The Absence Of Conflict

In the last class we talked about how it is from a place of wholeness that all virtue arises. To be whole, to be at peace, means to have no inner conflict. Many of us, when we see conflict in the outer world, desire peace. Yet the only way to bring greater peace to the world is by becoming more peaceful in ourselves, by embodying an absence of conflict and bringing forth the clarity, peace, and wholeness of our true nature. This is a 20 minute talk followed by a 20 minute meditation.

Transcript

It is wonderful to be present with all of you today.

In the last class,

We talked about wholeness,

About moving towards returning to our innate wholeness that we have within,

And how it is from a place of wholeness that all virtue,

All that we perceive of as good,

Will manifest from.

Virtue and goodness does not arise from fighting against what we perceive as evil or wrong,

But from coming to this place of peace and wholeness within ourselves.

This can be very challenging,

Particularly,

I would say,

In modern society,

Where we're living at a time that there are more humans on the planet than ever before in history,

And we are so much more connected than we have ever been.

Through social media,

Through the news,

We have so many means of communicating across the world instantaneously.

And while that kind of technology can bring with it many benefits,

It also can bring many challenges because we can become so much more aware of all of the conflict,

All of the suffering that is occurring in the world around us.

And if we are not careful,

It can be easy to begin to focus on that suffering,

To get caught by it,

To become obsessed by it,

To want to do something,

To try to change it.

And while that often stems from an underlying good intention,

If we look deeply into the nature of reality,

We begin to see that the only way to bring about greater peace in the world is to cultivate peace within ourselves,

To cultivate that wholeness within ourselves,

To find that place of stillness within,

That we might soften into our natural state and allow the fluctuations of the mind to settle.

And as we do so,

We generate this atmosphere of peace and love and light.

And that is the only way that I'm aware of that we can truly bring about greater peace and love and light into the world.

When we get caught by focusing on all that we perceive as wrong and we try to change it,

We actually continue the cycle of conflict.

This can be very challenging.

And yet I really feel that we have this ability within us to change the world simply through shifting how we relate to ourselves and our own experiences through taking complete responsibility for ourselves and our experiences and cultivating an absence of conflict within ourselves.

To be whole and to be at peace means that we have no inner conflict.

When we have conflict within us because of the judgments that we carry,

Because of the various facets of our experience that are in conflict with each other,

When we have a difference between how we want the world to be and how we perceive it to be,

All of that is inner conflict.

And when we have that kind of inner conflict,

We do not have that stillness and peace within.

Conflict creates division and separation.

It actually separates us from the peace,

From our true nature.

And so working with cultivating and focusing on the absence of conflict begins to remove those barriers and helps us to settle into our true nature of love,

Of beauty,

Of compassion and wisdom,

And to emanate that from ourselves.

Often when we focus on things that we perceive as wrong in the world,

It's because we're limiting ourselves to the present moment and we're taking isolated occurrences and events and experiences and labeling them as good or bad and creating these judgments about it.

But if we take a moment and we step back and look at the world as a whole,

Both in terms of space and time,

There is this continuum that has been progressing for eons,

The progression of life,

Of unfoldment,

Of complexity,

Of consciousness,

Of the divine experiencing itself.

And when we step back and look at it from a bigger perspective,

We begin to see how each present moment is a culmination and result of all previous moments.

And everything that we do and think and say in this present moment contributes to what occurs in all future moments.

And so when we cultivate that peace and absence of conflict within,

That may not affect the present moment right now.

It may not affect the moment a minute from now.

But over time,

As we cultivate that energy,

It has that ripple effect.

And it may have an effect in a month,

In a year.

And in actuality,

It affects our experience immediately.

It changes our experience of ourselves and the world.

It allows us to detach a little bit from the conflict that we perceive in the outer world.

And then over time,

We bring that forth and it begins to affect the people that we are in contact with,

Our loved ones,

Our friends,

Our colleagues,

The people we interact with when we go out,

When we eat at a restaurant,

Go to a coffee shop.

It begins to have that effect.

Being human,

It's natural to have inner battles.

We've all had past traumas,

Physical,

Psychological,

Emotional,

Relational,

Professional,

That have an impact and leave a residue,

An impression.

And then that,

Over time,

Creates these judgments of right and wrong,

Good and bad,

Of what we believe we want,

What we think will make us happy,

If we could only have this and this or change this aspect of our experience.

But if we look throughout the history of humanity and across all the different cultures and traditions,

There are so many wise,

Amazing individuals who have pointed towards the reality that the only way to find that happiness and peace we seek is to look within,

Not to look without.

And when we're fighting these inner battles and then trying to change our outer experience,

It's contributing to greater inner and outer conflict.

