Anuvrat International Conference

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In Honour Of Acharya Tulsi: Further Experiments With Truth

It is a great honour to have been invited to say a few words about my memory of Acharya Tulsi, and my meeting with him, which remains dear to my heart even though it took place in 1995, that is 19 years ago, but what are 19 years in terms of cosmic time? They are but a flash of lightening or the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime...^[1]

It came about in 1995, when I was teaching at the University of London on peace studies and comparative global philosophy, and running the School of Nonviolence project as a join initiative of my Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy and the Gandhi Foundation, and the World Conference on Religion and Peace.  I was invited to attend an international conference on nonviolence in Rajasthan, India in December 1995. This was to be the second time that I visited India, and it took place in December. It was also to be the first time I visited Ladnun.  The occasion was the 3rd International Conference of Education for Peace and Nonviolence in Ladnun, Rajasthan, India, which took place from 17-21 December, 1995, at the Jain University. Although December, it was still very hot, and there were a lot of us sitting in the hot sun, listening to other people's papers. I had been sitting waiting for my turn to speak, but I wasn't due to speak until the third day! So I had been sitting listening to other people's views for nearly three days by the time I got to the stage, and then had only 10 or 15 minutes allotted. So I decided not to give a normal address, based on my carefully crafted paper, meticulously prepared,  but instead, to share off the cuff some of the many questions which had been bubbling up inside me as I listened to all the other speakers. For nearly three days I had been sitting in the hot sun and listening intently to all manner of presentations. Some had come from learned Jain scholars; some had come from overseas visitors, from countries as diverse as the USA, Canada, France, Italy, Russia, Japan, former Yugoslavia, Korea, etc.  When it came my turn to speak therefore I simply read out the 40 questions (in summary form) that had been occurring to me as I had listened during the previous talks proceedings. I was very slightly nervous about taking this risk, since it's obviously much easier to stick to a prepared speech, but I felt that the situation called for an extra effort, and I felt I had a duty as a philosopher to go that extra mile. Speaker after speaker had got up on the platform and condemned violence, and everyone had just assumed that violence was somehow bad, wrong, evil and simply ought to be "got rid of". But I hadn't heard any proper analyses of what violence is, where it comes from, and why it is in the universe at all. No one had addressed the question of why violence exists as  an undoubted force in nature, when prey hunt down prey, or make a kill, on which violence the entire food chain of nature depends, even down to bio-molecular interactions, as cells fight of invader cells in the  body's immune system to keep the host body in good health. I felt that since I had flown all this way, I had a philosophical duty to share some more basic questions and to raise my doubts and perplexities on the subject. I was not nervous because I doubted my capacity for public speaking on an extemporary basis, since I was teaching at the University of London at the time and often used to give two hours lectures from a few notes. I was nervous however because I wondered if my basic metaphysical and philosophical perplexities might ruffle a few feathers, and I would be told to keep quiet. As I read out my list of questions, I was doubly aware of the presence of Acharya Tulsi, who was sitting on the platform only a few feet away from where I was standing, and who seemed to be listening intently. I am not sure whether he understood my English fully, or whether he had someone translate some of the more difficult phrases. When my allotted time was up, I went back to sit in my seat again, as the next speaker got up and the conference proceeded as before. I was relieved that nobody came to throw me out of the conference for being too "philosophical" and introducing what might have seemed like a note of doubt in a gathering of afficionados.

However, my micro experiment with truth seemed to go down quite well, since the head of the Terepanth Jain order which was hosting the event, Acharya Tulsi, whose life and works we are commemorating in this present volume, personally sent word that he was inviting me to hold a private audience with him and a few senior monks. This took place after the conference had broken up for the evening. A monk came and fetched me and told me the good news. I then was ushered into a space away from the main conference area, on a comfortable veranda, and then Acharya Tulsi told me, smilingly, that he was grateful that I had raised so many interesting questions in my talk and that he would do his best to answer my questions as best he could. I was immediately impressed by this gesture. Obviously here was a man of keen intelligence, and someone who was not frightened of philosophical discourse and inquiry, but someone, I could tell from the way his eyes were twinkling, who actually delighted in genuine philosophical exchanges. There wasn't time to repeat all of my questions in detail, so I just summarised a few of the main ones, and he then answered according to his understanding of Jain philosophy. Mostly we simply discussed the questions. What struck me most about Acharya Tulsi was his obvious intelligence and his commitment to working through questions, rather than simply dismissing them in an arrogant or dogmatic manner.

I should explain something of the background to this exchange. In 1990 at a Conference of philosophers in Moscow I had been elected International Coordinator of Philosophers for Peace and Global responsibility, a worldwide organisation of philosophers who were seeking to prevent world war three, by encouraging cultural, intellectual and philosophical dialogue between philosophers from the then USSR, the USA, Europe (East and West), the Middle East, Africa and India. I had just graduated from my University of London degree (in modern history and philosophy) and was embarking on a PhD examining into the possibilities of peace in our troubled post war world. I had also worked at the University of London for a few years to investigate the feasibility of creating an International Institute of Peace Studies in London, and was now Directing the institute that had been established when the feasibility study report had been published, namely the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (established 1991).^[2] We had been holding meetings into the UK House of Lords since 1993 asking heads of NGO's and members of the UK parliament to debate policies that could advance a more peaceful world. In addition, since 1994 I had been also directing a School of Nonviolence project with the Gandhi Foundation in London, and working from the offices where Gandhi had lived in 1931 when he last visited the UK. So I was struggling deeply, on numerous fronts, with this whole question of "what is violence", "where does it come from?" Why does it exist in human societies and individuals? Why does it exist in nature? Is all violence always wrong, or is some violence sometimes justified (i.e. to protect greater life)?" and so on. I was teeming with questions, dilemmas, and unsolved paradoxes, which I think the whole world community is also teeming with. My questions had arisen from talks and discussions with many of the leading theologians, philosophers and thinkers on the planet struggling with these issues. I was also serving at that time as the UK and Irish Secretary General of the World Conference on Religions and Peace (WCRP), a body with members in some 50 countries worldwide, based at its headquarters in New York, and this responsibility had taken me to a conference in the Vatican in 1994 where I had been discussing with some 900 religious leaders worldwide exactly these difficult questions, across the different faith communities of the world.

