The world without enemies

By editor in Teaching Anatomy May 3, 2021

Undoubtedly, hostility is one of the strongest human motivations. Although, in essence, this is not a motivation, but a reaction: a reaction to a contradiction, threat, rivalry, a resentment, conflict of interest, and so on and so on. For example, a child took away a toy from another child; the political interests of several states collided; someone gossiped about another person; companies are struggling for influence in the market; two opposing scientific theories are fighting; religions fight for human souls; men are in conflict over women; a law-abiding citizen hates a criminal, and he hates a law enforcement officer; parents and children did not agree on their views on life, and there are a thousand more similar situations … Why did I start this long list of, in general, obvious things? To illustrate how many sources hostility can feed from. It arises as a reaction, it is motivated by something, and then turns into motivation itself. The conflict has already become irrelevant, but a negative attitude towards the former adversary, offender, rival, etc. remains. Thus, hostility does not disappear, but often intensifies, turning into a cause of new hostile reactions.

The world is choking with hostility. It presses on people, like a megalithic stone put on their shoulders, does not allow them to breathe freely and deeply, crushes and maims souls, breaks lives. It threatens human destinies, entire nations and powers, and even our entire world. The word “enemy” that people use to define the nature of their relationships is, without a doubt, one of the most terrifying words that have ever existed in human languages. Some people think that the word “death” is the worst word. I would argue with that. Because one enemy can bring many deaths with him.

There is no such word in the Teaching as “enemy”. More precisely, it is, but only to describe how others relate to each other. Teaching, however, does not treat anyone as an enemy. It is the fundamental idea. We know that all is one, and that conflicts are the result of delusions, misunderstandings and inability (and more often – unwillingness) of people to work on their worst qualities. That is, in fact, there is no enmity as such and cannot be. There is simply no place for it in Nature. What people take for enmity, what they cultivate in themselves and what they allow to take power over themselves is only an illusion of enmity. People created it themselves, and they themselves suffer from it.

In our Pandect it is written: “If you are asked: “Who is your friend?”, answer: “The one who exists. “If you are asked: “Who is your enemy?”, answer: “The one who does not exist” (Evbulei, 47-48). In other words, a welcoming and friendly attitude towards everything that exists is the norm. And the one with whom or with what one should be at enmity simply does not exist. We do not consider anyone an enemy.

Based on the picture of the world according to the Teaching, one could ask: “But what about nonbeing? After all, it is the antipode of Being, that is, it threatens the life of everything and everyone. Moreover, it is said: your enemy is the one who does not exist. Nonbeing doesn’t exist. Thus, nonbeing is an enemy? ” It seems so, but it doesn’t exist indeed. How can you be at enmity with something that simply does not exist? It’s like eating a non-existent fruit. From this we see that the wording “Your enemy is the one who does not exist” is not an indication of a specific enemy, but an expression of the fact that there is no enmity itself, that it cannot exist as a phenomenon.

But what about evil? What about the tendency to manifestation of non-being that erodes Being like a disease that erodes the body? What about the Dragon that personifies this process in our Universe? These questions are relevant. However, let us remember why this tendency of non-being exists. Its task is to stimulate the evolution of Being, to push it forward. Being develops so that destructive processes cannot prevail over the creative ones, so that Life – Life with a capital letter – does not stop. Thus, threatening Life, the tendency of non-being helps it to develop, to strengthen and to grow. What does it mean? It means that evil as such, evil in its pure form, evil for the sake of evil, doesn’t exist, as well as non-being. What is considered to be evil is one of the manifestations of good. A very difficult manifestation. So complicated that it seems to be the opposite of itself. It’s the same with the Dragon. He influences people, trying to tempt them, push them to the wrong, the inappropriate – but he does this in order to stimulate their spiritual development so that it is more effective. That is, his actions, similar to evil, are the same difficult manifestation of good. This means that it makes no sense to be at enmity with the Dragon. He is not an enemy, but one who complicates our path for our own good. You need to understand its function correctly and fight against it – but not with hatred, as an enemy, but rather as a sparring partner who opposes you in order for you to become stronger and more skillful, or as a coach who bets difficult tasks for you, pursuing the same goals, goals of your development.

The teaching does not teach hostility even towards what everyone would consider evil. Moreover, it is impossible to imagine that it would declare an enemy of one of the people. Although it is people who do what can be called real evil. They lie and steal, destroy and pervert, torture and kill, sometimes they try to go against the laws of Nature. But this is rather not their fault but a misfortune. They do all this mainly because they don’t know what is really good. And that would be half the trouble. It can be explained to those who do not know. The real trouble is, they are unwilling to admit that they need to learn, to understand and to change.

That is, you would give an uninformed person a book that explains everything he needs to know – but he does not want to read it. This is similar to blindness, or the reckless frivolity and stubbornness of a child. Is it possible to treat a blind person or a child as an enemy, even if, due to blindness or thoughtlessness, he does something bad in general or does harm to you personally? Of course not. This is not a reason for hostility, but sympathy – after all, he has a huge problem – and to want to help.

We can get angry, indignant, criticize and condemn: all these are normal reactions to wrong, ugly, vile and cruel actions. It is natural for a person to experience negative emotions on such occasions. These are manifestations of healthy disapproval, which follows from the very understanding of what is right and what is not, and the ability to give a moral assessment – that is, in fact, to determine what is good and what is bad. But we cannot stoop to contempt, hatred and hostility. The Teaching says that every person is a warrior, because he is to fight everything bad and negative. But it teaches us to fight without anger and hatred. That is, to fight not because you see an enemy in what or with whom you are fighting, but because the worst must be overcome. This is how you improve yourself and the world.

It can be difficult to imagine how you can fight without hostility, anger, hatred, bitterness. The teaching shows that you can. Even the one with whom you have to fight should not be your enemy. You fight him not because you are hostile to him, but because you have to fight.

The Teaching and its followers do not regard anyone as an enemy. I would like to hope that no one considers us enemies either, at least for now on. There is no doubt that one day there will be those who will regard us as enemies. And not because the Teaching is bad in some way, but the very opposite. Even if one day someone considers us as enemies – we will not consider them as enemies. Even if you have to fight. For us, “to fight” and “to be at enmity” are not the same things.

There are no phrases like “This is my/our enemy” in the lexicon of the Teaching. Because there are no enemies in our world. We just don’t have them. Obviously, in order to learn to perceive everything like this, it takes time. After all, not to feel hatred and enmity is, one might say, a high moral art. This is not easy; it needs to be learned.

It is also hardly possible to describe how good it feels when this weight falls off your shoulders, when you understand that you do not treat anyone as an enemy. You free your soul when you stop burning yourself from the inside with hostility and anger. This must be experienced. It saves mental strength, which can be used for something good. This boon is beyond description. Of course, we use proverbs like “The best is the enemy of the good.” But this is a completely different palette of meanings on a different canvas.