There is no enemy!

 

In the movie Matrix, when its principal character Neo realizes the real nature of the matrix and accepts the truth about himself, he says to himself “there is no enemy” while carrying on a fist fight with Agent Smith. So also while thwarting away multiple personal boundary violations, I say with a smile, “there is no enemy.”

I can just hear you ask me despairingly “What the hell! Are you telling me that punk who cursed at me and is trying to stab me in the back is not my enemy??” I am repeating it again, “there is no enemy.” What is bringing forth this kind of foolish idealism may be your next query?

Well, most of us believe in God. I can start the explanation only with the base of spirituality, sorry. One core assumption in most religions is that this universe is replete with the presence of the One. Also that man is at his essence one with God. Accepting that as the fundamental truth, I have arrived at my aforementioned conclusion.

If everyone is one with God at his essence, then that must be our true abiding nature.  Therefore all are good. Yes, I also make that other vital assumption that God is good. At any moment, a human being is just a cluster of body, thoughts and feelings plus as we earlier presumed, the spirit of God. Now we all feel that we have an abiding “I-ness.” Whether at age 5 or age 50, I feel that I am me. Hope that is true for all of you. Since this I-ness is a constant, it must arise from something that is a constant as well. We know that the body we have now is not the one we had at birth. Also the thought we have at one moment is not the one in the next moment. Feelings are the impact of thoughts on body i.e. physical sensations. With the ever-changing nature of body and thought established, we have no doubt about the fleeting nature of feelings. So that brings us to the conclusion that our I-ness arises from the spirit of God because that is all that is left, right?

So here I go with some more crazy thinking: I am me because I am in essence one with God. This also holds good for you. Therefore, we are all good and share the same essence. This is our real nature. However we know that our behaviour really sucks at times. But this behaviour is just an external manifestation of thoughts and feelings. We have already concluded that thoughts and feelings are just fleeting phenomena. Therefore all our stupidity is just a passing cloud. In essence, we are all good – you, I, the whole truckload of people out there. Ergo, we are sharing one essence, full of goodness, and therefore there is no enemy. Only behaviour that really doesn’t work and that is okay because it passes. So again, I repeat, there is no enemy. Yes, I said it again. Please feel free to hit me with the nasty comments.

Better to be happy than right!

Pain is gain?

 

A sense of foreboding engulfed me.

With a heavy heart that cannot see,

I fumbled and tumbled to flee.

Soon darkness spread across the sea.

She was buried alive and so she wept

In the tomb of rationality whilst she slept.

Her cries were muffled, secrets kept

Her appearance grew more unkempt.

 

She lay still in the prison of unawareness

With no space for her ebullient playfulness.

She dared not reveal her tears

Or any of her pitiful lame fears.

Yet they could not wipe her out;

With her little resources she fought.

From her courage was wrought

The blade of pain that struck

Ceaselessly until they could not ignore.

It was no longer like before.

Now her silence was no more;

Her voice steadily grew into a roar.

The blade cut swiftly through reason

Pouring forth emotions exiled for treason.

The world stood still as she spoke

Thunderously through the clouds

Of confused thinking.

The condemnation was swift;

Between companions the rift

Was complete and love sent adrift

Upon the logs of piety

To appease an unknown deity,

Where it vanished in the sea of sadness.

As the blade grew no less sharp,

A scar that they could not wrap

Bled profusely through the polite crap

Of social etiquette and cultural trap

That the world felicitated with abandon.

 

There was no running away

As she beckoned now and then

Relentlessly and I heeded.

I peeked at her with reluctance

Approaching her with prudence

Initially shrinking with horror

From the crimson red dark terror.

With perseverance I realized

Her beauty and compelling reality.

Every time I saw her

My heart grew softer

Until it gave way to love.

With this renewed tenderness

I gazed upon her and held her close,

Longing to be one with her.

We stayed for eternity in our embrace

Knowing that she had my own face,

Was the living embodiment of my pain,

Until all that hurt bloomed into blissful gain.

Heaven on earth

 

Love, acceptance, forgiveness and gratitude are the ways in which we keep ourselves healthy. These are not great qualities that we want to foster to earn our place in heaven. These are living realities that we must shape in our lives for us to have the best of health physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually in the here and now. These are necessities that we cannot do without.

When a situation arises and we respond to it with an attitude of acceptance, the body does not needlessly go into a fight-flight mode. What does this mean? Usually whenever we deem a situation as not being in our favour, our body senses danger and the sympathetic nervous system is aroused. This is the part of our nervous system that is activated when we are in a state of stress or dis-ease. Our perspiration, heart rate, respiration rate, skin temperature, blood pressure all rise. Energy is released as we go into a state of alertness and our digestive system slows down. Our body prepares itself for either a battle or for running away. Either way, we are releasing adrenaline and such hormones that prime our body for action.

When we sense that the danger has passed and we are safe, our parasympathetic nervous system starts operating thus renewing our depleted resources and repairing our worn out body. However when we are in a constant state of resistance to whatever is happening in our life, in and out of daily arguments, there is no such rest periods for our body to renew itself. We are then in a state of constant activation of the sympathetic nervous system and our body is in a perpetual state of stress. Ultimately this wears the body down and we crash either physically or mentally or both. Migraines, backaches, anxiety, depression etc. are all various ways in which this dis-ease of the body and mind manifests itself. The way out is to face each moment with grace so that we can avert disease.

What you tell yourself each moment, determines how healthy you are eventually. So stay tuned in the frequency of love, acceptance, forgiveness and gratitude because these keep your body and mind in the pink of health.