Justice V

What is the source of justice, or of any virtue? Is it the state, as Plato thought in his utopian period, or is it the rational faculty of human beings, as Socrates said? Is it collective historical experience that evolves a mindset of progress, or is it God conferring a divine right to whomever embraces a justifying interpretation of power? From collective experience came constitutions and declarations. From divine right and the “will of the people” come kings, potentates, and dictators. But in the end, all unnatural and contrived expressions, whether of power, divine inspiration, or seizing of opportune historical moments, are destined to pass. Humanity fails to embrace justice because it fails to comprehend that these aforementioned are not its source. Justice comes not from anything humans create. Justice comes from the universe and from nature. Justice constitutes the Way in myriad subtle expressions of nature. Evoking the empathy of human beings, justice becomes the harmony that the Way extends to existence. Society fails to perceive that “letting go” — not contriving — reveals justice. For individuals, solitude is the “letting go” of what is contrived to follow nature’s harmony, and to practice that justice that is already built into existence.