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I. Origin
Peace is highly sought after and valued
in the world today. Peace is the universal hope of all humanity, a
basic condition for the pursuit of happiness and a basic human
right.
As the scope of peace ranges from
personal “inner peace” to universal world peace, achieving true
peace represents a long journey that requires the coordination of
different conditions combined with the input and efforts of various
academic subjects and fields. Humanity’s long-standing desire for
peace and pursuit of related ideologies has led to the relatively
recent formation of Peace Studies, a multidisciplinary field of
research. Related studies such as politics, military affairs,
diplomacy, economics, education, socialism, culture, jurisprudence,
and psychology all contribute to the analysis and researches of
Peace Studies in hopes of figuring out an effective method to create
consensus on how to achieve permanent world peace.
Norwegian scholar, Galtung, J.
pioneered modern Peace Studies. His peace research covers diagnosis,
prevention, and medical care. His theoretical structure recognizes
two aspects, a “negative” and a “positive”, to peace. The former
refers to relatively superficial treatments including attaining a
cessation of ongoing violence. The latter requires a deeper and more
fundamental treatment that supports effective prevention of
conflicts with the aim of reaching eternal peace. In other words,
the fundamental treatment focuses on how to eliminate structural
violence caused by ill-functioning political, economic, social, and
cultural systems. The induction of such violence is often related to
oppression, exploitation, discrimination, and prejudice that are
followed by such phenomena as diaspora, poverty, starvation, and
alienation.
This idea seems to be in agreement with
the hierarchy of needs proposed by the humanistic psychologist
Maslaw, A.H. Maslaw posited that the most essential human need is
the satisfaction of physical comfort. Only after such is achieved do
people invest in satisfying needs such as security, love, belonging,
respect, and self-fulfillment. Therefore, Galtung’s theory teaches
that preventing conflicts and achieving permanent peace requires the
eradication of the “cultural violence” that rises from structural
violence and promotion of the positive values inherent in the
cultural system.
Among the world’s four ancient
civilizations, only Chinese culture has remained viable into modern
times. It has increased in greatness through the millennia because
Chinese culture is a structural system that involves a surface
structure defined by a massive materialistic culture and an
underlying structure of a long-preserved value system with highly
positive values. The “value system” here refers to the orthodox
lineage of Chinese culture based on Confucianism, which emphasizes
the five values of ”Benevolence”, “Honesty”, ”Neutrality”, “Action”,
and “Public” as foundation principles. Confucianism creates
neutrality and harmony. Neutrality is the hub of Tao, while harmony
is the base of virtue. Both Tao and virtue are the roots of peace,
which is the quintessence of Chinese culture. British philosopher
Prof. A.J. Toynbee, a well-known Sinologist, once wrote, “If this
world wants peace, it shall encourage Chinese culture.”
The Chinese legacy is deeply moored to practical concepts for
universal peace. Its philosophical basis lies in Yi-Ching, the most
precious inheritance passed down from China’s great ancient sages.
It reveals the harmonic laws of the universe and the mechanisms by
which nature and all living beings sustain themselves. Such unison
establishes harmony and balance within and between individuals,
between individuals and the community, between communities, and
between humankind and the surrounding environments (the natural,
social and cultural). Yi-Ching thus holds “universal peace” as its
ultimate goal, and its precepts have nourished and sustained Chinese
cultural evolution through the millennia and remain a beacon of
future world peace.
Grand Master Huen-Yuan in Taiwan
created “Holy Weixin Shengjiao” (唯心聖教唯心宗) to promote Chinese culture and
the orthodox lineages of Yi-Ching and Feng Shui. His goal is to
create world peace and universal harmony. He has taught and promoted
Yi-Ching and Feng Shui worldwide through religion and education for
the past 28 years, and continues to support developments for peace
and harmony worldwide and for improvements in the general condition
of humanity. As a practitioner of Mr. Alfred Nobel's high ideals,
Grand Master Huen-Yuan both teaches the religion and culture of
peace and works in practical ways to give humankind real hope in a
future in which universal peace plays the defining role. |