Ending Prolonged Wars with Others
Becoming free to breathe fully again
“A prolonged war finally destroys the victors too.”
~ Paulo Coelho, Warrior of the Light
Somewhere along the way, we learned that “being right” was the most important thing whenever conflict arose. But what if our need to be right eventually destroys us? What if it becomes poison in our systems that limits our expansiveness, experiences, and potential joy for the rest of our lives?
This could be holding on to any experience where you were the victim and someone else was in the wrong and hurt you. This could be memories of political wrongdoings. This could be painful experiences in school, family, relationships, or jobs.
It is any story we hold where we label the other as mean, hurtful, narcissistic, soul-less, ignorant, etc. While what we are saying is true, every time we tell the story or think about it in this way, the poison runs through us again.
The Tantric Path
The foundation of the tantric path is living in full union of the Divine & Physical. In this instance, our connection with our Divinity is what gives us the perspective to release our judgment of others. Our thoughts about them stop being so limiting and we can free that part of our mind to let it flow in the infinite again.
How does this work? How does embracing our Divinity help us to let go of these “judgment knots” in our minds?
Omniscience.
This word loosely means “Knowing everything”. The Divine knows all - every little corner of our experience.
Within tantric teachings, we are by design, limited in this way (avidya). In order to have a human experience, we are not meant to know everything. We are meant to experience life with the knowledge needed for our unique incarnation.
Suffering comes not because of our limited knowledge… but when we think that our limited knowledge is complete. This is what keeps us bound and even more limited than before. This is what lets us simplify all past experiences into simple equations where WE ARE RIGHT and THEY ARE WRONG. It is only our limited understanding that even allows these ideas to live in our minds.
Therefore, every time we think about the wrongdoings, we are deepening the pain of ignorance and our limited experience of being here.
Embracing Divine Knowledge
We are currently watching the TV show, LOST. It’s a story of the survivors of a plane crash on an island somewhere in the Pacific. If you’ve never seen it (it’s an old show), you can imagine the dramas that ensue between all of these people with all of their baggage from their past while they navigate in fear, physical discomfort, and missing their regular lives.
Initially, we see the extremes of the characters’ behaviours. We meet the doctor who helps everyone - even to his detriment. We see the guy who hates everyone and is stealing the belongings of the crash victims. We see the people who don’t trust anyone and therefore act in antisocial ways…
The show is designed to have “Bad Guys” that we can hate and “Good Guys” that we can root for. This kind of drama has been programmed into us through Hollywood our whole lives.
But as the episodes progress, we learn a little about each person’s past. We learn about what broke them as children. We learn about painful challenges that changed them - perhaps into versions of themselves that aren’t really them.
And what happens? We start to like the “Bad Guys” a little. We understand them. We empathize with them. They become “more human”.
We realize that the “Good Guys” have difficult pasts too. They stop being such heroes and start to become real people trying hard to do the right thing.
We begin to gain “Divine Knowledge” of each person.
With every story revealed, our judgement of their current behaviour becomes less and less. We no longer watch the show with such strong judgements of the characters and can just watch the show with a free-flowing mind.
Going Forward
What would your life be like going forward without any judgement of anyone from your past? What if we realized that if we had Divine Knowledge of them, we would just watch them (or remember them) with a free-flowing mind?
What if there were no “knots” in your mind that restricted your thoughts about people?
Would your life feel lighter? Would you be able to be more expansive?
What if there was no such thing as “Being Right”… and we just lived a new day each day allowing the past to simply be things that happened on earlier parts of my journey?
And today was allowed to be a brand new day.
If you would like to know more about my online courses, and published books, or how to work with me 1-1, please visit KATRINABOS.CA.
This was so beautiful, Katrina 💜