this compassion should eventually also extent toward other lifeforms, thus creating a unity of lifeforms. This aspect of peace will be discussed in more detail in later chapters.
Getting back to the concept of Yin and Yang and its creation of perfect balance through unity, some attentive readers might point out the fact that by applying this principle to the extreme would never lead to true and lasting peace. If there is only true and lasting peace on this planet without any trace of war, then this principle of balance would be deeply disturbed and, as a result, the world would find itself out of balance again. At first sight, this might seem to be true. However, it is only an illusion.
It is true that in order for something to be in balance, there has to be an opposite or counterpart. When talking about true peace without any war left in the world, this does not mean that there isn’t always the potential for war. This is basically what the little dots with the opposite colors in the Yin and Yang symbol mean. Even if there is utter and total peace on Earth, there will always be a seed of conflict and war waiting to grow larger and stronger. This is what Yin and Yang means, one always contains the other.
This is one of the main reasons why it has been seemingly impossible in the past and even in the present to create peace and maintain it for a long time. Even where there is peace, the seed of hate, conflict and war is always there and in the past, people have allowed this seed to grow this seed into open war again and again. This probably happened because our ancestors were not consciously aware enough of this principle of Yin and Yang – one part always containing the other part – and did not know how to put the necessary effort into keeping this dark seed of violence and war from sprouting over and over again.
Attempting to take a much wider perspective on our universe, this very principle of something containing the seed of its opposite can be seen at work when looking at our own planet Earth. While most of the planets and star systems in our immediate vicinity seem to be devoid of life, or at least of any complex three-dimensional life forms, the Earth is practically teeming with life in all possible forms. Our planet can, therefore, be considered the counterpart to all the apparent lifelessness around us.
However, regardless of the fact that life on Earth is so wonderfully diverse and abundant, there is always the potential for death and global devastation. Be that through the unconscious use of weapons of mass destruction most of our nations have currently available or the occurrence of a catastrophic event due to influences from outer space, like asteroids and comets, for example, the seed of death is always there. Not allowing this dark potentiality to grow and become physical reality is where the actual challenge lies.
This means, of course, that even when the utopian state of true and lasting global peace has been achieved, both enough energy and work needs to be invested in keeping this peaceful state alive. Otherwise, the dark seed of hatred, conflict and war will grow and sprout, plunging the world into death, sorrow and suffering once again. That is the way of our universe and this is the way of the sacred principle of balance.
IN LAK’ECH – THE LAW OF UNITY
Oneness with the all,
We are one big family,
The whole universe.
In Lak’Ech is an old phrase from the Mayan language which both eloquently and beautifully encapsulates everything this chapter will be about. Literally, it means “you are another me” or “you are another myself”, and generally speaking, this is one of the most profound realizations we humans can have as a self-aware species.
It almost seems like the Mayans, who once formed part of a great and flourishing civilization, had reached some kind of understanding of what universal principle lies behind this simple phrase. At least, they understood enough about it to incorporate this wisdom into a phrase and make it part of their language. Through that, they were able to preserve part of their knowledge of a sacred principle which will be called the Law of Unity in this book.
Due to the limitations of our current use of both spoken and written language, the Law of Unity cannot be sufficiently described or explained in words. In order to truly know what the Law of Unity really means, it needs to be experienced first-hand. The written words in this chapter can only function as signposts pointing toward the deeper truth hidden behind them, and are meant to provide an easier pathway for the interested reader toward finding the truth expressed by the Law of Unity for themselves.
What the Law of Unity states in general, is that everything in this universe and possibly beyond is in effect all one whole, one being, if you will. This might be hard to grasp at first but when this idea is pondered in depth for longer than just a short moment, then it begins to make more and more sense.
In a way, the Law of Unity is a principle which is very similar to that of Yin and Yang, just that the point of view is different. While Yin and Yang is made up of two complementary and separate parts constantly working on achieving perfect balance, The Law of Unity looks at Yin and Yang from the outside and recognizes the completeness of it, despite the seeming separateness of the individual parts. The interesting thing is that both principles are always there, all it takes is a change in perspective.
Of course, the same is also true for our three-dimensional world. The whole of creation seems to be made of many, many different parts, all of which being separate from each other but still interacting and even building upon one another. And this might very well be true in our current perception of reality, but when the whole universe is looked at as a unit, as one complete existence of variety and apparent separateness, this turns out to be simply not true anymore. Our universe and everything in it – alive or not, physical or not – then becomes one and the same, one infinite being, for lack of a better word.
In the past, there have been human cultures which seemed to have certain understanding of this Law of Unity and saw that everything in our word, though separate and different in many regards, is actually all part of one unit. Most of those cultures were what people today would call primitive in nature and this might have been true regarding their understanding of technologies. However, when it comes to perceiving and comprehending the true nature of our world, they were anything but primitive. Most of them showed this deep understanding in the wisdom of their actions. For instance, they tended to live closely in harmony with nature and only took from it what was needed. There was no greed involved, no exploitation of resources. Also, most of those wise cultures had genuine respect for other lifeforms and revered them as gods or spirit guides, depending on their respective attributes. Some cultures even built temples in all different shapes and sizes which incorporated in some way a natural element, force or celestial body.
All this shows that those cultures knew both about the principle of balance and the Law of Unity. Unfortunately, almost all of them have disappeared by now and what is left is only the buildings and temples, and sometimes even written documents which can tell their stories to us.
We as a human species are very advanced nowadays when it comes to fields of technology but it also seems like we have had to pay a hefty price for it. In exchange for our technological knowledge, we have mostly given up the hard-earned wisdom of balance and unity that our ancestors put a lot of time and effort into living and preserving for future generations.
It is time for us to find our way back to that wisdom and start making it part of all our lives once more for the sake of both Earth’s and our children’s future. Fortunately, it is possible find the wisdom hidden behind the Law of Unity by approaching it step by step. The first step would be to realize that every human, every individual – though often perceived as a single organism – is actually made up of trillions of cells, each of which is made up of an even higher number of atoms. So, in actuality, every one of us is in a way a living unit, composed of many different individual parts.
With this in mind, taking the next step toward realizing that all humans – no matter what size, skin color or gender – actually also form a unit called species is not such a big challenge. Once this realization has become integrated into the minds of people, they will start to see that waging wars, as well as harming and exploiting others is in reality quite an insane way to treat other members of the human family. For what you do unto others, you also do to yourself.
This