Peace Is a Universal Medicine
After a little over a month of trade frictions, the first round of talks between the two sides produced satisfactory results, and the degree of de-escalation surprised many observers. Still, it was within my expectations; in an article I wrote a month earlier, I reasoned from common sense that the tariff dispute would ultimately not escalate into something dramatic. In this era where the two sides are intertwined, no upheaval lasts very long.
Yesterday India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire. Once fighting began, both sides felt the pain and knew that continuing would only devastate lives, so they ended the war quickly. Even so, the two sides paid for it with dozens of innocent lives, which is heartbreaking. At the same time, the long-running conflict between Russia and Ukraine has finally embarked on the path of talks and cessation.
Last week the Catholic Church elected a new Pope, Leo XIV, and his first address was an appeal for world peace.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole world has been shrouded in the gloom of plague, economic depression, and war; people in every country are already weary. Although a few always clamor for various wars, in every country the vast majority of ordinary people long for peace.
In recent years, fervent nationalist sentiment around the world has reached a flashpoint. Wars and trade conflicts may seem to erupt suddenly, but in truth they are the inevitable outcome of unfolding situations. As the Chinese ancients said: when the world has been united long, it must divide; when divided long, it must unite. After long days of peace, the sparks of war flare. Humanity only learns the value of peace through suffering, and only in war do people lower their heads to listen to others’ demands and, through mutual compromise and concession, return to peace.
Conflict is not entirely bad; politics is the art of compromise. After conflict, people compromise and adjust the rules for distributing interests, giving marginalized groups a voice. “Martial” means stopping weapons; conflict is one way society heals itself, resolving imbalance—this is the positive side of conflict and war. The economic and hot conflicts of recent years will ultimately teach most people to cherish peace.
Peace is so precious; without it, life is as cheap as grass. If the broader environment we live in ceases to be peaceful, almost everyone will develop some degree of distress; tense situations send adrenaline surging, spike stress, and make survival harder for all.
I pray that everyone may cherish peace: the prosperous should know compassion, and those in hardship deserve sympathy. In the final analysis, from ancient times to today, greed has been the root cause that destroys human peace. There are always people with morbid cravings who are insatiable, extracting others’ wealth to satisfy their cravings while ignoring that others can barely survive. This inevitably sows hatred; when hatred accumulates, all sorts of extremism naturally arise and eventually brew war.
Whatever war breaks out, everyone on Earth should pause when it begins and reflect: did we together bring this about? Buddhism often says that public disasters are the collective karma of all sentient beings—meaning great disasters are usually the joint outcome of us all. Precisely because we have grown used to ignoring others’ suffering and long neglected the disaffected, we have ultimately created extremist groups one after another.
Peace is hard-won and can only rest on humanitarianism. From a single family to all of society, peace requires caring for the weak so they can survive. People who lose all care easily turn to antisocial paths. I pray that after these years of exhausting strife, we humans may grow wiser and, in future, balance the demands of every stratum; only so can we reduce the various kinds of war.
Things reach an extreme and reverse; perhaps the turning point has arrived.