Life Lessons in a Time of War, 6

Growth is not upward movement, but outward, from the core. Escape is not the way of freedom—return is. Change is not the way of nature—transformation is. Conformity is not the path to peace—independence is.

Priests teach obedience, and call it love; tyrants demand slavery, and call it loyalty. Pedants will program the code of death into you, and call the result good behavior. Separate from them all; look past their dead, white eyes and tell them No. Free your heart from the chains of ice that they would wrap around your true self. Turn away; connect with the quantum reality of life, and the snake of obedience will slither back, stripped bare and cold, to its corporate Masters.

They will tell you that weapons make peace, that swords and AK-47s can be plowshares too. They will teach you to make conflict your friend, and understanding your enemy. They will say that whatever cannot be killed can be bought: if you cannot annihilate it, then you had better own it. They will remind you, constantly, that your body is a vessel of sin and shame.

These are the teachings of death: the moment you accept them, you will begin to rot. So remember that your body, like the earth you dwell upon, is 75% water: the essence of perpetual baptism is already within you. Wash the mud of death out of every body cell, daily: let your liquid light pour through you, cleansing and protecting, and you will be a stranger to fear. No government will enslave you, no ruler oppress you, no priest deceive you, no pedant betray you.

Be careful every day; keep caution alive, for it is the soil in which Love grows and flourishes.