Again, people nowadays seem to feel keenly the wound of the
economical results of war, but they are unfeeling to its moral
injuries. As elements have their affinities, as bodies have their
attractions, as creatures have their instinct to live together, so
men have their inborn mutual love. 'God divided man into men that
they might help each other.' Their strength lies in their mutual
help, their pleasure is in their mutual love, and their perfection is
in their giving and receiving of alternate good. Therefore Shakya
Muni says: "Be merciful to all living beings." To take up arms
against any other person is unlawful for any individual. It is the
violation of the universal law of life.
We do not deny that there are not a few who are so wretched that they
rejoice in their crimes, nor that there is any person but has more or
less stain on his character, nor that the means of committing crimes
are multiplied in proportion as modern civilization advances; yet
still we believe that our social life is ever breaking down our
wolfish disposition that we inherited from our brute ancestors, and
education is ever wearing out our cannibalistic nature which we have
in common with wild animals. On the one hand, the signs of social
morals are manifest in every direction, such as asylums for orphans,
poorhouses, houses of correction, lodgings for the penniless, asylums
for the poor, free hospitals, hospitals for domestic animals,
societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, schools for the
blind and the dumb, asylums for the insane, and so forth; on the
other hand, various discoveries and inventions have been made that
may contribute to the social improvement, such as the discovery of
the X rays and of radium, the invention of the wireless telegraph and
that of the aeroplane and what not. Furthermore, spiritual wonders
such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy, etc., remind us of
the possibilities of further spiritual unfoldment in man which he
never dreamed of. Thus life is growing richer and nobler step by
step, and becoming more and more hopeful as we advance in the Way of
Buddha.
