John Carlile

(The Roots of War)
(How to avoid the bitter fruits of war)

My brother and I
Are children
Of the same land
We are earthlings
Born of our mother earth
Who is the daughter
Of mother universe
Who seeded mother earth
With the nutrients
Needed to create
The biology of life
That began in the waters
On this world
So my brother and I
Came down
Through generations
Of hominids and humans
And occupied
The lands
Of this planet
And grew from
From a couple
To
A family
A group
A tribe
A town
A city
A nation
We took
The lands
We lived on
In ownership
Saw them
As our lands
We forged identity’s
To match
These social
And geographic
Groups
The groups we formed
Formed
An in-group
And an out-group
So in the fields
Of the mind
We formed
Myriad groups
With mental boundaries
Marking
The
Within
And the
Without

Various forces and circumstances
Will give
Pre-eminence
To particular
Identities
At particular
Times

So our social group
Will abrogate
In particular times
Specific lands
Of the Earth
To themselves
I become
This identity
Of this nation
These lands
Become
My lands
I own my lands
My land is
The best land
My brother is not
Like me
He lives
In his land
Which is not
As good as
My land
So my brother
Who is basically
Just like me
Is given
A role
In my story
That he is
Different
From me

I own my history
My history
Is the story
Of how I had to fight
To protect this land
From my brother
My brother’s history
Tells him
How he had to fight
To protect this land
From me
And so the histories
Of bygone times
Live on today
And separate
My brother and I

Walls are built
That separate
People living today
From other people
Living today
Because of
Ideas and behaviours
That drove
People in the past
To act badly
To others
Those ideas and behaviours
Reverberate
In the minds
Of present living people
Thus is the past
Recapitulated
In the
Memories
Attitudes
And actions
That continue
To separate
My brother and I
Thus the two of us
Who are
So deeply
Similar to each other
See each other
As so different
As untrustworthy
As antagonistic
Our brotherhood
Is forgotten
In our minds
We lose our sense
Of being one family
I own my culture
My culture is
In so many ways
Better than
Other people’s culture
So too does
My culture
Which is
Well known to me
Is the only one
Known to me
And even more
It is a mental identity
Lived by me
This deeply
Separates
Me from my brother
He does not
Know my culture
I do not
Know his
I definitely
Do not live
His culture
And he does not
Live mine
Thus we
Who are
So similar
Feel alien
To each other
We live now
In two minds
We both want
The same land
That is
Painted uniquely
By each of us
By our
Separate histories
Thus we see
Ourselves
As separate nations
And as nations
We try to solve
Problems
From the top down
But there are
No clear solutions
From that perspective
There is no full solution
Apart from war
And war
Is no solution
At all
It just creates
An interregnum
With a
Victor and a loser
We wait
Time will
Re-empower
The loser
And the war
Will erupt again
There will be
No end
Since each side
Will be held captive
By the last murder
Perpetrated by
The other side
The only end
Is genocide
Which is
Real death
Or full incorporation
By the latest
Stronger
Of the latest
Weaker
This is cultural genocide
We are not
Evil enough
For real total
Death
Nor
Strong enough
For full incorporation
So we risk
Eternal enmity
Eternal cycles
Of war

Yet there are
Truths
That stand
Before us
That
Challenge us
To be
Who we are
Hidden
Underneath
The characters
We play
In the stories
We tell ourselves
We are
All storytellers
We all believe
The stories
We tell ourselves
Yet we all
Believe
There is
An original story
That is
The truth
As we believe
There is
In our hearts
A true me
That is
Often
Usually
Partially hidden
Mostly hidden
Fully hidden
By other characters
That form
A matrix
That hides
The true me
From being
The daily me

Thus we live
A life
In bad faith believing
We are less
Then we are
Believing
That we are
The surface
Beings
Of our life story
Thus we become
The enemy
Of our brothers
Foreign
To our sisters
Our siblings all
Are pushed aside
Into different beings
Misunderstood
By us
Devalued
By us
Alien
To us
Unwanted
Threatening
And not of our kind

Yet we have
These whisperings
That
We are
Brothers
To our brothers
Sisters
To our sisters
Siblings to all
We know
In the silence
Of our selves
We are all
Children
Of the same
Mother
Making us all
A family
Of one

Here
We are
In this family
Earthlings all
Our primary nature
Isn’t that
Of where we are
It is
Of what we are
We are
Earthlings
Our origins
All the same
We all have bodies
That have all
The same subsystems we have
Structural subsystems
Functional subsystems
Sensory
Motoric
Neurological
Circulatory
Digestive
Reproductive
We all have
The same subsystems
But they all
Have differences
To other Earthlings
Skin eyes hair
Have different colours
Sizes differ
Reproductive systems
Can vary
Some menstruate
Gestate
Lactate
Some impregnate
Every subsystem
Can very in degree
From other subsystems
Every single
Earthling differs
In some way
From every other
Earthling
Everyone is
Ultimately unique
But everyone
Is ultimately
The same
An Earthling

