The absence of conflict is impossible for an egocentric consciousness.
In living with others, we regularly face clashes of will—sometimes because our interests diverge, sometimes because we’re vying for the same thing—and a certain tension is always present.
Egocentric consciousness seeks what is best for itself and, as a result, often finds itself in dispute with others. This behavior is unconscious, automatic.
The Buddhist concept of emptiness can help shed light on this. Emptiness means that things are empty of intrinsic existence — that is, they do not exist as self-contained entities, separate from everything else. But that doesn’t mean emptiness is nothingness. When we speak of emptiness, we mean that something is empty of something.
Take the example of a tree. Can we say a tree is empty of light if it is bathed in sunlight? Can we say it is empty of the air that surrounds it? Is it empty of the soil, the minerals, and the rainwater that sustain it? Could a tree be empty of everything around it if it exists as an intimately interdependent expression of the cosmos itself?
Of what, then, is the tree empty?
It is empty of a separate existence apart from everything else.
Likewise, a person and their inner world—their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions—do not exist independently. Yet human beings believe they possess a self-sufficient existence and erect a mental barrier between themselves, others, and everything around them.
Egocentric consciousness is the root of this separateness and thus of our prejudices, conditioned patterns, and automatic habits, which generate countless inner and outer conflicts.
But the self has no existence of its own. That is why Krishnamurti tells us there is no observer outside what is observed, no thinker apart from thought. When we avoid, for example, a feeling that troubles us, we create a mask over what we truly are—and we flee from self-knowledge.
What we usually call stillness amounts to mere moments or hours of rest. We are ruled by a daily struggle of opposing forces — anxiety, worry, and fear — driven by the separateness of egocentric consciousness.
But is permanent peace possible?
As Dzongsar Khyentse writes in What Makes You Not a Buddhist, when we understand and experience emptiness, we continue to appreciate everything that seems to exist — but without clinging to illusions as if they were real. Our gaze pierces appearances, and we recognize that they are, first of all, creations of the self. Life can still move us — we may feel sadness, anger, or passion — but little by little we stop seeking external validation for our sense of self and abandon the ceaseless search for a happiness that never arrives.
Through life’s experiences — and the weariness brought on by this endless struggle — we begin to see that our essential being, like the spring in the desert that Exupéry evokes, offers us a breath of peace when we renounce the outer fight.
The real being transcends the walls of separateness and the illusions of the self.
For the real being, there are no limits: all that exists is One.
In this way, we can begin to dismantle the barriers of separation in our hearts and make impersonal, struggle-free choices — even in the face of difficulty and conflict — embracing a new attitude toward life. And thus, each of us, along our own path, can attain a permanent peace — not in time, but in the living present, in this very instant where eternity touches the heart.
Which path to take?
Imagine the wheel of samsara: on the outer rim, conflicts are inevitable because of impermanence — but as we move toward the center, along the spokes (as on an inner path), these tensions diminish, until at the deepest point conflict ceases through the recognition of the self-created duality of egocentric consciousness.
Only the center of the cosmic wheel is still: it is the emptiness that makes it turn.
The center is the unmoved mover, the axis of motion — everything depends on it, though it does not take part in the turning. It is silence amid noise, presence amid flow.
The wheel is life itself. But where should we go?
Remain on the rim, spinning with the world’s tensions, or take the path back to the center—where peace dwells, where Being is whole, free, and indivisible?
References:
Khyentse, D. What Makes You Not a Buddhist [e-book]. Translated by Ana Cristina Lopes. São Paulo: Editora Lúcida Letra, 2021. Originally published as What Makes You Not a Buddhist by Shambhala Publications, Boston, 2007
Krishnamurti, J. On Conflict [e-book]. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2013. EPUB Edition. ISBN 9780062312600
Rijckenborgh, J., de Petri, C. The Chinese Gnosis: A Commentary on the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Jarinu, SP: Lectorium Rosicrucianum, 2006
