Planting the seeds for world peace starts with us. This article explains how we can do our part in achieving world peace.
Context
As a high school teacher, I am encouraging my students to join the 2021 Global Youth Challenge, of which the topic is world peace. I am writing this article to my students to share what I’ve learned about achieving world peace so that they can have the greatest impact with their submissions. If you are not my student, then I hope this article can enlighten you on how you can do your part for achieving world peace.
Why World Peace Matters
What do you think of when you think about “World Peace?” This is important because if you cannot imagine and feel what world peace is like, you will lack the energy to promote it.
We live in an unsettled and tumultuous world right now. Compared to the past, we may be getter richer materialistically, but we are getting deprived emotionally. Every day, we are bombarded with negative news by the media. No matter if people are wealthy or poor, high-status or low-status, people are not happy nor peaceful.
Imagine a world where
- Everyone feels peace, contentment, and joy every day
- Everyone honors morality, virtues, and being a good person
- Everyone practices giving and compassion
- Everyone is yielding and considerate towards others
- Conflicts get resolved peacefully and easily
- Weapons for war are no longer needed
- The strong do not bully the weak
Those are just some characteristics of world peace. Wouldn’t you agree that such a world is worth promoting and working hard for? If so, then I encourage you to join the 2021 Global Youth Challenge.
How to Achieve World Peace
If you want to learn anything, you should seek out the experts. For example, if you want to learn basketball, you’d seek out Michael Jordan. If you want to learn innovation, you’d seek out Elon Musk. What makes these experts credible?
In his book Principles, Ray Dalio explains that credible people are people who
1. have accomplished the thing you want, and
2. also have great explanations for how they did it.
The World Peace Experts
So who are the credible experts on achieving world peace? They are the ancient Chinese sages, such Confucius (孔子), Mencius (孟子), Lao Tzu (老子), and Zhuang Zi (庄子). Think about it: Why have their books, such as The Analects of Confucius 《论语》and the Tao Te Ching 《道德经》, been able to survive and get passed down for over 2500 years? If their content was not truly enlightening, life-changing, and extremely helpful to all of humanity, then humans wouldn’t work so hard to pass these books down generation after generation. Because the ancient Chinese civilizations respected these sages and diligently followed their teachings, ancient China has the most amount of world peace in recorded history.
The Experts’ Advice
Now that we know who the experts are, the next question is, what do these experts say about achieving world peace? The Great Learning 《大学》 is a Confucian classic that answers our question. Let’s look at this short excerpt from the book:
欲治其国者，先齐其家；
欲齐其家者，先修其身；
欲修其身者，先正其心；
(In just 27 words, we have the answer to world peace! Such is the wisdom of the sages.)
I’ve put the original Chinese text here because it’s very challenging to translate the original meaning, and different translators might have different interpretations. Here’s my attempt at an English translation:
One who wishes to administer the country*, must first organize the household**;
One who wises to organize the household, must first cultivate one’s character***;
One who wishes to cultivate one’s character, must first correct one’s heart and mind****;
Notes about the English translation:
*To administer the country means implies bring prosperity and peace to the country
**To organize the household implies bring harmony and prosperity to the family
***To cultivate one’s character means acting in accordance with morality and virtues
****To correct one’s heart and mind means thinking in accordance with morality and virtues
The first insight here is that there’s a cause-and-effect sequence. The root cause of world peace is the thoughts (heart and mind) of every person in the world. Our thoughts determine our actions. Our actions influence our relationships within groups of people, such as our families, friends, and community. The relationships of groups influence the peace of the whole world.
The second insight here is that there are not tactics to achieve world peace because actions are not the root cause. We can’t say that implementing a particular government system or technology can bring world peace.
The third insight here is that world peace is the responsibility of each individual; it is not solely the responsibility of leaders. If we cannot get along with ourselves (cultivate our character), how can we have harmony with others? If we cannot have harmony in groups, how can we have harmony in the country (a large group)? If countries cannot have harmony within themselves, how can we have world peace?
Correcting our Thoughts
In order to achieve world peace, we must correct our heart and mind, which will then correct their thoughts and actions. Correct thoughts are those aligned with morality and virtues. Incorrect thoughts are those out of alignment with morality and virtues.
Examples of moral virtues include respect, reciprocity, compassion, integrity, humility, yielding, trustworthiness, conservation, caution, diligence, and gratitude.
Examples of non-morality and non-virtue include disrespect, inconsideration, selfishness, corruption, arrogance, stubbornness, lying, wastefulness, negligence, laziness, and entitlement.
Here’s a summary of moral virtues:
The First Moral Virtue
While it seems like there’s a long list of virtues, we can simplify things by following another piece of ancient Chinese wisdom: Of all virtues, filial piety comes first. Filial piety means respecting parents, teachers, and elders. Let’s look at an example of this virtue in action: how countries responded to COVID-19.
It’s no coincidence that China was able to contain COVID-19 so effectively, while the Western world struggled so much. Filial piety is a big part of Chinese culture, so when leaders asked citizens to stay indoors and practice social distancing, people listened.
Someone who isn’t filial would think,
“ Staying at home is so boring. I want to go out with my friends and have fun. “
Someone who is filial would think,
“ Staying at home is boring, but I want to keep everyone safe, especially the weak elders. Plus, I am grateful to all the medical staff and leaders working hard to fight COVID-19, and I want to do my part to reduce their stress. “
Notice how the virtue of filial piety naturally extends out into other virtues, such as compassion, humility, integrity, gratitude, and caution.
What YOU can do to Support World Peace
Let’s do a quick review. We’ve looked at the underlying principles and logic for achieving world peace, and we’ve concluded that it starts with education on correcting our thoughts to be in alignment with morality and virtue. The first virtue to teach is filial piety (respecting parents and elders) because other virtues will naturally follow, such as compassion, humility, and integrity.
What can we do to educate people? Well, there are two main ways to teach people: words and action. It’s important for us to tell others about moral virtues, but we can’t expect that to change other people. People easily forget what they hear. The most important thing is that we lead by example. We have to think and act in alignment with morality and virtues. When we practice what we preach, people will believe us. If we tell people to be virtuous, but we ourselves are not virtuous, people will ignore us and call us liars.
Now that you’ve learned this lesson, I encourage you to summarize and teach what you learned in your submission for the Global Youth Challenge. You also need to apply the learnings in your own life and share your own experiences. Leading by example is the best way to influence others.
Aside from this lesson, I also recommend these resources:
- The Other H2O We Need: Humility, Harmony, and Openness
- Ethics 101 — Book Summary and Application
- Gandhi’s 10 Rules for Changing the World
Good luck on your submissions, and I look forward to seeing them!
Originally published at https://www.weeklywisdomblog.com on December 8, 2020.