Earthlings
Are created
By mother earth
They are living systems
Biological
Psychological
Social
They are shaped
Biologically
By the material world
They live in
Those who have
A developed society
To live in
Are psychologically shaped
To develop
Identities
Rooted in
Their biology
And fashioned
By their social groups
Their psychology
Is their mental world
Within which
All their identities
Are formed
Their mental world
Is replete
With all their stories
All these stories
Have sub-stories
Of the original story
That we are Earthlings
Only that original story
Gives the deepest truth
That we are all one
All identities
Derived from sub-stories
Deceive us
All mental ideas
Are systems of meanings
And can therefore
Be understood
From different points of view
All the myriad identities
Beneath our primary one
Are subsidiary identities
We are always greater
Than those identities
There is more to us
Than those identities
If we think
Our core identity
Is one of those
Then we are hiding ourselves
From our self
Subsidiary identities
Always create
Separate Earthlings
Always create
An in-group
And
An out-group
Always designate
Land
As belonging to
One group rather than
Another
They always
Create
Strangers and enemies
Of other Earthlings
Who have lived
For long swaths of time
On that same land
Then there is
Antagonism
If each group of Earthlings
Gives their country name
To that property
And does not recognize
That other earthlings
Have also lived there
For long periods of time
Then if they believe
That their history
Is the only relevant one
Then there will be war
One Earthling will fight
Another earthling
Because they believe
They are
At their core
Owners of that land
And it belongs to them
They have no understanding
That other earthlings
May have the same history
And therefore
The same right
For ownership
If they maintain
That subsidiary identity
Then they will fight
If they accept
That they are all earthlings
Then there is
An opportunity
For negotiation
For they will recognize
They are not two solitudes
There is only one group
Of the same people
Who wish to live
On the same land
All that is needed
Is to breakdown the walls
Caused by identification
With smaller identities
And realize
That all belong
To the same group
Earthlings
It is better to
Embrace our siblings
And be embraced
By them
Than to
Fight
It is better
To be
One friend among
Many friends
Than to be
One enemy among
Many enemies
The best to be
Is to be
An Earthling
Among every one else
Who are all
Also
Earthlings
Who deserve our love
And who long to
Give us love
In return
We are all
Special
Living life
That is amazing
That has space
For us all

Life is such an improbable event. We don’t know that because we are born in the midst of it. We don’t know how rare it is. It seems ordinary. It is here every day, and we are living it, but know it not.
Before we have a sense of it, we know what pleasure and pain feel like; we know the discomfort of hunger; and the satisfaction of fullness; we know mother and father; we learn about the world and the passage of time. But we do not know life.

We live it but it remains hidden to us for a long time. We manifest it, perhaps we more than most living things, yet other living things seem to be just what they are. We are often not sure about life and what we are and frequently don’t give it much thought, for we know what we have to do today and tomorrow; we know what we need and what we want and we know it usually takes time and effort to get them. Life is not high on our priority of things to think about.

Yet life is a process and can be participated in, in many ways. The way we live it will define what we get out of it. For many, life is just what unfolds before us. We know it makes a difference if we choose to do this or to do that. We know what we strive for often does not come to pass. Our hopes rise strong in us, many to be met, many not, thus giving our life a flavor that lingers on, day to day, such that we develop a taste of life, for life, and in life. Therein lies the measure of how we value our living. For some the coming day is anticipated with interest and pleasure, for some with trepidation, discomfort, and dislike, and, for some, with just the resignation that it will be another day.

Life does not have to be like that. We can wake up. We can recognize that we are living and with that awareness, live life differently. We can bring a great sense of meaning to life, that enlivens it, bringing a sparkle and a significance to it that it has not had before. We can make our life a life worth living.

Here in the midst of this highly improbable event, we live, without the sense of the amazingness of us; here, we are unique individuals, doing life, making a difference to the life about us, making a difference to the world, and having little awareness of this. We live here in the here, often not aware of how broad and deep are the choices that surround us, and we often just ride the wave, letting it take us where it wishes, not making choices to go where we may want to go. We are too often passengers along for the ride, not travellers forging our own journey.

We are biological and psychological, and social beings. There are many things we can do in each of these realms that can bring this sense of wonder and specialness to our lives to enrich our living. In this course, we are going to explore these things; we are going to learn about them and practice them. We are going to learn about living; how to do this in a way that makes life more meaningful, more joyful. We are going to explore how to live life with an understanding that life is worth more than living. We are going to consider becoming travellers. If you wish to come along, please join us.

This course, is called ‘Meditations for a Traveller’ and starts with the examination of a vertical writing manuscript called, ‘Whisperings of life‘. This explores the journey of the mind through life and examines the play of our awareness throughout that journey. It is life, your life, that provides you with choice; choice of how to live; choice of what to do with your awareness as you pass through the stages of life; challenging you not to just pass along living a life in response to what life presents to you, rather to live in the awareness of the wonder and mystery of existence. We can be a passenger in this world and live a fruitful, interesting, and stimulating life. We can be a Traveller and live actively in a life beyond living.

‘Whisperings of life’ is a poetic story of this passage of the mind through life and how the systems of the mind, form and grow in the biological, psychological, and social realms as the mind passes through time. It is the story of us. It chronicles the richness of our lives but suggests how we can paint them with the colors of the spirit emanating from living as a Traveller.

This course is a set of meditations for those who wish to be a Traveller. They are presented to you for your consideration and contemplation. They are designed to allow you to become aware that you have choice in the way you live your life. You can change it. If you are already a Traveller, then perhaps it can offer you some suggestions on how to further enrich your Travelling.

Whisperings

Things written on the winds
That echo through a mind
That wants to know
Resonate in a heart
That longs to love
That flow
In hands that ache to hold
In feet that yearn to tread
The journey still unknown

The Traveller

For those
To whom
Life
Is for more
Than
Just living

I will deal with elements of living as a traveller in this core blog section. If you wish to explore this journey more fully, please subscribe to the course Meditations for the Traveller – Whisperings of Life.

We make a beginning.

We often begin life with song; with the cry of that first breath, announcing that I am here. I have left the womb and have ventured out here into the world, into this something that I have no knowledge of; I have no ideas about it – show yourself to me. And so we come to life.

If this interests you, come join the course.

Author: John Carlile

The Two Solitudes

Making Life Worth Living