What struck me most about Acharya Tulsi was that here was a man who had himself struggled with these same sorts of questions, and then come to make a personal stand against violence, to the limits of what is possible for a human being, in the belief that if we take an individual stand against violence in our own immediate sphere, over which we have control, then it will encourage others to do likewise, and will in turn ripple out, so eventually, as more and more people get the point, the main ways of doing this in our human societies at least, will have been transformed.

I enjoyed greatly this private audience with Acharya Tulsi and a lively discussion took place between us, through interpreters (although one sort of sensed he could telepathically understand what you were saying, and if my memory serves me well, he also spoke some English). He then told me that he would assign one of his scholar monks to answer in more detail any further questions I had during the course of my stay at Ladnun, and this led to a series of fascinating further discussions with a younger monk in his entourage. He said that his young monk was especially skilled in philosophical debates and discussions, and who would be able to answer my many other questions in more detailed discussions. So over the rest of the conference, we managed to meet up several times, for fairly lengthy talks and discussions about each of my questions in turn, and the monk, (who is now one of the senior monks of Acharya Mahashramana) kindly discussed with me many of the subtleties of the Jain position. I do not have time in this short piece to repeat all the details of these discussions, both with Acharya Tulsi and the monk whom he delegated to debate with me, but for the sake of comprehensiveness, and for the record, I will reproduce the list of questions here.

I have always felt, philosophically speaking, that the ability to generate the right questions is the most important part of the secret of in philosophy, and indeed in most situations that life can throw at you. I think Socrates would also have agreed with this, since most of his contribution to philosophical consisted in formulating key questions that need discussing to make any kind of philosophical progress. Here then are the list of questions which I presented at that conference, instead of a paper.

Fourty Questions Instead Of A Paper (Ladnun, 1995)

