ in ‘Salt'. Dharma ideals mesh with the intrinsic ‘isness’ of all beings and aim at keeping structures in tune rather than in conflict.

Ideals

The guiding principles of ‘Dharma Ideals’ are:

* Abhorrence towards harming anything in creation.
* Truth is universal and not an individual perception or fact that * can change with time
* Control of one's senses, emotions and desires
* Non acquisitiveness and covetousness.

To pursue the ideals one must practise righteousness, goodness, justice and integrity of purpose.

One should balance his right with his duties and apply these milestones to evaluate his own actions of attitude, deed and speech.

At the same time, at the heart of practising Dharma, one is required to keep his attitude and mindset open and in turn with the multiplicity and diversity of cultures and social practices.

One is also expected to prevent rigidity, dogma and self-righteousness from creeping in. By taking up dharma ideals and practice you are creating an environment where goodness and justice are natural outcomes, where fair practice and rightness takes precedence over might and wealth, where politics is about governance and not manipulation, where what is right is upheld rather than who is right. Even if a small percentage of us follow Dharma ideals, it can have a huge cascading effect on bringing about change in society.

To practise Dharma one should first understand Dharma.

“Without trying to understand what is understanding, endeavouring to understand others, is it understanding or misunderstanding?” so asked a sage.

To be able to understand, one must first know what is that which is meant by understanding. Understanding means to understand my capacity to understand as well as my liability to misunderstand. One has to understand both.

Dharma should be understood and practised. There is no better contribution that I as an individual can make to society than living by Dharma and practising dharma, as a universal citizen of this world. Plato considered ideas to be more important, more valuable than existing things. For instance, the idea of good, was the supreme principle of reality. For the observer there is harmony in nature, likewise the world is spiritual in nature and that is the reality.