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Offense, Defense or BeneficenceIt
seems as if the three words offense,
defense and beneficence are not related. Offense and defense are
opposites but
what about beneficence? Actually, when we go to the root, we find the
main
difference between the military and the healing paradigms. Offense
is good in war and games. You
advance. The root is the same as offend. It is to move in, take or
violate the
space of another. What an offence does is take from one person or group
for the
other person or group. Defense
or to defend is to stop an offense.
To protect what one person or group has. It denies that goal to the
other
person or group. More
wars, they say, have been fought over
water or other natural resources then anything else. Often religion or
ideologies are wrapped around these wars to make them seem less petty.
In the
range wars of the western In
root of beneficence is the same as
benefit. The goal is to find a solution that benefits both people or
both
groups. As such, beneficence is the opposite of offense and defense. In
the healing community, in the metaphysical
community, in the spiritual community, we work for the highest and
greatest
good of the individual, the community and the universe. There is no
conflict in
these goals. If
you look at two well know members of these
communities you get a good idea of the paradigm. Ram Das is a writer
and
lecturer. Wayne Dyer is also a writer and lecturer. In the military or
financial world they would view each other as competitors or enemies.
They
would be attempting to capture each other’s clients. They
would view each
other’s success as diminishing their success. Remember the
words taught to
every military person, it is not enough that I win, you must be
defeated. By
contrast, these two applauded and learned
from each other. In recent years Ram Das has experiences a stroke.
Wayne Dyer
is leading the efforts to support and assist him. He even brought him
into his
home to assist him. They are friend and colleagues not competitors. Science
also works on this paradigm. Each
scientist learns from all of the others in their field. No scientific
discovery
if considered good until it has been validated by other researchers, In
the business and military communities,
defense often becomes the goal. Denying success becomes the most
important
goal. These people do not mind perishing, loosing everything, as long
as their
competitor does not win. They feel that a win-loss outcome is the best,
as long
as they are the winner. They would prefer a loss-loss to seeing their
competitor win. In
healing, metaphysics, spirituality,
education and science the win-win scenario is the goal. If I learn and
you
learn, if I succeed and you succeed we both win. This is not a utopian
dream.
It happens every day. As instructors we learn from our students. A boss
succeeds when the staff succeeds. We,
for example, have a booth at several
shows each year. We sell stones for healing. There are usually several
other
vendors also selling stones at the same show. We get to know what the
other
vendors are selling. If a customer comes to us and is looking for
something we
do not have or is not satisfied with our stock, we direct them to the
other
vendors. The other vendors do the same for us. We all win. There a
several
shows where the other vendors started by learning from us. They are our
competition, our friends, our colleagues, our students and part of our
community. The greater their success the more customers come to the
show and the
better we do. We
all try to work for the benefit of
ourselves, each other and the universe. Unlike offense and defense,
which
diminish one of the participants, beneficence magnifies all of the
participants. One final example, in sports the Olympics are the top of the competitive world. Anyone who makes it to the Olympics is a winner. If one breaks an old record everyone that is part of that sport basks in the glory and shares in the new goal. The competition helps all of the participants to enhance their skills. If one of them violates the rules they are all tarnished by the incident. For the most part, they all want to make sure that they are the best they can be and their win is increased by the wins of everyone else. |