1. What is the etymology of "preksha "– how does it relate to other systems of meditation and prayer?
2. What models of causality (in terms of body-mind-emotions-spirit-intellect -feelings-will) are involved in understanding the real causes of non-violence?
3. What is consciousness? What is it that is conscious? Etymologically in Latin it means "that with which we know" - but what is this, the subject of all knowing? Is this the Self? What is the Self?
4. What is the proportional relationship of consciousness to non-violence and non-consciousness to violence? What is the relationship of non-consciousness to the Unconscious as in classical Western psychological models, and to violence?
5. These words and concepts all come from the same etymological root: Mind, middle, mediation, medicine, meditation, man: what is the root idea referred to here? The "middleness" of what, is being denoted?
6. What is the Jain equivalent to the Buddhist concept of the "Middle Way"? To the Aristotelian concept of virtue as a mean between extremes?
7. What is the innermost meaning of the root idea of victory underlying the root idea of "Jain" - ji? What is the equivalent moral idea in other faiths and teachings (e.g. in Sufism and Islam, the greatest jihad is the struggle within against one's own lower nature, the same in Christianity etc.)?
8. What is the relationship between relative truth and absolute truth? Between relative non-violence and absolute non-violence?
9. Is absolute non-violence possible in this world?
10. Is practical, relative non-violence more feasible to attain?
11. Is negative violence simply another name for the chaotic, destructive and disordered misuse of energy exchanges, out of control, out of alignment with the radiative ordering principles of the Life Soul of the Universe?
12. Does the Life process itself apparently depend on mutually sustaining energy  exchanges: sunlight, water, carbon-dioxide oxygen, sugar, light, food, movement, touch, taste, sight, feeling, action, deed, intelligence, thought, sexuality and. reproduction: sometimes, for all species of living beings, these interactive processes of energy exchange, seem to involve activities or processes of "relative violence" - particularly in the act of "eating and digestion"; this seems to be the way Nature has organised the maintenance of the whole interacting life process itself, the ecosystem?
13. Have scientists ever studied the details of these interactive exchange processes from the standpoint of non-violence and considered both qualitatively and quantitatively, to what extent violence is necessarily implicit in the fabric of the life process itself?
14. If, therefore, to be in a human form involves participating in the cycle of life which involves, it seems, some levels of unavoidable violence, at least against vegetable life, what then are the existential choices facing us as human beings?^[3]
15. Should we seek to take flight or refuge from the human form and the processes of life altogether and to seek complete liberation from the wheel of life and death, and to seek an end to all rebirths, both individually and collectively?
16. Is a world denuded of all human beings, of all life forms, by logic presumably a non-violent world, therefore the implicit goal and ideal world to which we should be striving?
17. Or is it possible to imagine a world in which there are still living beings, still human beings, in which nature and the life process continue to flourish, but in which the violence is minimised, controlled and managed, transformed in so far as possible, into creative and loving exchanges of energy?
18. If reincarnation exists, can it be demonstrated and proved ever? If reincarnation exists, how does it function? If reincarnation exists, what is the way whereby the negative karmas of previous violent actions are carried over, so to speak, into future incarnations?
19. Are such negative karmas, arising from violent actions, increasing in this world, in both proportional and absolute terms?
20. Similarly, if non-violent karmas of thought, and actions of love and compassion and wisdom, are carried over into future lives from former or present lives, what is the precise way in which this happens?
21. Is it possible for someone with a great store of meritorious actions; faith, love and knowledge, blessed with compassion and non-violence, radiating peace, to cancel, annul, amend and heal others' stores of negativity, violence, greed, hatred, delusion etc.. And if so in what ways can and does this happen? What is the nature of grace in this work?
22. Can this process, and should this process, of karmic cleansing and purification and recentering, be taught and transmitted and practiced and shared - can it ever be part or education, research, training?
23. What roles do meditation, prayer, creative visualisation, empathy and imaginative powers play in this process (even what is sometimes is some cultures called "white magic")? Can we develop new techniques and procedures from the wisdom teachings of old to help heal the negative karmas of the planet's store of violence? How?  What should we call this?
24. In many theistic traditions (Zoroastrian, Hindu, Judaism, Christian, Islamic, Bahai) there is an eschatological belief that one day this present state of the world's being, so full of present violence, will be transformed into a peaceful, non-violent and loving world; is there an equivalent belief in Jain philosophy and eschatology - and if so, how  will this state be achieved?
25. Could this work involve a proportionate increase in wisdom in succeeding generations? Is this happening? How can it be assisted? Would this work involve something equivalent to the Mahayana Buddhist traditions of the Boddhisattva vow, who postpones personal liberation or nirvana to work for the enlightenment of all living  beings? Is there something equivalent to this in Jain philosophy and wisdom eschatology?
26. What is the equivalent tradition of sacred vows in the world's various spiritual paths – both major and minor vows – to those of the Jain faith and particularly in the Anuvrat movement? If it is unlikely that all of humanity can be persuaded to take Jain vows per se, could one not rather find out the commonalties between existing spiritual paths in terms of their concepts of sacred vows and solemn commitments to right action and good conduct, and to minimising their use of force or violence down to minimum levels, formulated in their own cultural, spiritual and linguistic contexts?
27. In our efforts here at this conference to formulate some universal rules of conduct and ethical codes in relation both to non-violence and to ecological propriety, where should we best look for guidance? Should we look to previous such efforts; such as the Declaration of Global ethics (1993), the Bangalore Declaration (1993), the Declarations of the 6 World Assemblies of the World conference on Religion and Peace (1970-1995), the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992), the United Nations World Summit on Social Development (1995), the Costa-Rica Declaration on the Responsibilities of Humankind for Nature (1990), The World Congress of Philosophy Conference on Man and Nature (Kenya, 1992), the recent World Congresses of Philosophy (Moscow 1993, Brighton 1988, Montreal  1982), or the meetings of International Philosophers for the Prevention of Nuclear Omnicide (St Louis 1986, Moscow 1990, Costa Rica 1994), or the work of the United Nations Environment Programme, and other similar such events, in all of which we can find traces and signs of deep guidance and ethical insight into the spiritual aspects of our predicament - or should we also look within us, to the inner worlds, through the highest lights of conscience and our own inner guidance, in the spirit of the philosopher Kant who said: "of two things I stand in awe: the starry sky around me, and the inner moral law within me"? How can humanity best learn to see this moral law within, and to act on it?
28. Given that this idea of the inner spiritual foundation of laws and codes of conduct is central to all religions and the most profound philosophies, as in the notions of Dharma, of Te, of Rita, of Shariah, of Jus, of Torah, of Din etc. - is it possible to achieve a harmonisation of these different viewpoints, and if so, should this be at the lowest common denominator (the slowest speed of the convoy) or in an aspiration to their highest common ideals?
29. Can such a highest common ideal be articulated and achieved from within the contexts of the different existing faith traditions, e.g.. Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Bahai', Islam, Sikhism, Paganism, Druidry, Zoroastrianism etc. - and yet leave their faith traditions otherwise intact and untouched and perhaps purified and indeed realised? Or does one have to step out of them altogether into some sort of post-religious spiritual-secular synthesis (post-post-modernity)?
30. If non-violence and peace are such an essential part of these highest common ideals, why has the history of mankind proved so unable to realise them except in small flashes, in small communities, or in the radiant lives of particular individuals?
31. Is the world becoming a more violent or a less violent place? Is the quality and / or the quantity of the violence changing, both in absolute terms, and in proportion to the population?
32. As a contribution  towards the deepest levels of metaphysical healing, can one conceptualise a possible reconciliation between theistic and non-theistic spiritualities of peace? Would one possible reconciliation take its cue from the Jain tradition, in the immortality of the jivas, linked together in great compassion and  bliss, yet liberated, free? Is it possible that the actuality designated as "God" in theistic systems (by whatever name, gender, quality, abstraction designated: Shiva, Allah, YHWH, Goddess, Brahma, Vishnu, God, Father, Mother, Akal etc.) actually refers to the living spiritual medium of intercommunication and inter- inter-communion between souls and all of life, the medium whereby love moves between jivas (Minds, souls, Beings, Dharmas), illuminating, encompass­ing, protecting, treasuring, guiding, enlightening and vivifying us all?
33. Could we thus begin to create a climate of comfort and tolerance and acceptance for an understanding of "God" among non-theistic system practitioners, and an understanding of "no-God" among theistic systems?
34. Can we help bridge this divide further by deep linguistic and philos­ophical inquiry, accompanied by profound metaphysical speculation, introspection and meditation, into the linguistic terms used to designate these ultimate realities in different systems: spirit, soul, God, Being, Love, truth, Non-violence, Compassion, Wisdom, grace, peace etc. - going into the etymological and philosophical and historical nuances of each term used by the great traditions? Is such scholarship more possible or less possible now in this age of computer technology and swift communic­ation between scattered scholars?^[4]
35. How are these different "Great Learnings", for example the concept of "Wisdom", conceptualised, transmitted and shared educationally in the different schools, colleges, academies, institutes, learned societies, scientific research stations, universities etc on the planet? Is it possible, in addition to compiling a terminological data base, to assemble an Encyclopedia in computerised and published form, detailing these various educational approaches?
36. Furthermore, how are these various educational approaches to Wisdom applying their learning to the healing of our pressing global problems: violence and war, ecological degradation, human rights abuse, the plight of children, poverty, unemployment, despair, suicide, family tensions, psychological and mental instability, crime, disease, agricultural decline of natural fertility, illiteracy and lack of real education, sexual violence and abuse etc.?
37. Do Jains believe in an immortal spiritual principle, and if so, can it actualise and manifest in this world as we know it, in human beings, and if so how, and what is this principle?
38. What would be the ultimate victory for all humanity, and by definition the greatest triumph of Jainism also, and of the other spiritual paths simultaneously, if not peace, the victory over violence and the achievement of world peace: environmental, social, political, international, inner and spiritual? Is such a victory possible? Is it realisable in our lifetimes? Does it's realisation depend on the working out of complex karmic mathematics and purifications? How can this be done? How soon can this be done? What do the various spiritual paths have to say about this?
39. Have such questions been properly considered and discussed in phil­osophical exchanges between Jains and Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Bahais, Pagans, Druids etc? On the bases of such dialogues, is there the possibility to work out the metaphysics of reconciliation between a) the varying eschatological patterns of religions predicting violence, coming catastrophe, destruction, Armageddon, world destruction, last judgement etc, - and b) those which understand the redemption and transmutation of evil and suffering via a self-realised personal apocalypse crossed by each soul individually in human form and by all souls eventually collect­ively, and peacefully rather than violently, through the discriminating Wisdom rather than the wrath of Deity? Can this happen sooner rather than later? How? How can philosophy help in this work?
40. (40a). In terms of economics: which economic theories and practices are most conducive to the maximum enlightenment of souls, and to the least violent and harmful lifestyles? What alternatives can we build to rampant consumerist capitalism divorced from ethics, which spoils nature in the name of profits, or state controlled Communism, which too often has enslaved and suppressed in the name of equality? Does green economic thought, the legacy of E.F.Schumacher and many contemp­orary ecological writers (economists, philosophers, social thinkers) have a contribution here? How can the spiritual insights of Jainism and other faiths contribute to the work begun at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the World Summit on Social Development, which set themselves the task of ending global poverty, unemployment and social exclusion and injustice? Can we ever actually achieve these goals? How? Why or why not? How does this question relate to the questions of metaphysical eschatology discussed  above (38, 39, 36, 24, 25, 21 etc.)?
41. (40b.) Can aesthetics, the philosophy of beauty, play a role in this work? Can the appreciation of beauty in nature: in landscapes, in wilderness, in mountains, rivers, oceans, animals, stars, planets, the sun and moon, the changing weather and seasons, and the beauty of people; of men and women, of children, of all kinds, cultures, races and beliefs and types, revive in us a sense of deep reverence and love for the majesty of creation and the processes of life, so as to cause us to protect, cherish, preserve, and care for all of life and nature? Similarly can our appreciation for the arts, for culture and science, in our built land­scapes, in our urban environments and cities, in all their variety: in music, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre, dance, crafts, textiles, design, literature, scholarship, scientific creativity and discovery, advanced life-enhancing technology, in medicine, in creative relationships, in satisfying work and ethical business, in social service, in family life and parenting, in love and marriage, in short in the whole range of the great Art of Living - can we find here nourishment and inspiration for the journey ahead? For the journey of achieving peace, of creating peace, of making a world anew of love and compassion and justice - can we find strength and wisdom and vision to join in, all of us, and contribute to this divine Lila of creative beauty that is Life, and to express our energies of love and radiance, and reharmonise the world into a place of peace, of reconciled discord, of beautified ugliness? To inspire our work, does it help to envision peacemaking as the Art of Arts, the embodiment of love-in-action; a flowing clear stream moving around all temporary obstacles, dissolving and resolving all blockages and negativity, until we learn to remember again how to play and splash in the waves of the great ocean of Truth, or actual, realised living peace? To guide us on this work, ancient philosophy envisioned the 9 dancing, inspiring guardians of the Muses, Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, Urania, whose sanctuary was found in the ancient philosophical schools and academies: what are their equivalents in other cultures and spiritual paths? In Hinduism, are they the companions of Saraswati and the other Goddesses? In Buddhism, the Wisdom Dakinis, who guide the Bodhisattvas to ultimate enlightenment? What would their equivalent be in Islam, Judaism, Christ­ianity, Bahaism if not the Angels - likewise in Zoroastrianism? What would their equivalent be in Jainism? What spiritual guardians or angels guide the paths of  sincere seekers after knowledge and wisdom, and inspire them on their journeys, often long and hard? How are the different arts and sciences and fields of learning demarcated and distinguished in Jainism and the other traditions? What would be the construction or distinguishing of an aesthetic of knowledge, in which learning is understood to consist partly in the pursuit the Art of the Beautiful? In which the achievement of wisdom therefore is also to achieve grace and beauty and vice versa? What is the relationship between beauty and wisdom and peace in the aesthetics of realised eschatological enlightenment, which we have been discussing?

