The world is no more and no less than a reflection of ourselves, an outward projection of the innermost workings of our psyches, and it is thereby absolutely essential in the eliciting of an overarching quality of peace and equanimity on a worldly scale that we that we address the deeply conflicted and contradictory movements of our own minds.

We live in a state of conflict both within and without, and surely this conflict is predicated upon our belief in the inherency opposites. This is to say that we have come to perceive the world as a series of opposing forces rather than one holistically unified field. We have set black against white, good against evil, like against dislike, pleasure against pain, so on and so forth, and for this reason we have come to perpetuate war both inside and outside.

Our belief in the inherency of opposites is surely born of thought, or rather arises out of our identification with our thoughts. When we identify with our thoughts, which is to say when we mis-perceive our thoughts as containing some kind of innate truth, our world-view becomes deeply skewed and contorted for the movement of thought is not in and of itself an apt interpretation of reality. “Reality is beyond thought”, in the words of Eckhart Tolle.

Thought is basically a measuring implement. Its very purpose is to differentiate, discriminate, compare, contrast, so on and so forth. Thought is profoundly useful and practical in this regard, but its practicality is surely lost when we come to confuse the implement with that which is meant to utilize the implement (consciousness itself). When we make this mistake, which we ever so often do, we come to allocate false credence to this perception of the world as being inherently conflict oriented.

It is a self fulfilling prophecy, for when we perceive the world as being a sphere of conflict then we ourselves become active agents in that conflict.

In order to live entirely without conflict we must first come to transcend all duality, which is to say we must move beyond this realm wherein all things move against their seeming opposites, and surely this must incorporate a profound reassessment of our relationship to our thoughts. There can be no conflict, neither within nor without, when we are rightly related to our thoughts, and this “right relationship” is characterized by our ceasing to view our thoughts as being absolute carriers of truth. They are not.

Take a step back from the incessant movements of the mind, breathe, relax, and understand most deeply and intuitively that all is connected. When this is wholly seen, then the fallacies imposed by this dualistic mode of perception are dissolved. Herein conflict comes to an end.

All that is needed is merely one moment wherein the immediacy of pure perception is wholly felt, for when the present moment is skillfully engaged with, thoroughly met with the entirety of one’s being, we become one with the world.