Humanity has but one enemy: it is when self-interest marries ignorance. For out of this unholy wedlock is born the imagined right to do wrong to others, strengthened by the sick belief that the suffering now induced is for their own good.
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Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
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Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
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Shop eCoursesHumanity has but one enemy: it is when self-interest marries ignorance. For out of this unholy wedlock is born the imagined right to do wrong to others, strengthened by the sick belief that the suffering now induced is for their own good.
There is one essential reason why there is so much constant heartache and war on this earth, and why conflict has continued as it has down through the ages. The answer may surprise you. We do not understand our own pain -- our suffering. Six-and-a-half billion human beings live in ignorance of their pain. But this is not to say that we live pain-free.
In fact, without exception, human beings carry on their shoulders and in their hearts massive amounts of pain. No matter what religion you are, you have pain. No matter what part of the world you live in, no matter your economic condition, no matter your social conditioning, no matter the color of your skin -- you have pain. All human beings have pain.
It is because we are presently not aware of most of it, and because we do not understand anything about the nature of it, that ignorance of our pain manifests itself in war. So, even though it isn't a popular topic of conversation among human beings, we must examine our pain if we are ever to gain the understanding to end war for good.
Everything created is born from opposition. Everything destroyed (incidentally, so that something new can be created), is done so by opposition. This is true inside of us just as it is true outside of us in the world and in the greater universe.
Where there is opposition, there is always a form of conflict. In the physical world, this state of conflict is natural and accepted. After the winds pass, and the trees return to their normal state, the trees don't sit and hate the wind. Bacteria don't complain, "I hate the immune system because it wouldn't let me in."
But human beings are different. When we experience opposition and conflict, we resist it. We think about it. We hate the things that we are opposed to. Conflict inside of a human being creates pain. What we fail to realize, however, is that without those opposing forces working their way in us, we could not change. We could not grow. It would be impossible. All things would stop because nothing would be created or destroyed.
So, we must ask: "What is it about this human nature that is different from the nature of the wind and the tree? What is it inside of me that turns what is natural opposition into hate, anxiety, frustration, depression, and pain?" When we look closely at ourselves, we see that all of these negative states find a home and their expression in us due to opposition to what "I want" in any given moment.
For example, one person wants all human beings to be Jewish or Muslim, while another insists they all be Christian or Buddhist. This group wants more money and that group stands in the way. You want me to love you and I am not acting very loving at the moment. I want to be left alone and you won't be quiet. So can we see the real root of conflict here?
I want what I see as necessary for my "peace" of mind, and when you don't want that same peace, in the same way, what happens to me? I get frustrated. And what follows frustration? Anger. And what follows anger? Violence. War. This is why before there can be peace on earth we must learn to see what makes us warring!
These wants -- these unconscious desires -- are the root cause of pain, and thus the root cause of war. We couldn't be frustrated, hateful, or angry because things didn't go our way unless we had a desire -- a picture in our mind -- of how they should go. So we rarely see the world around us as it is. We only see things in relation to how they fit in with our desires.
When the world that we have imagined in our mind does not match the world of reality, we get frustrated. We feel pain. We get angry. We blame things outside of ourselves for the pain we feel inside. And we never see that it isn't the things outside of us that make us feel bad; it is the mechanism of unconscious desire inside of us that is the real cause of our pain.
You do the "math" given what we have discovered. No unconscious frustrated desire, no pain; no pain from frustration, no anger; no anger, no one to blame; no one to blame for my pain, no war.
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