Making Peace Your One Goal

"The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life..."   - A Course in Miracles W-205.1 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 so identified with these aspects of our human experience that we lose our true identity in them. We refer to these aspects by saying my religion, my race, my opinion, my story and distinguish them from everybody else with their 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... In Zen Buddhism it is called Original face: the face you had before your parents were born. In gospel terms it is the light that enlightens everyone 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.   This false self is the ego; that is on a relentless struggle to survive. Survival arises from maintaining an "I" thought about oneself separate and distinct from an "other." The ego thrives on the notion of separation - separation from God, separation from other people, separation from all of life. The more we see ourselves as special and different, in competing relationship with everyone and everything else, the more we will keep alive a 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 widespread 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 of a unified field of life, a hidden wholeness, in which we all live, move, and have our being. At our most elemental, essential nature, we are spiritual, inextricably connected to every sentient creature, woven into the fabric of Life itself. 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 God. This Kingdom, this consciousness of ever expanding good, is in the midst of us, here and now, calling us to make our home there. 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 and leads to judgments and attacks, or we rise above ordinary thought to see through the eyes of the Christ and recognize our essential unity with everybody and everything. It is a true or false question.