The real battlefield is within the self. Externally a situation may demand involvement with the motions of physical battle, even if it is just speaking your mind externally, but nothing will change if that which is within the consciousness of the individual does not changes. Yet one person’s change can affect thousands, even millions, because his or her consciousness determines the responses of all around. Imagine then if a hundred people genuinely change their consciousness.

There are places and times where we are confronted with a physical manifestation of the internal conflicts in the consciousness of the mass mind of humanity. The individual wanting peace, wanting to live a spiritually founded life is in turmoil as there seems to be an attacker. What must he do? Gandhi taught us nonviolence. A non-violent battle is one where there is no violation, meaning the person engaged in it sees he is just acting out manifestations of unconsciousness in a field of illusions, yet created in oneness with all. He sees no otherness, thus is not violating other. There are no victims and no attackers. Yet at the same time he sees that those he attacks are his own self projected, and those who attack him are his self projected, and that the root of these manifestations is his own consciousness.

And so that is where he turns to make peace, and brings it forth in his words and actions wherever possible, seeing others not as other but as extensions of self into the world of manifestation. Where it seems he must fight externally he does so with wisdom, love and compassion, remembering the suffering of all “others” is his own. He strives to survive externally so that he may live another day to bring by intention yet more light and the dawn of awakening to himself and his fellows everywhere. He strives to have mercy on his brothers and sisters, to give them a chance to awaken, and in battling them do what he can merely to prevent their harm of others, remembering that all combatants are merely magnetized to each other’s inner issues, and that if it were not for those issues, peace would reign.

What goes around comes around. What you are will be reflected back to you in the world of manifestation. There is no escaping this, which is fortunate, or else you would never have any motivation to change and become a brighter light in the world. Ignorance is not bliss, it is hell. Just look around you. All the world’s troubles are born of ignorance of self, ignorance of others, ignorance of real value, ignorance of the price we pay for not caring, for not loving, for not forgiving. That is the core issue: worth. Outer conflict comes from inner conflict and ignorance of worth – of self and all. The battles it produces inevitably always diminish the world around us, manifesting that inner desolation outwardly.

Another distinction to make is how spirituality and materialism relate to this issue. When we blame others and material events and conditions we are being materialistic. When we take inner responsibility, heal and change with an uplifted spiritual position, we are basing our lives on spirit. This is the technical crux of the issue: what creates your reality, and what reality do you want. Either it’s someone else’s fault and a cost to you (materialism), or it can be to your (spiritual) credit and a gift to all.

Gandhi had it right. Just look at the most basic of human instruction: a little child, unhappy with something, will strike out physically. What do we teach them? “Use your words” to resolve it. Talk it out. Listen. Give and take. Don’t hit. God yes, Gandhi had it right. So did Mom. So simple, so basic.

Ultimately we come to a realization that even to think of others as separate is an act of violence. Non-violence thus must begin within the self, both spiritually and in one’s external actions wherever possible. Only then will violence be ended in the outer world. Only then will we bring the heaven that is available within our hearts into manifestation for ourselves and all.

© 2010, Eric J Tischler. All rights reserved.

One thought that came to mind as I drove home was that I felt out of control. To the material world self being in control is a major theme. Even those of us who think that’s not so, when something like a theft occurs we become upset or angry. As I will always maintain, all negative emotion is about getting someone else to be or do something for us. That’s trying to control your world. We think being in this world is about taking action that will create and maintain our experiences as we wish them to be, but I will point out that external actions are all in the linear realm of thinking, and the linear is the illusion, the temptation to think our world is outside of us and that we must control and patrol it to get or keep what we want.

That is not the case. This is not an external world we live in. It is all generated from within through nonlinear energies, and when the linear gets in the way of those energies things go astray and awry so as to get is to see that what is within us in our consciousness is out of alignment with our truth. The mechanism of the universe is upset when we are upset, i.e., out of order, and thus follow out of order and out of control experiences in our “outer” world. But there is no outer world. It all is an expression/extension of our “inner” non-material realm of activity – our consciousness.

So, why were my arch supports stolen from my car? Well, they weren’t. I had been so involved with my thinking process and project plans that I forgot I had stopped at home to pick up something I was going to return to The Home Depot – a ballast for the fluorescent light in the kitchen. So later when I got home there they were on the bed, giving my more messages “to boot” (pun courtesy the Angels assisting me with this post): my support in this world is not missing as my small self has thought, I merely forgot where I had left it, and that as I simply return “home” to my Truth I will find that I had it all along. That, along with the purpose of getting me to write this post for you and myself. The Divine Ones are so efficient, reflecting the world in a raindrop.

So it’s not about outer control, and we still have our ideal support in this world and will find it in our truth. I would say those were some productive errands I ran today.

© 2009 – 2010, Eric J Tischler. All rights reserved.

When you want a better experience, be in the world but not of it, meaning external events don’t determine your mood. Materail things don’t determine your spirit. You know that what Creates is your spirit. Thus it is necessary to look on and EXPERINECE without condemnation even though you know there are higher external options available. The objective value of the external event is undebatable, so you don’t need to condemn it. What the experience is about is not the other’s behavior, but your own spiritual stance in the face of it. You need to change what is determining the events of your life, and that is your own consciousness. Trying to change others is impractical materialism. Changing yourself so as to create a new expression of your spirit in life is practical spirituality.

Remember always what I teach about negative emotion: it’s always an attempt to get someone else to change, forgetting that your own issues within are what draw events to you to prod you to change your inner workings. You are the puppeteer of your life. You need to change what the hand – your spirit – is doing, not scowl at the puppet. If there’s content in the script you don’t prefer, thank the actors for letting you see it and look within at the script. See their innocence and devotion, and love them for it. Silently thank them whole heartedly. This is a major difference in one’s approach to life.

No, others are not puppets of you, but rather take the approach that your life is the puppet of you spirit. All the puppeteers in your puppet show are glad to follow your spirit-script. Even your enemies are not your enemies but actors in your play, totally and instantly devoted to the script you the author give them in each moment. I repeat: love your players, knowing they are innocent of the scripted role they are playing for you. Thank them in every moment for executing the script so exactingly, knowing that when you give them a rewrite they will respond.

You don’t battle the puppets, but change the script. And if the script includes some “dramatic” scenes now and then, you silently acknowledge how well they were played by the actors and forgive them their fearsome visage. You get to decide if you are going to get hooked by the script, or are you going to remember is all just a play, and that all are innocent and loving servants of spirit’s purpose. If you get hooked by the script then you are putting yourself in the position of a puppet, not the puppeteer/author.

While we work “on” the outer with the inner and envision it being better around us, the real test, the real aim is your inner peace in the face of the outer that may still be facing you – prompting you to change. Spiritual growth is sort of a two phase process: a) change your inner nature so it does not manifest negatives outwardly, and b) change your response to as yet “unimproved” externals so they don’t determine how you feel about them or yourself. The overall effect is a shift of thinking the causes are external to practicing the truth that they are interna. You come from true cause and true nature, respectively. They are both within, meaning spirit, the hand in the puppet of life.

What a great performance!

© 2009 – 2010, Eric J Tischler. All rights reserved.