Are you old enough to remember the billboard in this photo? At the time it came out, the Vietnam war had been raging for ages, and was showing no signs of slowing down.
I was just a kid back then. But I still remember my reaction on seeing this image. It was probably like most peoples’ response: At first I was enormously relieved. Elated, even. Somebody had ended the war!
But then, as I got beyond the headline and saw the sentence below it, I felt let down and betrayed, as if I had been tricked.
Had the first statement been true, it would’ve meant that our wise and noble leaders had come together to implement some sort of treaty arrangement, thereby ending the hostilities in that region on humanity's behalf. But no. Nothing had changed politically. World leaders were not yet interested in stopping the carnage.
The second sentence brought home the uncomfortable reminder that we ourselves have always held the true power and the true responsibility to say no to war. If we truly don’t want it, that is.
Beyond enemy consciousness
I bring all this up, of course, as events in the Ukraine escalate, and the predictable drumbeat for World War Three swings into action in the halls of power around the world. But do we, the humans of Earth, want WWIII? Does anybody?
And yes, this is a deeply relevant spiritual question.
Because, at this point in the transition from fear to love, the world has already firmly established itself in the frequencies of divine love. There's no going back. Energetically, the world made of love is already here, in other words, and its profound beauty can be tapped into and experienced on an energetic level.
We’re just not getting the manifest form of it in our daily physical reality yet. So what we’re seeing here, during this uncomfortable ‘space between two realities’ phase, is the last big attempt to hang onto a world made of fear. And they’re not playing around. They’re pulling out the big guns, literally.
So this is our big moment.
If you’re on a spiritual path, this pivotal in-betweener time is why you were born. Because you, and I, and many many others, hold the power to swing this thing...potentially. If we truly want to.
If you’re on a spiritual path, this pivotal in-betweener time is why you were born. Because you, and I, and many many others, hold the power to swing this thing...potentially.
And no, I’m not talking about peace marches, or, God help us, writing to your congressman. Or any other form of outwardly focused action.
You are a divine being, even with all your unfinished business. Even with your blind spots and quirks and baggage. You are limitlessly divine right now. Everybody is. But not everybody knows this about themselves. Not everybody has received this radiant news broadcast. So we are here, you and I, to know it on their behalf.
So spiritual activism therefore looks a little different from all the protests and other events happening around the world. Those things are tremendously important of course, but the spiritual role here is a little bit more on the Gandhi side of things. Because we know who and what we truly are. (Even if we struggle to believe it sometimes.) And what we are...holds the potential for limitless power.
So what does this look like? How do we tap into our own latent power?
We go within. To the space where we’re ALL connected. To the incredibly beautiful frequency field of oneness that runs through all things. And in this space of pure divine potency, each one of us willingly volunteers to erase and release our own attachment to enemy consciousness. (At least, for this moment.)
Each of us taking full personal responsibility for everywhere in our own life that we hold the tendency to judge and blame, and make enemies of ‘others.’ And we just drop that grudge. By choice. Even if we're right. Even if those 'others' are baddies who deserve retribution.
Why do it? Because enemy consciousness is weak. It only brings more of itself. Dropping the grudge, on the other hand, is infinitely powerful. It's where truly lasting, positive transformation comes from. Because it's on the same frequency wavelength as divine love. The same wavelength as miracles.
This, in fact, is what it means to be the change. We want peace, so we volunteer to BE peace. We want an end to hostilities, so we end our own hostility.
And this willingness to take personal responsibility, is where we touch into the kind of power Gandhi was showing us; the kind of power John and Yoko were talking about on that billboard.
Because in this space of oneness, momentarily cleansed of our own belief in the need for attack and defense...here, each one of us IS infinitely powerful. And in this hallowed space, having emptied ourselves of attack, we are able then to rest in the bright, clear possibility of a world where war simply doesn’t exist.
Hang on a second, you might be thinking. Everybody knows the human race is not capable of a world without war.
But is that really true? Is that REALLY true?
Rest, in this radiant field of oneness, and just let that question hang unanswered for a while. The true answer, when it comes, might surprise you.
Meanwhile, you’ve dropped a luminous spiritual penny of new possibility into the collective human pond: A world without war. You’ve sent divine ripples of beauty outward, throughout the entire universe. Ripples of infinite peace. Ripples of new possibility.
Others will feel those ripples. And they will take whatever actions they feel inspired to take, toward peace. It’s actually none of your business what they do. Your primary work is conducted within.
(Your inner work does not preclude physical activism, by the way, if you feel drawn to that. Gandhi himself was all about the physical action. But it rested on a solid foundation of divine spiritual power, which always comes first.)
Claiming peace
To live in a world that cherishes peace as its priority, we have to claim it as a possibility first. This is not just random wishing. This is knowing that permanent peace can be...even if you don't yet know how. But you have to be able to imagine it.
If you can’t imagine it, there’s no room for it to land in our physical world. Because you're insisting that it can't possibly be so.
We ourselves have to allow it and invite it into our own experience. We have to believe it’s possible. Nobody can do that for us. Hence the sneaky second sentence on that billboard.
So. Back to Ukraine: What actually WOULD happen if they gave a war and nobody came?
(I was not old enough to be a hippie back in the day, by the way. I just wore popular slogans like this one as a fashion statement on the back of my jeans jacket.) But still, the question itself is worth contemplating.
What if nobody falls for the rhetoric this time? What if nobody volunteers to die or kill all those ‘enemy others,’ just to keep the creaky old fear machine trundling, well past its sell by date?
In this world made of love (which is already here) war is not even a thing. But we ourselves have to bring forth that energetic reality, from the inside out. We ourselves are the ones who have to actively choose it. Invite it. Imagine it, and know that it can be. And in so doing, we birth it into physical existence on this planet.
And if we don’t do it?...well, the learning curve gets a lot steeper from here on out.