These inner battles that we have that arise from the fluctuations of the mind,

The attachments and aversions,

All of that creates a level of tension in the body,

Of tensing the physical body,

Tensing our emotions,

Of hardening our minds and our hearts.

And this is why it's so important to become present to our body,

To our thoughts,

To our breath and to consciously soften,

To decide to focus on the love and the light and the peace and the absence of conflict,

To trust in the natural unfolding of life in which we are privileged to be a part of,

To have this moment,

This experience.

When we have the inner conflict,

It means that we are not accepting ourselves and our experience and the world as we are in this moment.

And we focus on the absence of conflict within us because no matter how much inner turmoil we might be experiencing at any given moment,

There is always a place within us that is absent of conflict.

You know,

It's just like the sun.

You know,

Here in Missoula,

They have a lot of cloudy days.

And yet behind the clouds,

The sun is always there shining,

Even if we can't see it.

And it's very similar to how our inner nature is.

That place of peace and absence of conflict is always there within us.

It just gets clouded over with all that other turmoil.

And so learning to gravitate towards that place of peace is a practice.

It's an exercise.

It's a discipline.

But as we move towards it,

We become more peaceful.

We become more present.

We're able to see the beauty even underneath the outer conflict.

We can see how it all fits together as part of a whole.

It's funny that we often tend to repeat patterns of experience.

And it's often because we're trying to change the outer world rather than shifting the inner world.

And so we have a relationship that is having trouble,

And so maybe we leave it,

And then we find someone else,

And yet then we have the same problem in that next relationship,

Or we have a job that we have certain troubles with,

And we leave it,

And yet we end up having the same troubles.

And that's often because we have these patterns within us that are going to continue to play out in the outer world.

And we think that it is a result of the outer world instead of looking within and seeing that it's a result of the inner world.

And this is why it is so important to move towards that place of radical accountability,

Of taking complete responsibility for ourselves and our experiences,

And having the discipline to take responsibility for all that we experience,

To look inside and see what we can learn from each experience,

Even though it might be something that is painful or that we don't like or don't want.

As we make space for all that we experience,

Instead of trying to change it,

It moves us towards that place of stillness,

Of acceptance,

Of softening.

This is the true meaning of surrender,

Is to put down all of our defense mechanisms,

To stop fighting the river,

And to just flow with it.

And at first it might be pretty rocky,

But over time it gets smoother and smoother.

The more we surrender,

The more we make space for all of that,

And the more we move towards that place of peacefulness within.

As I said,

Often this inner turmoil is a result of the impressions from the various traumas and difficult experiences that we've had.

I'll share a quote from Hazrat Anaya Khan that speaks to this dynamic.

Man brings unhappiness upon himself by holding in his hands the clouds of bad impressions which fall as a shadow upon his soul.

Once a person is able to clear from his mind,

By whatever process,

The undesirable impressions,

A new power begins to spring from his heart.

This opens a way before him to accomplish all he wishes,

Attracting to him all he requires,

Clearing his path of all obstacles,

And making his atmosphere clear for him to live and move and to accomplish all he wishes to accomplish.

And so this is the work.

It's to begin to recognize these judgments,

These negative impressions that we carry within us that inform our perspective and how we perceive ourselves in reality,

And to systematically clear them,

To clear those obscurations so we can perceive our true nature of love,

Of compassion,

Of wisdom,

Of peace,

So that we can move towards a greater place of detachment as we observe what is occurring in the world around us.

As we've talked about in other classes,

Whatever we focus on will grow stronger in our experience.

And so when we focus on conflict,

Even if we have the intention of trying to change it,

We actually contribute to greater conflict.

When we focus on peace,

The peace within us,

And the peace that is there,

Always present,

Beneath all that occurs in the manifest world of form,

That brings forth greater peace.

The only way to bring greater peace into the world is to cultivate this level of peace within ourselves.

Focus on the silence beneath all of the noise.

Focus on the stillness beneath all of the various sensations.

And as we do that,

The clouds will clear and the sun will shine even brighter.

Sometimes with all of this amazing access we have to facts and information and perspectives from all over the world,

It can be easy to start to feel responsible,

That we are responsible to try to do something to change what we perceive as negative occurrences out in the world.

And yet that urge,

That internal urgency,

Is a form of reactivity that contributes to greater instability,

To greater conflict.

It is not necessary for us to try to save humanity or to try to save the world.

If we can save ourselves,

If we can create this atmosphere of peace,

Of touching into our true nature and grounding in that space,

If we can become whole,

That is enough.

So if you will,

Let us practice.

Please find a comfortable and stable posture for meditation.

You can be seated or lying down.

The most important thing is that you have a stable base beneath you that allows you to soften and release all unnecessary tension and holding and guarding.

