Conclusion – The Buddha's Path and Lao Tzu's Dao (“the Way”)

There is no shortage of wisdom, and related implementation programs and possibly even funding, on policies that offer the promise of reducing if not entirely eradicating the pain and suffering that permeates the world. The most striking but entirely unsurprising discovery of my explorations regarding the integrating theme of unity in this book is the unity of wisdom on how to end suffering. We have the answers, but we do not have the will to implement them.

Consider the strong correspondence between the governance and government arrangements recommended in Chapter 12 and the paths laid out 2,500 years ago by the Buddha and the Chinese thinker Lao Tzu (teacher of the Dao – “the Way”). In the spirit of unity in diversity and in search of Walter Benjamin's and Xunzi's new fusion, very much aligned with the Buddhist teaching of seeking harmony through the “Middle Way,” I look for threads that unite their perspectives and find them in the shared outcomes their paths were intended to lead to – bringing disorder and suffering to an end. They both were trying to create worlds where humans could flourish. They were exploring paths to social orders that would support the sustainable well-being of all beings, human and nonhuman.