Anytime I see an enemy, it’s because I am holding a distorted view of reality.


In reality, everything is one thing. There are no distinct parts, only an all-encompassing wholeness. When I’m mentally in that wholeness, I recognize that everything is a just local moment of that wholeness. I see that I am inseparable from everything. I see that I am everything and everything is me, and that there is no division. There are no “sides” only center.

When I see an enemy, it’s because I have mentally moved out of that center.

When I mentally leave the center, All is still one but now I see it from a skewed angle. Because everything is always one thing, I now see both my out-of-center position and the opposite of my out-of-center position. This is a distorted VIEW of how things are, the way looking through a lens distorts what I SEE. Everything is still one thing, but it looks like separate things from this perspective

When I look across, this separate “enemy” I see is just an illusion brought on by the lens through which I’m seeing them: my own distorted thinking.

Which means my “enemy” is never what they appear to be. All of my information about them is distorted. So whenever I see an enemy, I know not to trust my eyes. Everything I’m perceiving about this enemy - their story, their experience, their intentions, desires or motives - is distorted.

It’s like when I see a stick half-submerged in water: It looks broken but it’s not. I’ve learned through experience to compensate for the distortion, to discard the false evidence of its brokenness and see it whole.

In the same way, it is possible for me to learn to look out at a world that appears broken, discard the false evidence of its brokenness and see it whole. 

I can learn to look at a person who appears to be divided against me and know that they’re not - that it’s just me thinking I’m divided against something when in reality that something is just me (and I am it): my state of mind, experienced. I can work with myself to find the evidence I need to return to the recognition of our common wholeness. When I’m dedicated to finding it, I always will.

The more I practice, the easier it gets to return to center, remove the distortion, and see that we are always one