Can you imagine a world in which there was no duality, with no differences?  Neither starve nor fat could exist, because everything would be perfection. Everything would blend together in beautiful, wondrous harmony, so that nothing protruded enough for you to notice it. There would be no more to do than relax, sink into and become the harmony of the spheres, with waves of peace and joy washing through you.

 

 

Without up, there can be no down.  Without tardy, there is no punctual.  Without the concept of difference, there can be no wrong or right, no faithless or faithful, no success and no failure, nor any other variation or degrees of any kind. No judgments.  All that is, is perfect. The very existence of opposites implies the absence of balance. Think of a see-saw with one end on the ground, the other wildly in the air. This is up and down.  Then think of the same see-saw at rest at a point of equilibrium, poised in harmony and balance.

 

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 In one world, how can there be people who never have enough food, and others battling their weight? Can you imagine how the weight-battlers would be understood by those who never have enough to eat?

They could not understand it.

Could you imagine there could be any understanding in the mind of an overeater, of the depression and grimness of seeing others die of hunger?

Brothers, there cannot be.  One inkling of their plight would make him rise up and say, “An end to all misery and suffering!  Myself, I have enough. Let me share with the brothers who do not.”

 

 

That this kind of disparity can exist in the same world, is only understandable when we reflect that the different parts of the Self are not communicating. They are denying themselves, imagining they are different and separate from one another. You focus relentlessly on how you are different, by gender, size, shape, color, wealth, looks, all superficial things, all related to the world of form.

 

 

How many of our ills come from this horrible tunnel vision which keeps us imagining differences between our brothers and our Self! Let me not be so relentlessly focused on propping up the feeble ego. Oh God, spare me this. Enlarge my vision that I may see every brother as myself. Let me take as good and loving care of each brother, as I would take of myself, as though each brother were really me.

Imagine the world you could have

 

See instead the devastation that has ensued from the belief in difference.

 

On the one hand, rampant greed and overconsumption; on the other, hunger and starvation. There are the permanently dispossessed, and all those whose lives are ended or upended because of fighting.

 

This is the world in which you see yourselves as separate.

Is it not time to stop this now?

As an experiment, seeing all brothers as one could hardly be worse that the present, out-of-control system. Let us try this experiment. Since there is nothing to lose, since we can hardly make anything worse, this is not gambling.  The result is assured.

You could live together in peace and harmony, all caring for all, sharing the earth’s resources and nourishing the earth.

Who would not want this?

 

Forgive difference

 

What is fighting but an extreme way of emphasizing differences? Forgive any idea of differences right now. Throw comparisons out of the window. Let there be no more black or white, rich or poor, male or female, gay or straight, married or not, real or fake, clever or stupid, all the myriad little ways of looking at brothers and seeing only differences.

You must be vigilant in this, as all your perception is primed to notice differences. Be patient in this.

Where I now find differences, let me instead perceive oneness. We are all cut from the same cloth, members of one family. Our fates are intertwined.  I cannot have safety and security, if you do not.  If you experience distress and fear, I cannot find peace. When I realize this, and internalize it, I will be unable to act or support any action that threatens the safety and comfort of any other brother.

Inclusion is always better than exclusion