Rereading these questions now, some 19 years after first writing them sitting in the hot blazing sun at Ladnun, in the presence of Acharya Tulsi, I am struck by how fresh they still seem. Most of them have not really been answered either by political events or by philosophical gatherings. Indeed, it is very rare still, sadly, to even find such questions voiced, let alone answered. I still think, personally, they are some of the most important and interesting questions that can be asked on the planet in our time, and I also happen to think that a concerted effort is still needed among intellectual, philosophers, scientists, saints and sages worldwide to tackle, discuss and analyse possible answers to them. I also remain convinced there is some urgency to this task. I could write a whole book on the questions, and the discussions which I had with Acharya Tulsi and his comments, and then the discussions I had with the young monk afterwards. If I live long enough, and if I finish the other thirty books that I am working on at present, then I promise I will write such a book. For now, let me just say that the question about reincarnation and non-violence (number 18 above) has always been something that has interested me. I note also that Acharya Tulsi was also fascinated by this, since he met with Prof Ian Stevenson, one of the leading scientific researchers in the world into the facts of reincarnation. Stevenson lived from 1918 –2007 and was a Canadian-born U.S. psychiatrist. He worked for the University of Virginia School of Medicine for fifty years, as chair of the department of psychiatry from 1957 to 1967, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry from 1967 to 2001, and Research Professor of Psychiatry from 2002 until his death. I would have loved to have listened to the conversation between Acharya Tulsi and Prof Stevenson. In my own teaching and doctoral research, I have also explored the implications of reincarnation theory, for the science of historiography. Hitherto professional or scientific historians have not really taken the idea of reincarnation seriously. It is regarded in western historical science as a kind of romantic theory, that a few religious "cranks" hold to.^[5] But it is regarded as unprovable and unscientific. Real history, according to the scientific theory of history, concerns itself with political conflicts, diplomacy, the history of international relations, dynastic history, the history of the great kings and queens and princes, the history of wars and violence, or with social and economic history.  Nowadays there is "psychohistory", which does concern itself with the history of emotions and feelings, and with traumas and with childhood complexes, and with the neurotic tendencies of world leaders, but mostly psychohistory comes from a Freudian perspective, which is also materialistic and reductionist in its mental outlook. Freud distanced himself from metaphysical speculation such as reincarnation theory, since he was afraid that if psychoanalytical theory got too involved in the study of mystical states, it would be regarded as a "crackpot science", and he wanted it to be given acceptance as a scientific branch of knowledge. That way lay money, power, prestige and acceptance in the halls of academia, so he reasoned. It was on this issue that Dr Carl Jung later fell out with Freud, since he felt that the scientific evidence alone exists in such abundance to indicate that religious and spiritual experiences are not simply delusional or neurotic, as Freud maintained, but on the contrary evidence of a healthy and questioning soul. In my doctoral thesis for the University of London, awarded in 2009, I defended the argument that to make sense of modern history and the search for peace from 1945-2001, we have to factor in what I called the transpersonal dimension of human reality. We have to take seriously the possibility, for instance, that some of the great protracted conflicts of our times, such as between Western and Islamic cultures, resulting in the horrors of 9/11 and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, or the conflicts between Jews and Muslims, and so on, might have some basis in the constant reincarnation of leading protagonists, who cannot forgive each other, life after life, and somehow take their quarrels on into future lives. This was the theory that underlay my questions numbered 18, 19 and 20, above.

