46

When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.

Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans. Stephen Mitchell

This is a quaint rendering of these lines which treat the relationship between avarice and war. Wanting what you do not have will lead to the horrors of war, a common consequence of greed. War is a convulsion of the natural rhythms of life. Trucks for us Americans are currently offered as status symbols, a signalling of one’s manliness. No longer a basic utility tool. Tractors also have become high tech, and expensive.

The way-making of the world (of America) appears to have diverged from the natural simplicity of the Tao. I wonder what destination the constant cultivation of dissatisfaction, an economy based upon consumption, on obsolescence, is bound to lead us. We have habits of living which devour themselves.

The more we get,
the more we want.

The better we get
at getting what we want.
the better we get at wanting.

But the better we get at wanting,
the less we want what we get.

Peter Hershock
Buddhist scholar