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In social life, the most effective solution to the problem of struggle is to find ways of ameliorating or redirecting selfishness. We should develop the attitude that it is difficult to satisfy those selfish goals that collide with the goals of others. Therefore, we should pursue those goals that are common and have little or no chance of conflicting with the goals of others. Competitive opposition should be tempered. However, for this to happen, the established definition and vision of development have to be changed drastically. In the prevailing vision of development, competition is an essential tool, and tempering competitiveness is unthinkable. Persistent and sincere efforts will have to be made to shift the orientation of development from materialism to beatitude. The blind race for wealth and power originating from the materialistic orientation of development creates whirlpools and black holes of terrorism. People need to select benign fields in which to compete. The desire to compete should be associated with emulation and not envy or jealousy.
AHIMSA
As the aforesaid and other problems facing humanity in modern times are interrelated and interconnected, it would be wrong to seek solutions for each one in isolation. Our approach should be to establish the relevance of ahimsa as an overall solution to all these problems, and then proceed to general methods of application.
To understand peace, or the state of tranquility, we should first understand struggle. A collision of two opposing things, forces or ideas is struggle. Then in order to attain peace, is it necessary to wipe out mutually opposing things? That is impossible. The next alternative is to prevent collision. But that, too, is neither easy nor completely achiev
AHIMSA: THE SCIENCE OF PEACE 133 Jain Education International
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