Tao Te Ching 30 (Teaching 1)

Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men doesn’t try to force issues or defeat enemies by force of arms. For every force there is a counterforce.

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon itself.
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Time and time again throughout history we see instances when violence is directed against a country, an ethnic group, a religion, and in due course that violence produces an equally or even more violent reaction. Newton’s third law of motion says that for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction. The Tao Te Ching addressed this law of physics more than 2,000 years before Sir Isaac Newton.

Violence among people is not exempt from the application of this law. Violence produces violence, sooner or later. We should look closely at history and listen carefully to its countless lessons.

When Germany was defeated and humiliated at the end of World War I by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the certainty of the Second World War was set in motion. That war brought an even great horror in the form of the Holocaust.

The battles between Palestinians and Jews, Serbs and Croats, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, Basque nationalists and Spain, Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan, have been going on for decades, if not centuries. The sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis has been relentless since 632 C.E.

When the Taliban and al Qaeda attacked America in September 2001, the invasion of Afghanistan was set in motion. When America invaded Iraq in March 2003, the seeds for an insurgent reaction were planted, watered and fertilized in one motion. The cycles of violence will continue as long as violence is seen as the solution to violence.

But, we don’t have to turn to the tragic events in world history to see this law unfold. We can see the truth of this teaching acted out on elementary school playgrounds, in high school cafeterias, in domestic abuse, or in the turf wars between inner-city gangs.

We’ve been taught the truth since we were little children. Mom said, “What goes around comes around.” The Golden Rule makes the point in positive terms, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you,” and in negative terms, “Do not unto others what you would have them not do unto you.”

The law of karma embodies the law of cause and effect. Hate causes hate. Violence causes violence. The Bible teaches this principle as the law of the harvest – we reap what we sow. Sow the seeds of violence and reap the harvest of violence. The world, nature, the Tao, can give us nothing other than the fruit of the seed.

When will we ever learn?