Towards the end of this conference in 1995, I was asked by Dr S.L. Gandhi, whom I had only just met for the first time, to help draft the final declaration of the conference, which was then later issued as the Ladnun Declaration, and which consisted of a set of linked statements, arising from the many active minds who had presented their materials the he conference. We met as a committee several times to agree a wording for this declaration and some good contributions were brought forward. In the end, I stayed up late on the final night before the farewell plenary and managed to put down into a series of numbered paragraphs the final Declaration. I am sure that Acharya Tulsi read this declaration, and no doubt had it translated into Hindi and maybe some other Indian languages, so that it could be distributed. I felt that this drafting of the declaration was the least I could do in return as my parting gift to the conference organisers, and to Acharya Tulsi personally, for their kindliness in hosting us all.

Subsequently, I returned to India again for another international conference in 2007, in December, when I was invited again to take part in the 6^th International Conference on Nonviolence on 23-25 Dec, 2007 at the Peace palace near Udaipur staying for 10 days organised by the Jains. By this time, sadly, Acharya Tulsi was dead, but I did have the pleasure of meeting with Acharya Mahapragya, his successor as head of the terepanth Jain community. I was struck also by Mahapragya and his huge lanky frame, so different to Acharya Tulsi, but in many ways, containing something of the same intense energy of joy, equanimity and delight in the dialectics of philosophical knowledge, debate and the search for ultimate truth.

Another observation I would like to make about my meeting with Acharya Tulsi and why it was so important for me, was that in some ways I felt it was archetypally a kind of remeeting of Eastern and Western streams of philosophical discourse that had been too long sundered. From my studies of global philosophical traditions, conducted over many years, I knew that in fact Western philosophical traditions associated with scepticism owed a great deal to Jainism. I had learned, from my studies, that in all probability the Greek Philosopher Pyrrho of Ellis (365 - 275 BC) ^[6] had imbibed ideas from the Jains, known as Gymnosophists to the Greeks, which had been transmitted to the body of Western thought as Scepticism. In Jainism there is a fundamental teaching, known as "syadvada" (maybe this, maybe that) and "anekantvada" (the  many sidedness of reality)  which amounts to saying that ultimate truth cannot be known in finality  by ordinary consciousness - that every metaphysical proposition is as true as its counter proposition, for instance that God exists and that God does not exist^[7] - and therefore the only way to achieve liberation and calmness of mind and soul, is to suspend judgement on such ultimate matters, to practice what the Greeks called "Epoche", and to adopt a sceptical philosophical attitude in which all dogmatisms are thereby refuted at a subtle level of logic.^[8] This leads to ataraxia - calmness of mind, imperturbability and serenity of soul. I had discovered the history of Pyrrhonism, as it came to be called after the founder of the school, in the writings of Sextus Empiricus (c 200AD), who gives an account of the history of the school. The Academy of Athens itself eventually adopted a mild form of scepticism, under Carneades (214-129 BC). Also, in my reading of the great Latin philosopher, Cicero's Academica I had been fascinated to discover how influential scepticism had been in forming the thought world of both educated Greeks and Romans, and later on the attitude of Renaissance European philosophers, and how from there, it had entered the mainstream self-image of the very core understanding of the modern academic mission in general. In studying Jainism, therefore, and above all in meeting real living Jain teachers, I felt I was coming closer to the Oriental root source of this basic position, and realised how influential their views had been behind the scenes on global intellectual history. In my own doctoral research on formulating the idea of a transpersonal history, integrating ideas from numerous leading transpersonal thinkers in the 20^th century,^[9] I was also however continuously at pains to stress that one should suspend judgment on ultimate truth claims, and seek to find a mediatory position between the battles of rival schools an isms that are so bedevilling our planet. It was this thinking which led me in 1996 to found the Multifaith and Multicultural Mediation Service, the first such mediation service, and still the only one to this day, that focuses on the religious dimensions of conflict resolution.^[10] To me therefore, meeting Acharya Tulsi at that critical time in my own life's work, in 1995, was a kind of sign from the Gods that the spiritual lineages that had inspired my own deep roots in peacemaking, were alive and well in India, in this particular unique and miraculous order of the terepanth, who were so fortunate to have had a succession of amazing elders, of whom the priceless jewel was surely Acharya Tulsi.

