Peace is possible. It is not only possible, it is close at hand. There need be no enemies in your heart. Enemies do not exist except in your heart. And if you exist as a possible enemy in another’s heart, it is an affliction of the other’s heart. Enemies are a predicated illusion built on hot air balloons.
Someone you see as an enemy is a friend you have had a divide with. There is a misunderstanding and then a fall-out. Now your friend has hurt your feelings, and you block your heart. Now, your friend feels wounded by you. Each of you justifies your hurt with reason upon reason. You build an armory of offenses.
It’s a funny thing with friendships that have gone wrong. Blame arises. Blame arises when what you need is honesty between two or more parties and no blame. Honesty without blame is a beautiful thing. Blame is the enemy of friendship. With blame, one or both parties hasn’t heard what the other means to say and goes off on a wild-goose chase.
War is a wild-goose chase. War doesn’t give you peace in your heart. War exacerbates animosity. War is a schoolboy game where one country or one or another person is going to outdo the other. One country or one person will be defeated, and another will win nothing. The winner wins nothing but a sniff of pride of victory for a moment and the smashing of the other side. Who made two sides?
Nip wars in the bud. Where is the misunderstanding? Whose pride is hurt?
Pride of this kind is always small. It is never great, this kind of ego-pride that gets wounded. It was wounded before, and now it insists upon victory over another. You have more than pride to take care of and bolster. Pride is always small. Pride says:
“Look at me. I’m here. Pay attention to me. Don’t take your eyes off me. I am important. In this, bow down to me. When my pride is hurt, you must be my enemy. You are just like someone who hurt me before you entered the picture. Oh, yes, I see my past in you, and I will fight you to the end. Your offense to me must be squashed, and I will squash it and you along the way.”
And so a puddle becomes a pond or a river or even as big as an ocean, yet a True Ocean knows better. A True Ocean is mighty and doesn’t resort to squabbling. War is serious business, yet it amounts to squabbling over something in the past pulled up to the present. War is a thief of peace. The situation isn’t the predicament. The predicament is you. You see what you see, and you compound your basic poor eyesight again and again.
You become strong in your conviction that you must not be defeated, and so you gear for war and ask for your ire to be appeased. How little a thing is your ire and your demand for appeasement. Do you want to bully someone into submission? What can be so wonderful about putting another under your thumb?
If you want peace, you can have it. First comes understanding. With understanding, you come out of the fray. You get into a bigger arena. Peace is leaps ahead of fighting. Peace is a different kind of action from war. It is not aggression. Peace sees something much more powerful than war. Peace sees the release of misunderstanding. Understanding clears the board. There is a field where understanding is realized.
Understanding is a powerful tool in your arsenal. Peace beats misunderstanding any day. Peace puts you ahead. We are speaking of peace as love that arises from within you. Peace lets go of false notions and opens hearts.
Be cautious about pride’s consuming you. Be careful about taking an unshakeable position. Be careful of nourishing the fuel of war. Do not feel you are put upon, and do not put upon others your past. Get animosity out of your heart, and you will not see it outside you any longer. Now you can declare the Truth of Peace.