Stop the War

When we step out of the battles, we see anew, with eyes unclouded by longing.
the Tao te Ching
The unawakened mind tends to make ware against the way things are. To follow a path wth heart, we must understand the whole process of making war, within ourselves and without, how it begins and how it ends. War’s roots are in ignorance.
Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart, p. 22
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we talk of war
and more war
a war on drugs
a war on Christianity
a war against crime
a war against those who do not look
or believe
or act
the way we do

we even make war against ourselves
against those things within
we would deny or eradicate

 our solution to everything it seems
is war

it is the suppression of whatever that we believe limits or harms us
through violent acts of will

and so we do violence
on ourselves

we dislike ourselves
we numb ourselves with drugs
we drive ourselves into anxiety and despair
and we feel angry and alone
and we do violence to others

we cannot stay in that angry and deficit
place
someone must pay
someone must pay

and so we spew hate on FaceBook
and so we cheer as a person from another religion
or another race
is battered, or displaced, or even killed
so we nurture hate and fear
and support oppression
and we pick up guns

O Sacred One
Help us
We need your love
We need to feel it, know it
We need to rest in it
And let it heal our own internal emptiness
Heal the anger and hate,
even our anger and hate of ourselves

We need to share it
We need to stop the wars