I have had a long standing disagreement with someone who was at one time a friend. The disagreement has escalated into a strong dislike on the part of my erstwhile friend.

In this whole process, hurtful and ugly things have been said.

I pray, often, that the situation be cleared but, despite my efforts this never occurs.

I read a wonderful passage in a spiritual book about our own state of peace. It said, simply, that we see the world the way we see ourselves, and that until we find that inner state of peace/calm/compassion we will continue to have turmoil and to see the world as the problem.

It is so simple yet so difficult.

You see, the ego, which we think is really our true being, is in actuality, an imposter.

Once we see this, we become free of anger, resentment, fault finding and blame.

Why? Because now, the hungry man has the inner feast, the poor man has the bar of gold, the thirsty man has drunk deep from the cool stream.

There is nothing more to fight against, to desire, to fear. We are complete – and we understand our purpose in being here in this world is to come to understand just this.

We simply need to pierce through this painful jungle of perceived rights and wrongs, this morass of emotions mind and justifications to touch what has always been there, is there now and will continue to be there – long after this body has been laid to rest – our true nature.