The War That Never Was: Reflections on Good, Evil, and No-Self
Sunday, May 18, 2025
At the heart of humanity’s endless conflicts—be it Gaza or Ukraine, history’s crusades or modern revolutions—there lies a narrative older than time itself: the story of Good versus Evil, of God against Satan. We dress it in flags, scriptures, constitutions, and slogans. But at its core, it is a psychic theater, playing out again and again in the collective consciousness of a species still asleep to its own shadow.
Each side claims righteousness. Each casts the other as the villain. But no war has ever truly been won this way. For the enemy is not just the other tribe, nation, or belief—it is the mind itself, split in two, unable to reconcile its projections.
This dualism—so deeply ingrained in us—has led to a world where destruction is rationalized, suffering is normalized, and peace is always postponed until the next retaliation, the next ideological purification.
And yet, there is another way of seeing. One that does not begin with judgment or blame, but with the quiet question:
What if the battle itself is the illusion?
The Wisdom of No-Self
This is why I return to the Buddha’s teachings, again and again—not out of religious loyalty, but because they offer a radical medicine. Not for others, but for this self, this fleeting construction I call "me."
The Buddha spoke of anattā—the truth of no fixed, abiding self. And in that truth, I find not despair, but profound liberation.
For it is the illusion of self—self-this clinging to identity, history, and ego—that makes war possible in the first place.
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My land
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My pain
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My people
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My God
But who is this “I” that owns and defends so fiercely?
When seen clearly, this “I” dissolves like mist in morning light. What remains is interbeing—a shared breath, a mutual vulnerability, a tender space where no one is “other.”
The Real Enemy
The real war is not outside. It is the one we fight within: between ego and emptiness, between possession and presence.
The so-called “evil” in the world may well be nothing more than unseen suffering, crystallized into systems and actions. It is not always born of malice, but of ignorance—the inability to see through the illusion of separation.
"The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Until we face that line—our line—humanity will continue to write history in blood.
Toward Peace
I do not claim to have the answer. But I know this: as long as we believe ourselves to be separate, we will create enemies.
And as long as we hold tightly to our identities—religious, national, personal—we will keep kindling the flames of conflict, at the expense of the Earth, the innocent, and our own peace of mind.
But in the quiet, in stillness, something else is possible. A vision not of conquest, but of compassion born of clarity.
There is no “I” here to protect.
No “enemy” out there to destroy.
Only this shared being, unfolding moment by moment.
Empty of self, yet full of life.
A Closing Reflection
Perhaps this, too, is part of humanity’s necessary journey—to walk through the fire of delusion until the truth reveals itself: that we were never two.
There was no war.
There was only awakening, delayed.
And now, perhaps, remembered.
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