NO MORE WAR

War is a symptom of the divided mind. And the divided mind is what governs most human beings. It is an unconscious state, in which there is no recognition of the indivisible reality of pure consciousness that underlies all seemingly separate individuations. It is a primitive state of ego-consciousness that thrives on comparison and the dichotomy of victor and vanquished, victim and perpetrator, subject and object. In this divided state, we go to war with other nations, other ideologies, other religions, other opinions, other life forms. We even go to war with the present moment, rejecting it, resisting it, trying to fix it or change it or run away from it or take possession of it. In the unconsciousness state, everything — even the natural flow of life — is a threat, something to be overcome so that we stay in our comfort zone or stand on a pedestal of superiority or specialness.

We can fight the “just cause”, we can exert a forcefulness to eliminate injustice, we can be righteously angry at the endless cycles of warring in our world … but none of this really changes anything. The revolution must first happen within … a fundamental shift in consciousness is required. Only when we come to recognize our essential nature — and the essential nature of all reality — can we see life and the world and everything in it as one whole, one being-ness, one vast field of luminous awareness from which all individuations arise. And the only way to recognize this is to turn within and come to “Know Thyself”, to touch the being-ness that is always here prior to all arising of experience. It’s an undoing of all the layers of identity derived from experiences and appearances. It’s an undoing of the tight knot of ego-self that can only survive by believing itself to be a separate “me”. The end of the “me” is the arising of true oneness ... a oneness that doesn’t require all individuals to agree with each other or have the same customs or preferences or beliefs or skin color. It’s a oneness that that is prior to appearances in the mind or in the body or in the culture. It’s an awakening out of the dream of ego and an embodiment of true nature as the luminosity of awake awareness.

Only now — as this awake awareness — can you come to stop fighting, for there is no longer any enemy. No “other” is a threat, no “other”needs to be defeated … you no longer need to go to war, not even with this present moment. All resistance to what is has come to a full stop. And all that remains is the infinity of true nature and there is no dichotomy here … there are neither victims nor perpetrators. This is an inner revolution that changes everything. It is the arising of love ... because love is the infinity of open awareness, unadulterated and unconditioned by thought or feeling or emotion.

I have a vision, of a million people — old and young and infirm and strong — all standing up together as one, with no ammunition and no anger and no fear ... in the face of an army that comes to destroy. A million people — undefended and unarmed — holding the line by standing as unshakable presence, naked in mind and open in heart. One by one they rise up ... until all million are as one body, and this body is indestructible as the consciousness from which it was born. And this body is nothing other than love, and there is nothing it has to do to prove this love. And in the face of such a body, the soldier boy who is following orders and thinks he is fighting the good cause falters for a second ... for how can he wish to destroy love’s naked innocence? And when one soldier has the courage to put down his weapons, they all put down their weapons. And all that remains is one body of love, not two nations nor two armies nor any victim and perpetrator. The war has ended .. and this end starts within. This is the true revolution. It starts right here.

May we each have the courage to rise up and end the war ... in our minds, in our hearts, in our relationships, in the very fiber of our beings. May we each have the courage to end the war with this present moment, forever and now.

photo courtesy of Pixabay