no opposition, no battle, no victory

truth is all-inclusive. reality has no opposite. illusion can only be illusion.

no battle is possible between truth and falsity. the real needs no defending, no wining; it's already real.

the ebb and flow between "good" and "bad," "war" and "peace," "freedom" and "slavery" in human society only denotes the collective level of truth-awareness regarding the fundamental sameness of our true identity. acknowledging this reality gives rise to the natural and spontaneous expression of love, peace and happiness; ignoring it brings fear, conflict and suffering.

even in a world in the grip of ignorance, truth hasn't "lost" because it is utterly impossible for that which is real to be displaced by that which is not real. it hasn't "won" either - it simply remains true.

the "battle" between truth and falsity can only take place in the imagination of the human psyche. one can become more or less aware of truth, but reality remains intact in either case. if everyone knows it, it's true. if nobody does, it's still just as true.

on a societal level, a tremendous amount of energy is required to maintain the structures of ignorance in place. by contrast, truth will always remain true and emerges of its own once the mechanisms of resistance break down or are no longer seen as credible. as long as the machine is running smoothly and continuously, however, illusion can hold sway over the masses.

why not? as long as the reel is spinning, we can immerse ourselves in the movie and practically forget we're sitting in a dark room surrounded by a bunch of other people, silently staring up at a screen. but the mechanisms better work; if the sound fails, the projector breaks down or someone in the audience causes a commotion - the spell's broken.

similarly, a continuous process of distraction is required for that which is self-evident and true to remain out of human awareness. we can blame the abundance of distractions in society on "THEM" or we can blame it on human nature, but who cares where responsibility lies? to dwell on that is simply a waste of time.

the object here is not to hunt down whoever's responsible and make them pay. righteous indignation and the desire for vengeance are some of the ego's juiciest positionalities and only serve to further entrench us in unconscious reactivity and misery. playing the "victim" role is just another excuse to avoid responsibility and justify squandering our actual potential.

it's sufficient to realize that while one is presented with ample opportunities for distraction and idleness, the choice to bypass these convenient, familiar diversions and reach for what's eternally true is always available. the transition from a life of cyclical discontent to one grounded in fulfillment, peace and the simple joy of being is not only a real option but represents the natural state of existence.

when we're no longer enthralled by the pictures on the screen, a return to the awareness of truth is inevitable. one need not enter into battle with unreal projections because doing so merely keeps one entangled in them, endowing them with apparent validity. once they're recognized as illusory, there's obviously no need to oppose them.

indeed, fighting against illusion implies adherence to it, just as a man screaming "you're not real! i refuse to believe you're real!!" at a character on a movie screen suffers from a hallucination despite his resistance to it.

in this sense, what's conducive to the growth of spiritual awareness is not wining battles over the particulars of one's life - which at the time may seem real enough - by engaging in direct confrontation, but to rise above limitations, bringing about recontextualization and transcension through a simple yet powerful shift in perspective - a shift that takes place in and of itself when we cease to resist illusion and choose to be inspired by truth.

the counter-growth effect

as one's physical body is incresingly affected by the energy shifts associated with spiritual development (which in itself is characterized by the gradual undoing of the ego), the ego is quick to grab hold of seemingly extraordinary feelings and experiences and interpret them so as to attribute undue importance to itself.

"see?" it says, "that was VERY special. when have you ever felt anything like that? probably no one you know has ever experienced anthing like it." if these words hold sway, spiritual growth is being stunted or reversed in the name of ego inflation.

at certain stages, spiritual progress begins to effect strong changes in one's level of consciousness. this inevitably yields "extraordinary" experiences, which are actually only extraordinary from a previous standpoint and indicate nothing more than growth.

naturally, the ego will claim responsibility for these experiences. if this tactic isn't seen through, one can get lost in the delusion that one is more important than others and plummet back into the ego's gravitational force.

from a spiritual standpoint, it's helpful to remember that one will never be any more or less important than one ever was, or anyone or anything that ever was, is or will be. if notions such as "more," "less," "importance," "deserving," "wining" and "losing" can be put aside, spiritual growth will have much more space in which to operate.

wining & losing

gangaji says: "wining and losing have nothing to do with the truth of who you are."

whalt whitman says: "battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won."

what does this mean? that what we feel, what we think, what we do and the outcome of our actions has no impact, doesn't change or in any way reflect upon what we really are.

we come off as a jerk in a conversation? we're still what we are, no less. we come off as the life of the party? we're still what we are, no more.

what we are already exists in its totality. the possibility doesn't exist of it being defined, formed or changed by the fluctuating conditions of our lives.

what does change depending on what we think and feel is our mental concept or mental interpretation of who we are.

the outcomes of our actions will also affect our mental projection of who we are, and the mental projection others have of us, but again these have no effect upon the already complete truth of what we are, which is beyond a mere mental concept.