Two Ways of Fighting

Whenever we speak of fighting, we generally refer to fighting through violence. Something is there menacing us in some way and we feel the need to crush and annihilate it. We may see this menace inside or outside of us. However, menace as a way of seeing and interpreting our reality always takes root within ourselves. Fighting that comes out of the feeling of being menaced, is always a way of reacting instead of responding. The difference? To react means to be governed by conditioned and automatic behavior. I may have the impression of acting consciously while in the midst of reacting, but that is not the case. I am being controlled by belief and emotional patterns that I am unaware of, but that are nonetheless governing my thoughts and actions.

I can, for instance, feel menaced and offended by the words of someone else. A typical reaction would be to strike back in an equally offensive way through either words or actions (or both). Another typical reaction would be not to do anything, and to sulkingly retreat. In both cases I act as a victim of the situation, as I have given the words of another power to define me. Thus, reacting instead of responding first and foremost means to dishonor and devalue myself, as I allow myself to be at the mercy of external factors. Instead of letting my inner being be my source of definition and guidelines for my life, I yield to the definitions and ideas of others. Doubt and insecurity govern my experience as I do not allow myself to trust into my own inner guidance. The more insecure I feel, the more I will tend to seek security through harsh judgments and mental inflexibility, through categorically rejecting what seems wrong and bad to me. I see the evil outside of me and try to get rid of it by rejecting and eventually destroying it: the essence of violence.

Violence is all about fear, ignorance and feelings of powerlessness. I feel threatened by a force I cannot really comprehend and feel the urge to annihilate it. In doing so, I am not aware that I´m never really separate from the people and objects I encounter and that all my thoughts, feelings and actions are magnetic by their very nature. The thoughts and beliefs through which I see my world and act withing it, are those through which I create my reality, or my perception of reality, is created. As long as I see the world as threatening and dangerous, my life will be primarily survival-based – flight or fight reactions to everything that seems to oppose and resist me. I will divide the world into evil (what potentially threatens me) and good (what potentially serves me and be determined to fight evil wherever I encounter it. I thus turn myself into a permanent battle, also with myself, as I have to suppress my heartfelt desires for union, compassion and oneness in order to fit into the pattern of reality I have submitted to. That is fighting as a reactive cycle, out of unconsciousness.

Is there a different way of fighting besides? There is fighting for a cause, not only against it. But that is an ambiguous concept. Even if we are in the view of fighting for the sake of something, we will face forces resisting our attempts that we need to fight against.

However, what if the cause of our fighting simply is being ourselves? The love, joy and creative force we truly are deep inside of us, this inner peace that always resides withing us, that we can actively feel and experience at each moment, simply by giving it space? Would we still have to confront an enemy to be crushed and defeated?

To be able to answer this question, we must first be clear about what it is that keeps us from being authentically ourselves. The answer is simple: Ideas. Ideas coming from fear and the illusion of scarcity, lack and not-enough. Ideas about ourselves, the world and our reality that we have taken on from our parents and surroundings and that since then have shaped our experiences. They control us as long as we believe in the power of fear; as long as we believe that there are obligations we have to submit to, as long as we believe in there not being enough and in our need to fight and struggle for the little that is available to us. This equally implies to material goods as well as “goods” such as recognition and attention.

They control us as long as there is still a part within our consciousness holding on to believe that we are not the masters, but the victims of our experience to which we have to yield and adapt.

How can I be frei of these limiting ideas and concepts? Do I have to declare war on this part of me that holds on to them, to try and forcefully defeat it in order to see the truth? Is there something inside of me that is not as it should be, that I do have to annihilate, to get rid of?

No. This would mean to fall back into the role of the victim, in a desperate attempt to defeat an overly powerful opponent. In this postition, I cannot help but be weak and attackable. I feel threatened in my own power and security and thus have to prove by force to myself and to others, that I am well in control of everything. Whatever I resist, always has power over me, as this is exactly the signal I´m sending out at that moment: no phenomenon ever has the power to control me unless I decide to see and interpret is as menacing or dangerous in any way.

Instead?

See through the illusion. Recognize that you have given power to ideas born of thinking based on fear, scarcity and powerlessness and that this is the reason why experiences based on fear, scarcity and powerlessness play such a major role in your life.

Become aware that nothing more is needed than your choice to no longer do that to initiate a profound shift in your life.

Clarity and discernment are much more powerful arms for inner freedom than anything based on defense and resistance. And they do cost you much less effort and energy.

Resistance is what consumes your energy. Seeing yourself obliged to continually fight back forces eager to harm you, staying in alert mode all the time wastes great amounts of energy without truly serving you in any way.

Simply become still and listen. Listen to all the ado within you: the noisy thoughts trying to convince you of your flaws and imperfections, trying to persuade you of your need for protection and your need to be hard and blunt to make it in this world etc.

Listen to it all without paying much attention to them and feel the feelings they are connected with: fear, tension, insecurity, anger, disappointement, frustration, maybe hatred. Welcome them and accept them the way they are, but do not give them a lot of meaning. They are nothing but energy wanting to flow through you and the more openly you welcome them, the faster and easier they will transform within you. Listen and feel through it all into stillness, your inner stillness.

It´s here that the truth of your being resides, not in your noisy thoughts fed by fear and drama. It´s here that your infinite source of bliss and peace resides, ready and available for you at each moment.

Be the peaceful warrior: fight with the force of recognition. Recognising yourself as already being the love, the perfection, the inner peace we all are striving for. It is inside of you, within your being. Every type of menace you perceive is essentially deception, because your true being cannot be hurt or diminshed in any way. You can be hurt on the level of your body and your emotions, but these are fleeting experiences if you don´t allow to define you.

Fight not for peace, simply remember the peace within you. Your arms are clarity, courage and compassion.

Clarity to see through the illusion of your false realities that you have identified yourself with.

The courage to let go of these illusions and to trust your own inner truth.

And compassion that widens your heart and opens your eyes for what is truly meaningful. It is important to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it is equally important to remember time and again that truth is beyond any concept of right or wrong, beyond all thoughts in true beingness.

Every way of fighting, even that centred on peace, bears the risk to get caught up in dogmatism. Clarity and discernment are powerful swords. They have the potential to cut through the illusion and to shed light on what is obscure or blurred. But they also have the potential to degenerate into destructive judgmentalism and rigidity.

Your heart and its infinite compassion will always lead you back to the truth of love. Compassion also means compassions with yourself, your pain, your inner conflicts, all of your emotions. Allow love the space to act as what it truly is: the strongest, most transformative power in all of creation.