The Nature of Conflict - II

Published Tuesday, July 21, 2009 by Dan Gainsford | E-mail this post

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Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict -- alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence. - Dorothy Thompson

This morning in meditation high on a hillside of Thorpe Park in Flagstaff, AZ, I was thinking (my first problem;-) of how it's commonly said that the only true conflict is conflict within. This then leads to the idea that all the conflict we see in the world is simply a reflection of ourselves.

Taking the above quote into consideration, we find that perhaps the only solution to conflict is to find creative alternatives to not only our responses, but also to the way in which we view ourselves. Perhaps it becomes about rejigging the viewshed to not see ourselves as victims, nor to see ourselves as responsible for anything beyond our own soul. The outer world of things and people is just that, the outer world, it is outside of us and although we may be able to dance with it, we will never be in control of what is. We will never be able to lock our expectations into any one outcome or reality since reality is in constant change, in constant motion, or constant e-motion.

I think in realizing the paradox that we have real power while truly having no real power, we may find ourselves again returning to the only dance there really is.. which is the dance of letting go and letting things just be. I'm personally finding that if I can simply sit with myself and let go of not only outside influences, but also of any rigid views of that self itself.. then perhaps I can finally arrive at a place of fluidity with all things around me.

... but this all leads me to cause and effect.. and action reaction...

"If you don't want the effects, don't produce the cause,
what we live by are natural laws." - Granola Funk

peace,
d

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