Peace is here, (if you want it)

The world cries out in its call for peace. Each of us is looking for a safe place – inwardly and outwardly –  as the fabric of society is crumbling, while so many reference points are rapidly disintegrating.

It is not just the tragedy of wars and geo political conflicts, but also in the personal battles that erupt between people and families, so that the specter of a painful  polarization is summoned at so many different level of society. It is a wound that seems to be self perpetuating everywhere we look.

Like with Tantalus, (the mythical hero of Ancient Greece, whose hunger cannot be ever satisfied) one part of the conflict asks for justice, or equality, and the other part explodes with indignation.

In the same way the pain of the sense of separation inside these conflicts keeps emerging over and over again, so that the longing for justice is never satisfied.

The agitated mind tries relentlessly to create peace in each of these conflicts, pulling up a comfort blanket too short to cover everything and everybody all the time. The feet or the shoulders are always left out in the cold! 

Logic coming from this sense of separation seeks to find a compromise between two different positions.

This means someone will always have to lose or give something up in order to meet the other half-way. For this reason, compromise rarely leads to permanent peace. 

Yet, there is another possible solution. We can give up, not what we want, but the sense of separation itself. If I can face a conflict with another, recognising that we are not two but part of just one Self, I could realise myself to be the transcendental space that includes both of them. In other words, my true being is one with everything and everyone. 

This is a powerful shift, that explains the Christian expression of “turning the other cheek”. It is coming to a place of seeing in the other – the one that is apparently against us – what we have not recognised, or owned in ourselves, as conflictual.

If this realisation happens – not just on an intellectual level, but as an authentic recognition – it will allow us access to new resources: information, points of view that were not previously available, levels of interpretation that are more inclusive of all the different polarities. 

There will be access to a higher level of  understanding, as we start to see all contradictions and differences as part of the same Being. From that place, all solutions will come from the Love that includes us all.

Of course, this is only possible if, in the recognition of our true nature, we step back from the sense of separation. It is not something that can be achieved by the mind. In fact, the mind, despite its good intentions, cannot overcome duality, as it itself belongs to duality.

Instead, this is the gift offered by true meditation, which is being aware of ourselves as Awareness. This is an opening in the abode of Consciousness itself. And in that sanctuary, the sanctuary of our sacred Heart, all different sides and parts are welcome to arise and express their precious vibration.

All of us, no matter how much the mind might judge or negate, are equally precious. We are all just as necessary in order for the entire diamond of the Self, in all its facets and aspects, to be represented.

Both light and shadow must appear on the scene of Life, if we are to see clearly where we stand in any moment. The reflection must be complete to express back the entire picture.

The necessary unfolding of certain events to manifest is the call for us to wake up to the ignorance in which we still abide, and turn instead to the recognition of the Self. This call is the most powerful and true drive of Life itself, stronger even than the desire to have a safe or pleasant life.

At times, dramatic or seemingly horrific events are the only way through which we can overcome the ego’s sense of separation and see through the karmic tendencies that surface in each of us again and again. This represents – with a different name, a different situation – the ignorance in which we still get lost. We must remember that Life is not punishing us, it is just showing what still in us remains unsolved.

As long as we see in the other an opponent, or we see in an event an oppositional force, we will miss the precious recognition that through everything and everyone there is yet the same Being.

That’s why Life is absolutely the ultimate teacher, the real guru. It shows us in every moment, if we are truly embodying our understanding. It might be easy to say “we are one”, until our neighbour, or spouse does something we don’t like or agree with. 

Then, it painfully reveals where we are still holding on to an image of ourselves.

The shadows appearing on the wall of life are moved by the Consciousness that we are. What we call ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ is shown alongside what we would perceive as positive or right. If we can be aware of the inner contraction that we experience when certain event – the ones we might deem ‘negative’-  happen, then we could stop reacting with words or actions to that negativity. This eventually creates actually more conflict. We might instead use that contraction as a pointer, directing us back to what is still unresolved.

Seeing the other in us does not mean that we kill, or steal or abuse (or that we endorse these actions). But, can we be at peace as these events are happening, even if we see that they are wrong? Can we offer our help in stopping them, from a place of clarity and compassion, and not from judgment and separation? Can we stop judging for avoiding what is felt as difficult in us?

In reality, I can face with clarity and compassion what I see as negative without reacting, but only when I am completely aware that what I am witnessing is at core the Self – myself – manifesting in another way, in another aspect of Life.

If this is not possible –  if resting in the Heart is too painful –  I will remain unavoidably identified with the contents of the mind. And from that place, even a ‘good person’, wanting to do the ‘right thing’, will not be able to hold the entire picture, will not be able to be truly open. They will not be able to offer their Heart as the holy space in which the sense of separation – that is behind any even evil act – can heal.

Peace must be something we offer and not something we demand from a world that is in essence, our own creation. Offering Peace means remaining present to ourselves as Awareness, resting in the Heart as the fire of conflict burns within us.

This flame reduces to ash what we thought or felt ourselves to be as ego. From that defeat, a phoenix can arise, flying free over what the mind called “impossible”. 

Dissolving and not resolving the conflict is the power of Heart, if we see that all suffering comes from the ego.

Then, what appears in the manifestation –  once this alchemical process has been allowed – will be an entirely different scenario, in which all the forms involved will move from a new space. As we meditate the world, truly accepting and recognizing that each part is not separated from another, new and miraculous solutions will begin to appear.

Each and every one of us –  in essence one Being –  is called to take part in this. It’s up to us. We cannot wait for the world to change, before moving in a new direction. We must let go the ego and do our part now. If we rest in the Heart, the world will be renewed in us already. We will literally and instantaneously step into the new dimension that was always present, but yet invisible as we were too busy protecting the false images of ourselves. It is a quantum leap done not by the person, but by Consciousness itself in us. 

We don’t need to wait for everybody else to do this before we enter into this new world, the one we are all so desperate to see and live in. This possibility is real now. It’s already here and available. We just need to turn towards the recognition of what is truly living in us, of what it is really moving through all the forms we see.

In this, we can finally understand the difficult lesson Krisna taught Arjuna on the battlefield, as reported in the Bhagavad Gita. Tormented by the looming war against his relatives, Krishna told him, “ both those who are killed and those who are doing the killing are under an illusion”. This is not a cruel and cold Advaita affirmation but the key to understand that in the dual game of life pain is real, but suffering it is not. 

The illusion of separation creates the violent and divisive events in our lives. And when we return to the Heart and look at the world from this place, we can each be part of the change, we long for.

The sacrifice – the “sacrum facere” or sacred doing in Latin – is to give up the sense of separation within which we imagine ourselves existing. Going through the fear of dissolving our self images is the sacrifice. From this, we can access a new humanity, inside and outside, individually and collectively.

Peace is here. Not in the world we see, or in the personality we imagine to be, but as the One that observes the dream of Life, the dream of Consciousness itself.

– Shakti Caterina Maggi

Translated from the magazine Inzicht, to read it click here https://inzicht.org/preview-huidig-nummer/