Jürg Rohrer - ABC of Awareness (auf Englisch)

To examine the validity of the basic rules of existence we can also carry out certain experiments. We will go through such experiments in our thinking quite soon. Another test option for us as human beings is that each one of us tries for himself to feel whether the basic laws of being are valid. Since we too are part of the cosmos, this truth must be known to each of us. Through your intuition try to feel whether the above mentioned basic rights of existence are valid or not.

As already suggested the plausibility of the basic rights of existence can be tested by simple thought experiments. Let us «test» the three statements individually:

Equal right to be on the earth for all beingsImagine that you are locked into a house with ten other people for a whole year. You have no contact with the outside world and for a whole year you only «know» these ten people. You must share everything: Living and sleeping areas, toilet, bath, shower, food, books etc. There is however sufficient space and also sufficient food for the whole year.If you wish to spend this year in peace and harmony is not mutual respect and mutual recognition of the right to exist of all eleven people an absolute precondition for this? The more people who refuse to do this the more difficult it will be to live together.Now let us expand this house in our thoughts to the whole earth and then add additional human beings, animals and plants. From this perspective the mutual recognition of the right of all beings to live on this earth is a plausible precondition for peace and harmony.The knowledge of all the inhabitants of the earth that their existence is respected, that they may be here, is an absolutely essential precondition for harmony. Lasting peace can only come when no mutual threat is present.

Equal right for all beings to developNo one can argue that today we are a fairly long way from a world of peace and harmony. Wars are taking place all the time and thousands of people die from hunger every day, while others are wallowing in abundance. Water, air and the soil are sometimes so badly contaminated that no beings can live there any longer or the food is inedible. To improve this situation further development of today’s condition is necessary. Why then shouldn’t a being not be allowed to develop or only be allowed to develop at a slower rate than others? Who is to decide who may develop further and who shouldn’t?We are all at a certain point in our own personal development. Everyone wants to bring their own needs to reality. When there is competition for limited development space, there is automatically a conflict about who has the right to be the first to develop or who can develop the most. The equal right for all beings to personal development is therefore also a necessary precondition for lasting peace and harmony.

Equal right for all beings to carry out their tasksThe earth’s system is extremely strongly networked. In this network each being (plants, animals, humans, minerals etc.) has many different tasks which it performs. In this networked system intelligence is distributed locally: Each being knows its tasks and objectives from its origin or its birth. There are no foolish beings which simply wait around until a «boss» distributes tasks to them. All of them bring with them the knowledge of their life’s tasks right from their origin or birth, and they start to perform their tasks without external commands. However they do not need to know the tasks assigned to other living beings.The only «intelligence» which knows the interrelationship of all beings is the complete «earth system» itself, in other words the union of all beings on the earth. Since we humans only represent a tiny portion of this large system, it is plausible to suggest that humans will never be able to understand the tasks and functions of all the other beings and their interrelationships on the earth (Actually it would even be a great advance if human beings would discover and realize their own functions and tasks on this earth system...).If no being can understand alone all the interrelationships on the earth it is certainly not right for one being to presume to assign particular tasks to other beings or to prevent other beings from fulfilling their own tasks and certainly should not forbid them from doing them. It therefore seems appropriate that we should allow all beings the equal right to fulfil their tasks. In a localized, self-organized system such as the earth this is another necessary precondition for the system to function at all and finally for harmony and peace to be permanently present.

The points addressed above are indications, which are intended to arouse our thoughts on the basic rights of existence. As already mentioned there is no evidence for or against the validity of the basic rights of existence. Everyone must find out for himself whether he wants to believe in the validity or existence of these basic rights of existence or not. This can only be done via our intuition. Each of us is however quite used to trusting his own intuition in certain situations. Or how – for example – did you select your life partner? Did you arrange for scientific analyses, did you ask experts and then make a rational decision afterwards? How did you decide whether or not you would like to have children? How do you help your children in the selection of a career? How do you decide for or against a new job after an interview? There are always decisions in our lives which are strongly influenced by our intuition or are indeed only made on the basis of our intuition – however we are often not aware of this.

It is therefore left to you or your intuition to establish whether the basic rights of existence are in your opinion valid or not. Here they are again:

The basis of all life on our planet is the equal right of all beings to live here, to develop here and to carry out their tasks here.

In many works it is «unconditional love» which is described as the basis of all being, or of all being on the earth. Is this possibly wrong? – Of course not, unconditional love and the basic rights of existence describe the same thing. Whoever fully and completely respects the rights of all beings according to the basic rights of all beings – is showing unconditional love. Whoever unconditionally loves all beings on the earth will doubtless grant all beings the right to live here, to develop and to carry out their tasks. The term unconditional love and the basic rights of existence as described are therefore largely identical.

So let’s return to the bases of our life on earth: From the right to live, to develop and to carry out our tasks as shown above are derived a whole series of additional rights and duties. In the hierarchical sense these laws are subordinate to the basic rights of existence.

For example from this results the right to food for all beings (otherwise their existence would be endangered, i.e. their right to be here would be violated), to bodily and intellectual freedom (otherwise their free development and/or their right to accomplish their tasks would be endangered), as well as the right to self- determination (otherwise free development would be endangered) for all beings. As a logical consequence of the right to self- determination the duty of self-responsibility is derived for all beings (he who can freely establish for himself what he does or does not do is logically also responsible for all of his own decisions). We will come back to the subjects of self-determination and self- responsibility later.