War & Peace

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every war, every conflict with another person, every asserted opinion, every need to be right, is, at its core, nothing more or less than the defense of an illusion. Whether it is our religion, our nationality, our role, our culture, our family history, or our story, we can become identified with these aspects of our human experience and lose our true identity in them. We refer to these aspects by saying my religion, my race, my opinion, my story thus creating contrast and conflict with everybody else’s religion, opinion, and so on.

We become so easily lost in automatic identification that we really do need to stop and realize that all these aspects are nothing more than collections of thoughts and emotions. Admittedly, we may be deeply rooted in these ideas and identifications, but the truth is, they are not even close to representing the reality of our Being. Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I Am." He was not talking about his body, but his essence. Before you had a body, or a family, or a religion, you were the offspring of Infinite Life. .. bearing the light that enlightens every man/woman who comes into the world.

Conflicts that lead to resentments, at the least, or war, at the most extreme, stem from our perceived need to protect, and keep alive, a sense of self that is unmistakably false. As you know by now, if you've explored the nature of this inner sense of self, this false self is the ego. The ego is bent on a relentless struggle for survival. Survival requires the "I" thought which requires the opposing notion of an "other." The ego survives and thrives on the notion of separation - separation from God, separation from all of life. The more we see ourselves as special and different, in competing relationships with everyone and everything else, the more we will keep alive the sense of self that is false. Survival of this false self is fed by being right and making others wrong. Is it any wonder conflicts, small and grand, are endemic on this earth?

Yet, we know a greater truth, deep down anyway. There is another reality and another way of being together on this earth. The truth, revealed by mystical insight and quantum understanding, is there is a hidden wholeness, a unified field of life, in which we all live, move, and have our being. At our most elemental, essential nature, we are spiritual, existing in a field of energy where we are connected to every other living thing. In this field of unity, there is no need to struggle to survive, no separate interests competing for well-being. Jesus called it the Kingdom of Heaven. Martin Buber called it I-thou awareness. In the I-Thou relationship, human beings are aware of each other as having a unity of being, subject to subject, rather than in the I-It relationship in which others are separate and apart from one another.

To remain at war requires a sustained awareness of separation. To remain at peace requires a sustained awareness of our oneness. The only hope for lasting peace on earth (individually or collectively) is the fact that we have a choice in every moment. One choice leads to the battleground, and one leads to the peace table. Either we judge by appearances, which bear witness to a world of separation that leads to judgments and justifiable attacks, or we rise above ordinary thought to see through the eyes of Christ and recognize our essential unity with everybody and everything. Once again it is a matter of truth or consequences.

The wars without will only cease when we reconcile the wars that rage within us. May the source of dissatisfaction, anger, and conflict be clearly seen within each of us in the light of truth and not turned outward in harm to other beings. Let peace begin with me. Namaste,

Rev. Larry