Again, in 2014, in January, I was invited to take part in a further conference in Jaipur, namely the 8th International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action (ICPNA) from January 5 to 8, 2014. There were many excellent talks by international delegates again coming from many countries, as has become the established pattern for these events. I think the whole series had been inaugurated through the vision of Acharya Tulsi and the hard work of Dr S.L. Gandhi, who behind the scenes oversaw the inevitable admin to make such successful international educational events possible. Again, I was honoured at this recent event by Dr Gandhi in being asked to draft the final declaration of the Conference, which we called the Jaipur Declaration, and which tried to sum up in a few words the essence of what had been shared at the conference, taking on board what the various speakers had contributed. I had managed to hear most of the talks and attended many of the workshops, and rather than giving a kind of verbatim account of everything that had been said, I decided to use a figurative motif, namely a 9 petalled flower, to sum up the thinking of the conference in each of the different spheres and areas of reality where ahimsa is needed. It was a further attempt for me as a peace thinker and peace activist, 19 years after my original meeting with Acharya Tulsi had inspired me to help drafter the initial Ladnun Declaration. Only this time, I chose to use the language of Anuvrat itself. It hit me like a lightning bolt as I was struggling with how to sum up the thinking of so many eminent minds and hearts, that the only way this could be done, would be in the language of a collective vow, or a series of "small" collective vows, in each of the separate spheres of human activity and social intercourse. I felt that if the Jaipur Declaration could be issued in this form, then the original intention of Acharya Tulsi in creating the Anuvrat movement could send its perfume out to an even further radius of influence and inspiration. I will quote the Jaipur declaration in full here so you understand what I am talking about:

THE JAIPUR DECLARATION,
"The 9 Petalled Flower Of Peace"
JANUARY 2014

EXPLANATORY INTRODUCTION:

This declaration has arisen out the recent conference in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, hosted by the Anuvibha Jain organisation, in which eminent educators and peace activists from across the world, and from India, were invited to come together and discuss models for a peaceful, nonviolent and sustainable world society. After several days of discussion, the following Declaration sums up the fruits of our deliberations, and is couched in the form of the Anuvrat concept of small vows (anuvrat), to be undertaken by non-specialist religious practitioners, who want to help mankind advance to a more peaceful path. The declaration consists of a number of "small vows" which are realistic and feasible, and which apply to the many areas of life we discussed at the conference, and in which human beings are experiencing violence and suffering at the present time. Not all of us could hope to adhere to all these vows, and some of them are really quite large in their implications. We issue them as a kind of guidepost to how we might achieve a peaceful and nonviolent world, and how each of us, in our own sphere of activity, can play our part. Everyone is welcome to make use of this Jaipur Declaration in their own geographical or spiritual community, and to add in clauses or additional small vows which you find appropriate. Those of us attending this conference came from Jain, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Secular, Humanist, Gandhian, Druid, New Age, Shinto, and many other spiritual and intellectual paths, as well as from many countries, languages, and regions of the world, and also from many different professional backgrounds. The Declaration is conceived as a flower with 9 petals and a central area. Each petal concerns a particular area of importance that needs working on, as we see it. We invite you collaboration with this project. Together, we can share the fragrance of the 9 Petalled Flower of peace and transform the violence that the planet is experiencing, into a passing phase, ushering in a deeper era of peace and enlightened wisdom. We hope children and artists can draw and paint on walls, murals and websites all around the world, this 9 petalled Flower of Peace and get our message of hope out into circulation far and wide.

PETAL 1. HEALING:

We vow to abstain from actions and habits causing ill health or illness to ourselves or others. We vow to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle. We vow to use our medical knowledge to help alleviate suffering and illness. We vow to research all health regimens and medicines that assist healing. We vow to understand the spiritual bases of health and well being. We vow to help find healing for those suffering from mental illness. We vow to abstain from medical research that harms patients or animals. We vow to explore complementary and preventative medical models for healing that involve treating the whole person, in a peaceful and nonviolent way, and take account of the complex emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of the patient.

PETAL 2. POLITICS:

We vow to abstain from corrupt political practices; we vow to tell the truth in all our political dealings. We vow to work for the well being of all society, local, regional, national and international. We vow to find the best practices for peace inherent in any political system – democracy, aristocracy, monarchy, ecological politics, world federalism etc. and to find ways for all of them to work towards planetary political well being, global justice and peace; we vow to abstain from all violence of thought word or deed to advance our political goals; we vow to search out a global politics of enlightenment.

