War in Other Places

Implicit upon the path is responsibility, and that responsibility is to do no harm. That’s the first universal law. Check in with yourself everyday to see if you have been able to do no harm in your thoughts, your words, your actions and your deeds. Our words and deeds are not so hard; it is the thoughts on the inner planes of our consciousness that are so dangerous. These are the “demons” that are real, whether they are the demons you fight within yourself about loving yourself, being fearless, and trying to be positive in your thoughts, or whether they are the demons that express themselves through you in frustration, anger, and judgment against others.

Everyone has a rich inner life. It does not rest; it is ON all the time. It is with you when you go to sleep, when you enter the dreamtime, and when you wake up in the morning. It is with you all day long. When you brush your teeth in the morning, you are already thinking and evaluating, and things are beginning to perk in your mental and emotional bodies.

Those inner plane energies of the small self may not appear to be expressing themselves, but they are. To camouflage these, we put on a disguise. Some people have smiles on their faces, some people have the right words, and some people have a certain look; there are different ways that we disguise this other side of ourselves. Our responsibility, when we embark on a spiritual path, is to merge our outer life with our inner life, and to merge our inner life with our outer life so that our attempts to be simple and peaceful start to be integrated into our outer and inner planes of existence.

The inner plane projects itself onto the outer world, no matter what the disguise, no matter what the modus operandi is to keep it hidden. That projection is real, and it’s powerful. The karmic effect is that  those emotions and thoughts come back to us tenfold.  Anger burns twice. Anger burns up the host who is feeling the anger, and the projection of the anger burns and scorches whoever is the object of the anger.

As we speak, two new wars have broken out; this is terrible for the entire world. Energies are building on the inner planes. The psychic level, which relishes war, can be justified in violence and killing. Just because it is happening in another place in the world, does not mean we do not feel it. We are all on one energetic, physical earth. It’s like a spider web; whatever touches the web, is registered right away. The spider knows; she gets the frequency and vibration right away. We talk about war, we look at war, we say we’re not warring people, but those wars are generated by thoughts on the inner planes, and they get projected outward. Those thoughts get expressed in the group mind where members of the same group say, “This is right, and this is wrong,” and then it all gets justified and turns into outright violence and bloodshed.

When we’re looking at war in other places, we must turn and look at the war within ourselves. We have to understand that we all hold responsibility. We do! If we strive to take this responsibility seriously, there is a chance to stabilize what is unstable. We do not have the power to change everything, but we have the power to stabilize ourselves through our practices. We have the power to be honest with ourselves about the nature of our thoughts and emotions and to find healthy ways to clear ourselves and to bring ourselves back into balance when we go sideways. The most dangerous thing we can do is to don the disguise and go underground in the inner planes. That is really destructive. Jesus expressed this in the Gospel of Thomas: If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth can save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.

Go to the Source that gives you everything you want: your inner connection with God. It is your one place of power; it is a direct relationship between you and God. Find a way to be healthy. Find a way to work through and let go of the destructive energies inside of yourself. You have various tools in your tool box, including options for meditation, breathing, movement and prayer. You have the tools, but you must use them in order for them to work.

Be honest with yourself. Only by being honest with ourselves, by admitting that we have work to do, or that something is out of balance in some way, or that we’re holding somebody hostage with our judgment—only by doing that, can we then let that energy go. If we do not come clean and we do not let it go, it stays with us. Then it will come back around and emerge once again and preserve its hard, mean, crusty grooves. Those grooves are your karmic blueprint, and they create your consciousness. They can be disassembled and dissolved, but only if you are really committed with the fire, which is love, to be as honest as you can on the path of love, which is this life.

It’s difficult for me to witness something where I think someone else is doing the harm and not get emotional about it. How do I look at this world and not get drawn up into emotions, particularly when I see war and cruelty and abuse?

The practice is always with the self. It is so easy to get drawn into the good and bad, the right and the wrong, and to feel justified in our feeling that we are really right. But we do not really know what “right” is. The best thing to do is to be in neutral witness consciousness and not project your feelings onto anything. Then, do no harm in life, and be kind to yourself and to others, in your thoughts, words and deeds. Observe the currents that are around you, but be lovingly detached. Do not get caught in the debris, because then you are just adding to the debris.

When I say, “Our practice always brings us back to the self,” I understand what that generates. It is the feeling that there must be something else, something more than turning within and working with the self. But try that. Try that, because that is the hardest thing of all to do.

We were at lunch with my wife’s aunt yesterday. She saw someone who was terribly overweight, and she blasted, “I don’t understand how she could have let herself go, just look at that fat butt!” I tried simply to observe, but then I realized I was judging her for being so judgmental. I had to breathe and let my own judgment go because it was so strong. I felt I was using the breath to burn up my own judgment, not her judgment.

Yes, it’s just like that! Never mind war! Practice being in neutral witness consciousness when something like that arises: Somebody says something that we think is way off base. To be neutral in that place is a most difficult practice. And of course, there are different levels of relationships and different agreements in relationships. You might be able to say to someone, in a healthy way, “Wait a minute, can we talk about that?” And then you do that. But when you do not have that kind of understanding, to stay neutral and just observe, without judgment, is a huge challenge and practice.

The responsibility is first and foremost to ourselves. In neutral witness consciousness, we give ourselves the peace, beauty, and love we deserve. That is the only way we can extend it out from ourselves. To what end do we say to all the powers of love and beauty that be, “Come to me so that I may know you and become more peaceful and beautiful, so that I may realize love in my life”? It is not just for you. It is a paradox. It is just for you, but then—and this goes to responsibility—how do I share this in life? How do I find a way to bring this consciousness forward? Reflect on how are you are bringing forward all the blessings, all the beauty, and all the sustenance that you have been given. What ways have you found in life to share this? We have to share it. It is the Cycle of Grace. It is the universal law of love. It is the key to love as expressed in the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. This is how the universal law of love works.

(July 2014)

Maresha's next blog will be published September 30, 2014.


Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com