Once you arrive in your posture,

Bring awareness to the natural movement of the breath.

Observe the breath as it flows in and out.

It might be long or short,

Choppy or smooth,

Shallow or deep.

Simply observe it.

Allow it to be as it is.

Let us recognize it once again.

Cheers!

Thank you!

Ah!

Ah!

Begin abdominal breathing with each inhalation,

Allowing the abdomen to gently expand.

And with each exhalation,

Allowing the abdomen to gently contract.

And with each exhalation,

Allowing the abdomen to gently contract.

As you continue abdominal breathing,

Allow your awareness to gently scan your body.

And with each exhalation,

Release any unnecessary tension from the physical body.

And with each exhalation,

Release any unnecessary tension from the physical body.

Now,

As you continue abdominal breathing,

Bring the awareness to focus in the lower dantian,

The energetic center two to three inches below the umbilicus in the center of the lower abdomen.

And with each exhalation,

Release any unnecessary tension from the upper abdomen.

You can imagine there is a magnet,

A spherical magnet resting in the lower dantian that is drawing all of the awareness to itself from the farthest reaches of the body,

From the hands and the feet,

From the top of the head,

Throughout the legs and the arms,

The torso.

All of the awareness is being drawn to this magnet in the lower dantian.

And with each exhalation,

Release any unnecessary tension from the upper abdomen.

Notice how as the awareness gathers in the lower dantian,

Tension is released from throughout the physical body.

And the mind begins to slow.

O%.

As you focus on the lower dantian,

Notice if there are any sensations,

Fullness or an emptiness,

A warmth.

You can imagine the lower dantian,

So it were a miniature sun,

With its own gravitational field,

Generating its own light.

You can see the lower dantian,

The lower dantian,

And the lower dantian.

Notice,

As you focus on the sun of your lower dantian,

There is a stillness,

A silence,

A light.

Notice the peacefulness.

Notice the peacefulness.

Feel the stillness.

Listen to the silence.

See the light.

See the light.

See the light.

Now,

Bring awareness to the felt sense of the body as a whole.

And observe the stillness and the silence and the light that pervades every cell of your physical body.

See the light.

Feel the atmosphere around your physical body.

Observe the stillness in the air.

Observe the silence beneath all sounds.

Feel the light that lies beneath all manifest form.

See the light.

See the light.

Bring the awareness back to the lower dantian.

Ground the awareness within your physical body and within the lower dantian.

Become aware of the felt sense of the body as a whole.

Feel the stability beneath you,

Supporting you,

And holding you up.

Feel the air around you in which you are immersed like a fish in water.

When you are ready,

Maintain your awareness grounded in the stillness and silence and light within.

As you gently and slowly begin to open your eyes,

Taking in the world around you,

All of the impermanent manifestations of form and light.

This stillness is like a pond,

A body of water at rest.

When it is still,

The silt settles and we can see clearly.

When we observe conflict or suffering in the world around us,

And we act from a place of reactivity,

Of wanting to change it,

It's like seeing a body of water with silt stirred up and trying to splash the silt out of the way to make it clear.

All that does is stir the water up more.

If instead,

We focus on that stillness within,

The water will settle of its own accord and we can see clearly its true nature.

Throughout the day,

Keep coming back to your breath.

Coming back to the still,

Soft place of light within.

With practice,

It becomes easier to ground in that awareness.

Thank you all for joining me today.

Reviews

Thank you Thomas, I loved this talk and the meditation about detachment, I feel I am able to detach from the human conflict in the world for the most part. It's not that I am unsympathetic to the suffering of others I just believe we are all on our own journey of learning, so it is easier to feel that most of what happens to people has a purpose. Including myself. Where I run into turmoil is when I witness cruelty to animals. In these cases I find myself wanting and needing to do something. I try very hard to leave anger and judgment out of it, because I believe what you said about stirring the water. But I am not always successful. Any advice on navigating these feelings?
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This is one I will repeat often!! Sooo full of important and helpful wisdom and guidance to access my center of stillness and light within. Especially when I get caught up in the conflict and disharmony of the outer world. To return to my own grounded centered peace and light and stillness. Wow. Thank you 🙏🏼 Thomas!! 💗

Thank you Thomas✨

Absence of conflict allowing presence and peace within.✨🐢🙏🏻

Peace within at all times. Remembering.

Many thanks again Thomas for all your profound teachings and for sharing your peace, your wisdom to the world 🙏💞

That was simply amazingThank you, Thomas.

🙏🏻🕊🙏🏻

Thank you Thomas. As always you remind us how to flow with the river, not fight it. It’s true that we can’t change the world but we can each help with our own offerings of peace ✨ 🙏✨

‘Let it begin with me’… 💞

Thank you Thomas. Excellent session.