What Causes War?
United Nations, March 6, 1991

When Napoleon Bonaparte of France was standing in the battlefield between France and Austria, he was so shocked and so hurt because of the casualties. There were about fifteen thousands of soldiers who died from both sides. He wrote a very desperate letter to the King of Austria at that time, saying: Please let us make peace. Let us stop the war. He wrote to the King that: You have not been in the battle like I have, so you don't know what it is to stand here along with fifteen thousand corpses around you and to see the daily suffering of the soldiers. And that's not all. How about those who stay behind? Yes, I think most of you have watched the film "Born on the Fourth of July", and you know what it is like. There are the after effects also, not only the immediate effects.

I don't know which radio station it was that interviewed me a few days ago in Texas. He asked me, "Is the war good or not? Should we, as spiritual people, resort to war, like they do now in the Middle East?" I said that we should stop the cause, not the consequence; it's too late. If we don't want oranges, we should never plant an orange seed in the ground, or at least we should never water it; we should take it or pluck it out of the ground when it is little. But some people like to nourish war for whatever reason you might know. You know probably better than I do. Some of the people that I know - said to me, "Well, we have to take care of the people of this country, therefore we have to make wars in order to have the benefit thereof for our country." That's very good, very patriotic from this view point, but in the long run and from a spiritual standpoint, it is a loss, because later on the karma will come. Karma is the consequence of what we sow. Like it says in the Bible: As you sow, so shall you reap. When the cause is not good, the consequence cannot be good. If we try to make money, have fame or nourish a group of people or a nation from the benefits of war, then later that cause will also feed back on us, and we will become the victims. We cannot sow an orange seed and get an apple; that is the physical law of this world. As long as we are in the physical world, we must obey the physical law. No one can avoid that, even if he is a Buddha or a Jesus Christ, let alone we who are the ordinary beings!

Therefore, the people who make wars have not studied the Bhagavad Gita - the Buddhist doctrine of the law of karma. And they might not have even glanced at the Bible which says: As you sow, so shall you reap.

A long time ago when the Buddha was alive, He told a very interesting story of how war started. Since ancient times - since people began to appear on this earth - the cause of war, the seed of war had already been sown. So now what we are having everyday is just a consequence of that, a continued consequence or an unavoidable chain reaction.

The story goes like this. In the beginning of time, after this world of ours had been destroyed, there was nothing here. Everyone had gone to different worlds according to the desires and the tendencies they had when they were still in this world. Some were sent to probably a more miserable condition, some would sleep for a long time, and some went to so-called heaven. Most of the people who were virtuous went to a place called Yin planet. "Quan Yin" has nothing to do with our method, okay? It is just a place called Quan Yin. Now, people stayed there in glory for long, long, unimaginable periods of time. After that, this planet came into being. At first it was just nebulous and uninhabitable. After a long, long period of time - you must imagine it was billions and billions of ages - and then this world come into being.

Slowly, the first group of people, those who stayed in this so-called Quan Yin planet appeared in this world. At that time this world had no leader, no beings, nothing. One of the beings from that higher planet saw that this world was empty, the throne was ready, so he came down. That was the first being, whom we called Brahma. Well, according to the story. Don't say I said so; it's what Buddha said. Okay?

Then suddenly he saw that he was so alone; that wasn't good, so he said, "I wish some more beings would come to me." Then they came, all those beautiful people from the Quan Yin planet. They called it Quan (light) Yin (sound) because on that planet people were nourished by light and sound only. They were not in need of solid food like we are now.

So, slowly many of them came to this world and settled down, but when they came here they lived in light and glory. They could fly anywhere they wanted and be anywhere instantly. There was no need for vehicles or any physical transportation, no need for any language. They could still understand each other perfectly. They could still be very free in their own way, in their glory, and they lived in glory for long, long ages, trillions of years. Then slowly, this world became more solidified, more beautiful, more visible and more glorious. Some of these beings walked around the sea or flew around the seashore, and saw some kind of foam from the sea. This foam looked so beautiful, so shiny and smelt so nice. Many very strange fragrances emanated form this kind of foam which floated on the sea. Some of them were curious, so they just landed and tasted some of it.

First they looked. It was so beautiful and it smelt so irresistible, so they tasted it. It was so nice. They never ate anything before and they didn't think they would need it. They never thought there was such a thing, so nice and tasty, so they ate more and more and more. Eventually, everyone knew about this beautiful foam on the sea, which tasted good, smelt nice and looked beautiful, so they all came and ate. The more they ate, the more they became heavy. Their appearance changed. Their power changed and slowly they could not fly very long distances anymore. Slowly their light, their aura became shorter, and more dull in color. But they didn't notice that much. Anyway, it was too late to change. The foam was too good. The more they ate, the more they wanted it, so they could not stop eating. After everybody ate, the foam was gone because they ate too much.

Then something else appeared on earth, a kind of weed that grew all over the place. Anyone could take it and eat it. It was kind of crawling weed. People liked it also. Because there was no more foam, they tried the weed, and the weed was also tasty, nice, beautiful and fragrant. So they ate, and everybody ate. The more they ate this weed, the coarser their bodies and spirits became. They could hardly fly anymore. Their physical bodies began to change for the worse, not for the better. They were beautiful and glorious before. Now they looked more coarse, and some sounds began to emanate from their mouths. There was no need to speak before but now they had to make some sound in order for the neighbors to understand them. It was just some babbling, but it was sound. They could not stop eating now. They had become like addicts. Oh! It was so beautiful, so good, so they kept on eating.

After that something else came. The beautiful weed was not there any more, and they went searching around for something else to eat. The earth offered something, like rice or wheat. The earth began to offer these kinds of things, and people ate them. But these things grew outside, in the fields. From where they lived, they had to walk some distance and take them home. These thing did not grow over the place like before. So, they took them home and them, and everyone had enough everyday. But slowly pee began to be lazy and said, "Why should I go everyday to field and get what I need? I can take enough for two or three days, then I don't need to go everyday. "So they took three days. Their neighbors saw this and did the same thing and other neighbors also did the same thing. Some people who were more greedy and took for ten days, others took twenty days.