War? Really?

If you are like me, watching the images coming out of Israel and Gaza is heart-wrenching. It also may bring up anger, judgment, frustration, despair, and fear for the future. How did we get here? As a species, why do we think one of the main ways to solve conflict is through conflict? After countless cycles of violence and interventions, will it ever end since each side believes it has the right to seek vengeance? And what can we do about it?

To explore these questions, we have to understand that humanity is a very young species. The first Homo sapiens were thought to have shown up around 300,000 years ago, which is just a blip in universal time. And we only came out of the hunter-gatherer phase into agricultural villages about 12,000 years ago.

Most of the time we have been around we have lived in a dualistic mind, a mind that sees things through the lens of good and bad, right and wrong. Thousands and thousands of wars, millions upon millions of enslaved people, untold suicides, religious domination, and too many episodes of domestic violence to be numbered have come out of this kind of mind.

We have evolved over the years. We used to think it was okay to own other human beings and women were less than men. We have a long way to go, but maybe, just maybe we are living in a breakthrough time, a time where, because we are technologically hooked up, we are finally seeing the insanity that comes when this old kind of mind is the predominant way we communicate. (As you read this there are around 40 ongoing conflicts in the world ranging from major wars such as in Ukraine and now Israel/Gaza, to drug wars, terrorist insurgencies, ethnic conflicts, and civil wars.) We can also see this divisiveness in politics, where a Republican speaker of the house was ousted because he dared work with the Democrats to keep the government open – and yet compromise is an essential tenet of democracy!

I call it a breakthrough time because life is inviting us to communicate with one another in a way that includes rather than excludes, listens rather than tries to dominate, and realizes connection rather than control is what heals. This is your heart mind, which science has now shown is actually a brain. This kind of mind recognizes the sacredness of every single human being. To the heart mind, it doesn’t matter what the color of your skin is, your socioeconomic level, your sexual orientation, your gender, how you see God, or your political beliefs. Each of us is equal to everyone else and deserves to be respected and accepted for who we are.

The heart mind also realizes we are all in this together living on a tiny jewel of a planet that is dancing through vast oceans of space. It knows the endless addiction to getting, grabbing, dominating, and controlling, which are hallmarks of the dualistic mind, will never bring us the peace we long for. It is only through working together in respect, giving, and caring we will know the healing that is our birthright. It is only by waking up our heart mind that our world will be healed.

Because we haven’t yet collectively learned the art of working together, which is a hallmark of the heart mind, we are living on the brink of extinction. But you can make a difference. You can be a part of the breakthrough that is happening right now. You can learn to use your dualistic mind for the amazing tool it is without being caught in its propensity to compare, judge, and struggle with absolutely everything. And as the clouds in your mind lift, you can rediscover over and over again the intelligence and wisdom of your heart mind.

The invitation is to cultivate time every day where you get to know how your mind operates. And rather than being caught in its propensity to see through the lens of me against you and us against them, invite it home to your heart.

You can catch your mind when it judges somebody whose beliefs are different than yours. You can watch it when it takes sides in an argument, whether it’s with your partner, politicians squabbling, or what is happening in the Middle East. You can choose to respond rather than react.

The more you can see your mind rather than being lost in it, it’s easier to open your heart mind through breathing in and out through the middle of your chest or patting, tapping, or rubbing it.  You can also add a loving-kindness practice or a gratitude practice to your daily life.   Know it is the heart mind that will heal our world.

You may be able to open your heart to the millions of people who are living in terror in the Middle East and the families on both sides who are dealing with great loss.  When I think of Hamas, I feel my chest contract remembering what they did in Israel and are now doing, using defenseless Palestinians as shields. Also, the Israelis asking over a million people to evacuate in 24 hours, and actually killing some of the people who were evacuating makes my heart break.

My outrage is great, but I know that is not what will heal this misery. To keep my heart open to the terrorists and the people who are saying revenge is the only answer I ask, “They were once babies and what happened to them that made them into so uncaring of their fellow human beings?  As Jesus said on the cross, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and Gandhi would all agree. As Stephen Levine would say, “No need to put them out of your heart.”

Although you and I cannot “fix:” what’s happening in the Middle East, we can envision – and practice – using our hearts minds more and more.   We can carry the vision of humanity finally moving beyond its childhood where it has been run mainly by children in adult bodies who are endlessly fighting over who gets to be first. What I’m talking about here is not the quick fix but one person at a time, one experience at a time, the heart mind can become our predominant way of moving through our daily life.

If you think this won’t make a difference, ask yourself which drop of water was not essential in making the oceans. Each moment we choose the intelligence of our heart mind over the reactivity of our dualistic mind, we take humanity another step in its healing. How you move through your daily life makes a difference!!!

We may not see major shifts in our lifetime, but Sister Miriam MacGillis, speaking about how powerful vision is in this time of birth, gives an analogy of planting a date tree in the Middle East. She says that it takes commitment to a greater process to plant a date tree because we will probably never eat any of its fruit. It takes 80 years for the tree to grow roots deep enough to tap into the scarce water that is needed to bear fruit. And during those 80 years, the tree is so buffeted by the forces of nature in that region that most of the time, the tree looks like it’s dying. If we didn’t understand the process, it would be easy to come in and make a judgment about the severity of its condition and cut it down.

If we understand the process, we can make the commitment. You are being asked to plant the date tree of a vision for Earth and for all generations to come. You are being invited to live more and more from your heart mind rather than the dualistic mind that has caused so much suffering on our planet. You are being called to hold the vision that even though it looks like a breakdown time, it is really a breakthrough time.

Will you join me in the heart?

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If you want to explore this in depth, listen to Mary’s radio show Beyond War airing on Oct. 19^th and 26^th on Dreamvisions Radio at 5:00 AM and 5:00 PM.  https://maryomalley.com/listen-to-mary-on-dream-visions-radio/

After the 26^th you can listen to it at any time.

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