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.

a few more notes on the ego

the ego's very foundation and means of continuance is the belief in the possibility of a separate, self-contained status. it isolates itself from its context and fails to acknowledge that its existence is wholly dependent on factors that are 100% impersonal.

the ego represents an imaginary boundary. it sits poised between seemingly separate internal and external worlds (only from its arbitrary viewpoint is division perceived) and falsely claims exclusivity over its illusory domain.

it claims authorship and ownership over things that it doesn't - and can't - create or own. this occurs predominantly with thoughts, which the ego is no more responsible for than it is for the functioning of the body at a cellular level.

spiritual ideals don't negate the authenticity of the ego as a final reality merely to be able to state that "there is no truth." obviously, there is a truth. the ego could never exist in the first place if it weren't for the reality of an underlying presence that confuses itself for the object of its focus, feeding the ego's momentum.

to illustrate this last point, plato's cave parable is useful. in it, chained prisoners rendered completely immobile mistakenly believe that they are their own shadows, which are projected on a wall in front of them. their shadows are the most readily apparent aspect of their existence; thus, instead of looking further for subtler existential truths and eventually arriving at the more difficult yet realer aspect of their existance as physical bodies, they devote all of their attention to these projections and remain ignorant to the truth.

similarly, the ego is a projection made possible by our true identity. the event wherein all outward projection temporarily ceases and a turning back of awareness upon itself occurs is what's called self-realization.