PETAL 3. PHILOSOPHY:

We vow to work to synthesise, reconcile and appreciate the best aspects of all philosophical schools of all ages and peoples. We vow to abstain from negative criticism, attacking or denigrating other's thinking or philosophical systems to instead seek to draw out the seeds of enlightenment embedded within them all; we vow to practice the love of wisdom in humility and faith and energy and commitment. We vow to abstain from the fear of wisdom (sophiaphobia) and to accept the duties that true philosophy inculcates on her devotees.

PETAL 4. EDUCATION:

We vow as teachers and students to seek to advance our highest possible knowledge and enlightenment in a cooperative truth seeking spirit; we vow to abstain from violence in all educational settings, including rudeness, bullying, abuse, verbal violence, subtle manipulation, humiliation and corrupt misuse of power, or undermining (of either pupils or teachers). We vow to actualize the highest educational potential within us all. We vow to help advance towards a world which spends more energy and funds on education than on militarism and defence. We vow to include peace education in all schools, colleges, universities. We vow to develop appropriate curriculum models for planetary enlightenment including global values and spirituality, truth, nonviolence, cooperation and emotional wisdom and love. We vow to favour arts in education (music, fine art, dance, poetry, drama, literature) as much as scientific and technological education, recognizing that all human beings have aesthetic needs stemming from our spiritual natures. We vow to include playfulness, humour, kindness, and emotional wisdom in our teaching and learning experiences. We vow to de-emphasise competitiveness as the sole criteria for educational excellence, and instead to honour cooperation, group activity, citizenship skills, communication, empathy and social responsibility as part of true education. We vow to work to include spiritual, ethical, moral, philosophical and religious knowledge as an important part of educational provision ion all contexts, and that the idea of value free knowledge is logical impossibility.

PETAL 5. SCIENCE AND ECOLOGY:

We vow to abstain from scientific research based on violent experimentation against animals or humans; we vow to acquire and use our scientific knowledge to help advance human well being, happiness and moral intelligence, and to free mankind from the threats and fear of violence. We vow to develop social and natural sciences conducive towards a planetary civilisation capable of peace; we vow to end the huge expenditures on scientific research for military weapons and defence, and to see instead a shift of expenditures towards socially beneficial sciences for social and ecological development in a world based on peace and nonviolence. We vow to work for a world in which all universities have more funding available for peace orientated scientific research, than for military oriented scientific research. We vow to assist the development of a career path for science graduates who wish to abstain from all military and defence related scientific employment and who choose instead to take a vow of scientific non-violence. We vow to not harm or pollute nature and to abstain from all acts of violence against Mother Earth and to develop green, sustainable and non-invasive technologies that can work in harmony with natural environmental systems. We vow to develop alternative sources of energy that are non polluting and non harmful to nature. We vow to refrain from activities which destabilise weather systems. We vow to refrain from cruelty to animals. We vow to use our scientific knowledge to work for harmony and peace between humanity and nature.

PETAL 6. BUSINESS, WORK, ECONOMICS:

We vow to abstain from economic violence, exploitation and oppression against others (and ourselves); we vow to work towards a world where everyone has enough for their need but not for their greed; we vow to work, in whatever our professional capacities, whether as lawyers, judges, teachers, architects, civil servants, bankers, financial experts, in retail, management, business, agriculture, tourism, the arts, IT, communication, media, industry etc. in a way that is without violence to our fellow man or to the environment and to nature or to the Divine Reality, in a way in which our work is conducted with integrity and honesty, and which serves the well being and happiness of society as a whole; we vow to help use our professional careers as service vehicles for planetary enlightenment, and to factor in the ethical side of our professional practice at all stages of our careers, so that we can see the contribution to peace that we are individually and collectively making. We vow to help assist the development of a green economics in which wealth is understood as the fruit of natural systems plus human ingenuity, to be shared peacefully and morally by us all. We vow to abstain from all criminal economic activities which denigrate, destabilise and destroy human culture and happiness.

PETAL 7. MEDIA:

We vow to produce and consume responsible media that shares the good news of the human story as well as the bad news; we vow not to produce or consume media that discourages, disheartens, misinforms or de-energises people, but to seek out news that inspires, enthuses and informs people, giving them hope in the possibility of a better world; we vow to abstain from disseminating media stories based no lies, falsity, half-truths, we vow to tell stories from all sides; we vow to report peace as much as war, good news of peace events and breakthroughs as much as wars and terrorism; we recognize the power of the media to co-create reality, to use this power responsibly, we vow to develop a peace media that can encourage the transformation of the world into a place of peace and nonviolence.

PETAL 8. FAMILY AND GENDER:

We vow to abstain from violence in the family and in all gender based relations; we vow to celebrate the beauty and magical of sexuality and to engage only in lawful, non-violent, loving and sublime sexual experiences, and to abstain totally from all sexual violence, include rape, violation, exploitation or sexual abuse of any kind; we vow to build loving and faithful families and marriages in which children can feel secure, loved and appreciated. We vow to try and understand the mysterious power of love in our personal and social lives. We vow to take parenting seriously and to strive to be good parents to our children. We vow also to take childhood seriously, and to strive to be loving, dutiful and caring children, honouring our parents in return for all their kindness. We vow to abstain from all family violence of thought, word and deed and to develop our families as safe spaces in which to cultivate enlightenment in the real world; we vow to develop models of social security systems in which there is greater benefit in remaining in marriages and families than in being single parents; we vow to appreciate our family members, as fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, relatives, as precious gifts for our mutual enlightenment. We vow to abstain from all family bullying or domestic violence. We vow also to honour those religious who choose the path of celibacy and to devote their lives to the wider family of humanity –for they too are part of the great family of mankind.

