Written by Mathew Naismith
That is indeed the question but not for many spiritually aware people. The quest is to not be in conflict or to become of a state where conflict is impossible. How many of us feel different in nature than in a human created reality, where the reality itself was created on some kind of conflict?
We go into nature a feel tranquil and at one with nature, while nature itself is in continuous conflict, even plants are in competition to each other. If a tree is unable to bend with the wind, the tree breaks. Conflict abounds in nature but we humans often feel so much at home in nature, we now may think this is due to humans being conditioned to conflict.
A person spends all their life or even part of their life in avoidance of conflict, they then end up obtaining this quest of a reality in the absence of conflict. In all honesty, their life has been in conflict with conflict, even though we may reach a state of the absence of conflict, it was due to being in conflict with conflict itself. Yes, in the process a reality of the absence of conflict was created on the back of being in conflict with conflict. This is really something we should be avoiding, even people who have said they have never been in conflict are in conflict, not just due to being in conflict with conflict but because nature is of growth but also the deterioration of growth. There is always conflict between growth and deterioration of growth.
What part of us wants to control the ego, the quest of being egoless? The ego, for the egoless self has no conflict with the ego to theretofore have a desire to dispose of the ego. So would an egoless self desire to spend a great deal of it's life trying to rid itself of conflict? As nature exemplifies, it is not conflict itself that we should be disposing of in life, it is the way we approach and live with conflict in harmony with conflict.
We may now say that war is conflict, so we now should live in harmony with war!! No, this is not saying that because war is in conflict with conflict, what you want to create is harmony with conflict, as we do while experiencing nature. The ego desires you to be in conflict with it, to try to create a reality free of the ego, in the process creating a reality based on the conflict of the ego.
Now think of being in harmony with the ego and it's conflicts, you then create a reality based on harmony instead of conflict. I could have spent all my life in a state in the absence of conflict, knowing that this reality is actually based on the opposition to conflict. Good luck with this as my body deteriorates in opposition to growth. The trick is living in harmony with this deterioration as with nature is a dog eat dog world.
So why do we so often feel so good in nature if it is a dog eat dog world, a world of competition? Because it is not always in competition or a dog eat dog world, like in the human world, it is a world in harmony with this dog eat dog world, not in conflict with it.
Even as spiritually aware people, we have learnt very little from nature it would seem.