PETAL 9. RELIGION:

We vow to work for the healing, reconciliation and mutual understanding of all religious and spiritual disciplines; we vow to work for a world of inter-religious and intra-religious peace, where religious violence becomes unthinkable and incomprehensible; we vow to work to help religions mediate their differences by forming peace teams of mediation practitioners from their ranks committed to ahimsa and nonviolence in action; we vow to help everyone to focus on common core spiritual values and practices rather than focusing on differences and trivial contingent peripheralities; as religious practitioners we vow to abstain from all religious violence of thought, word or deed including preaching of hate or hate crimes; we vow instead to pray for the divine mercy to come upon mankind and to realize the best and brightest dreams of all the prophets and sages and saints; we vow to help reopen the Golden Gate in Jerusalem and usher in an era of interfaith peace; we vow to abstain from all religious corruption or misdeeds or abuses of power, and instead to focus on prayer, meditation, deeds of charity, study, teaching and good examples of peace, nonviolence and spiritual wisdom that can turn the sufferings of mankind into joy, wisdom and enlightenment.

FLORAL AXIS 10. PEACE AND NONVIOLENCE:

We vow to work for the transformation of all military forces worldwide into minimalised non-offensive defence forces. We vow to transform all military intelligence forces worldwide into peace gathering and conflict resolution services. We vow to transform all police forces and security services into violence prevention patrols and neighbourhood self-esteem community outreach workers. We vow to transform our prisons into moral re-education centres where prisoners are taught the tools for personal ethical transformation and where restorative justice replaces punishment or retribution; we vow to enable military engineers and scientists worldwide to change their career paths to high-tech peace related industries. We vow to shift budgetary expenditures of military forces worldwide towards sustainable development expenditure for a peaceful world. We vow to enable military forces to train up brigades of environmental forces equipped to handle environmental disasters such as the Fukushima disaster. We vow to remove nuclear weapons from planet earth and to explore non-nuclear sources of energy so that we can remove nuclear power as a necessary source of power worldwide. We vow to transform the world from a conflict ridden, over militarized planet, into one in which tiny defence forces operate largely as peace education reminder remnants, with military museums showing the tragedies of world wars and in which our military bases are transformed into centres for non-violence training and conflict resolution skill sharing and cultural and artistic workshops and areas of productive and creative activity. We vow to work for a world in which military conscription is replaced by social civilian services in which young people give their time for socially beneficial activities for a couple of years instead.

As a final confirmation that something must be going right in all this, when the 2014 January conference delegates visited the samadhi (final resting place, or shrine) of Acharya Tulsi, we sat in meditation around this beautiful shrine, in the town of Bikaner, which we had  travelled to overnight in order to meet with Acharya Mahashraman the successor to Acharya Mahapragya, and to Acharya Tulsi. After a while sitting  there in meditation,  I opened my eyes to find a flower petal scattered around my hands, as if a sign that the petal concept was indeed the best way to sum up our recent conference. It felt to me, (who often read signs and synchronicities, and am in fact writing a Book of Synchronicities, where strange sequences of juxtaposed phenomena appear beyond statistical probability)^[11] that it was a kind of blessing on the  ongoing work from Acharya Tulsi himself, in his now disembodied state.

One of the many conversations I would have loved to have had with him, but didn't manage to fit into our talk, was where, in his opinion, the souls of righteous and enlightened people go after death. It was a question I had already included in my 40 Questions instead of a paper given at Ladnun back in 1995, when I had specifically asked, and wondered, how it is that some people seem to come into incarnation full of peace, calmness, poise and loving compassion, and some other people seem to come into incarnation full of anger, hatred, violence and thoughts of fear and revenge and attack. If they are all coming and going from some kind of inter-incarnational world, (as would seem to be indicated by recent research into near death experiences, such as those given by my friend and colleague Dr Peter Fenwick, the eminent neuropsychiatrist of the University of London and President of the International Association for Near Death Studies) then why is it that some souls manage to debrief happily and cleanse themselves of their accumulated lifetime of bitterness, disappointments and aggression, and other souls are somehow not getting cleansed, but come back in full of continuing hatreds and violence. Effectively, I was asking who is running the debriefing sessions in heaven, hell and purgatory?  One thing I can be absolutely sure of, and that is that Acharya Tulsi will have found out by now, and will be doing all he can to help out, and to make sure that the maximum number of incarnating souls come in with love, light and compassionate and radiant wisdom. That way, we can gradually clean up this planet from all its anger, hatred, violence and wars, and we can get back to the Satyuga which we all really want to be living in, don't we?

One of the greatest English Kings of all time, King Alfred the Great (849-899),^[12]  once asked his spiritual mentor, Bishop Asser, if there was a library in heaven. Alfred loved reading and studying a great deal, but as King he had to fight wars, give just judgements, and generally see to the running of his realm, and so he never found time to complete all the studies he wanted. So he asked Asser if, in heaven, he could catch up on all the studying he didn't have time to finish on this plane. Asser replied "O King, if there isn't a library already existing in heaven, I am sure that when you arrive, they will make sure a special one is built".

Personally, as a scholar of peace studies and global philosophy myself, I know exactly how Alfred felt, and look forward to a very long vacation in the heavenly library when my own time on this plane unfortunately comes to an end. I am also sure that Acharya Tulsi will be sitting and reading at his own special section of the same library (when he isn't busy walking about asking awkward questions). With any luck, we can continue our conversations on from 1995, in a slightly different context from when we last met. But I hope it doesn't happen for a long while yet. There is still far too much work for us all to do, too many wars going on, and too much violence in our societies. It's totally unacceptable and one ought to be embarrassed, not as Plotinus said, to be in a body, but rather to be in a world where such levels of violence are seen as acceptable. Thank you Acharya Tulsi for pointing this out to us all. Thank you for founding the Anuvrat movement, thank you for handing on your light to so many people. Send some of that heavenly wisdom energy from the divine peace library down here to us all please – we need it!

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