In honor of all the fallen soldiers and their extended families, I submit my gratitude for the ultimate sacrifice these brave men and women paid. And, as I sit here in a moment of silence and reflection, I simply can’t help but wonder what these souls would want us to know.

I suspect they would remind us that dying for a just cause is honorable and their deaths were not in vain. Death is never in vain — it’s ultimately what we will all face and none of us gets the privilege to pick their own exact time and manner in which we pass. Even death by suicide or euthanasia — no matter how sad and tragic — is in a way selected for us as it presents itself to our psyche as the only option.

But, what is a just cause? In each war there are at least two sides and each believe they are fighting for a just cause and so a just cause cannot be anything but a perception as it’s subjective.

Nation, race, creed, gender identification, values, ethics, morals, political or economical ideology and religion are all subjective. First, these are all man-made constructs no matter what you believe the source is. Mankind created all these things to establish a sense of order, hierarchy, understanding, and structure. It’s self-evident they are subjective because since we have so many of them how could it be any other way. This isn’t blasphemy by the way, it’s merely an observation and doesn’t in any way detract from the many positives all of these have contributed to our human evolution or your individual right to choose our own religion. But, we must recognize it’s also been the source of virtually all wars, violence, hate, and atrocious crimes against humanity over millennia as we can’t come to terms that others have a different understanding.

Since subjectivity — perception — cannot be logically argued since it’s based on our personal understanding of reality and divinity we clearly must look beyond this. I humbly believe our fallen heroes would tell us that war is not the answer. That no matter how we much we wrap the act of war in the cloak of heroism and righteousness it remains savage, violent, atrocious, and leaves a blood-soaked stain of brutality in our history books.

War survivors — soldiers and civilians — unequivocally tell us the memories are unbearable and irreconcilable. I am fascinated with history and have watched countless documentaries about wars, imperialism, and the great empires over the years and in the final analysis the survivors — whether they were victorious or not — all struggle to reconcile the grotesque nature of war. The violence, brutality, pervasive death and destruction, and atrociousness of the act of war cannot be reconciled with the human soul. Yes, we can rationalize and justify war with our mind, but our heart — the seat of our soul — can simply not bear it.

We have in fact all experienced this. I lived in NYC when 9/11 happened and this heinous act of terrorism (which is war) lacerated the heart of an entire nation and its ripple effects were felt around the world. We have all seen footage of flag-draped caskets returning from war zones and felt deep sorrow at the sight of the heartbroken widows and children burying their beloved ones. We have felt anger, despair, and deep sadness as we witness the mutilated bodies of soldiers and complete destruction as news footage from war zones makes it way back to our living room. The problem is in our perspective. We can only see and more importantly feel this for “our” team. We demonize the other team and by doing so conveniently dehumanize the other side because that’s the only way to justify this in our mind and reconcile it in our heart. But, war is simply not natural and any attempt to rationalize or justify war by claiming it’s a necessary means to and end is refuting nature’s and frankly our own intelligence as a species. You see, nature is always in perfect balance and harmony.

Yes, nature itself can be violent and even murderous but it’s never not acting with intelligence. Nature doesn’t intentionally kill, harm, or destruct. Nature doesn’t take what’s not hers or make a claim on desirable resources. Nature is divinely intelligent — no matter which God you believe created her — and left to its own nature thrives and prospers. Nature doesn’t operate or function like Animal Farm, humans do. In fact, we created that whole story because we have alienated ourselves from our own true nature and in doing so we have lost touch with nature’s innate intelligence including our own. We — mankind — are the cause to the effect we witness as our reality. We’re that powerful, and looking at the state of the world today, that stupid and ignorant at the very same time.

For humanity to move beyond war as our answer to conflict resolution, we have to first identify as being human and recognize that all life is sacred. All life means all life, that includes the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom, and Mother Earth as a whole (and for that matter, the universe which we are quickly starting to pollute and deem our birthright to colonize). But, for this discussion, let’s start with human life as that’s already quite a leap for most of mankind. At the very root of every war conflict is identification with nation, race, creed, political and economical ideology or religion and at this level we’re separate so war seems justified. Why are we separate? Because all these things are subjective and with us closing in on 8 billion people on this planet the likelihood of finding total agreement on all these things is highly unlikely. Arguably, it’s foolish to even try but for sure it’s completely unnecessary.

The common ground is in our humanness. We must lose our stubborn attachment to our highly subjective and personal identification markers — i.e. nation, race, creed, ideologies and religion, etc. — and move our identification to a higher order to bridge our differences, recognize our commonalities (which incidentally far outnumber our differences), and move mankind forward towards balance and harmony. I know the naysayers will say this is an Utopian pipedream, it will never happen and I am completely delusional. They might even wonder what I am smoking. It’s not delusional, but I am talking about a major shift in consciousness in humanity.

All the subjective identification markers I mentioned above are beliefs, they are psychological in nature. From the moment we’re born — depending on the geolocation, culture, societal rank, and religion we’re born into — these beliefs are instilled in us in the very same way we program a computer. What’s lost in all of this is our essential nature. A baby coming out of the womb is a blank slate, it knows no hate and sees no color or religion. It doesn’t identify with a nation or any political or economical ideology. These beliefs are all shaped and formed by our upbringing, our friends and family, our schooling, the society we grow up in and whatever else outside media and pop culture we’re exposed to during our lifetime. And, this develops our sense of Self which Jung called ego or personality.

This Self — your ego or personality — is not you. It’s who you believe you are, it’s purely a psychological construct that you identify with. How can I prove this? When you die, none of that remains. It dies with you and at best you will live on in the memories of your family, friends, and fans but that’s not the same, because what lives on in their mind is their perception of you.

What we all are is a soul — a consciousness — having a human living experience here on planet Earth. You don’t even have to believe in reincarnation and you can remain steadfast in your own version of heaven or hell. I am not here to convert anyone or dispel their religion. Why? Because something is observing the thoughts you have. You cannot be the thoughts themselves if you can “see” them pass by. You can call it soul, awareness, consciousness, or observer — the label is not important — but there is something witnessing and interpreting these countless thoughts and beliefs that you identify with as being you. If you can see at least this part, you are ready to accept that first and foremost you’re human. You’re human before you are an American, Russian, or South African. You are human before you are white, black, or any color in between. You are human before you are Christian, Jewish, Islamic, or Hindu. This we all have in common, we are human.

All humans have the same essential desires — a sense of purpose, prosperity, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. We all want to be happy, it’s that simple. We all care about our family and friends and to some extend to our fellow citizens although we tend to muddy those waters quite a bit with our subjective opinion of identification markers.

But, in terms of war as a means to conflict resolution which is where we started, the only way we can escape that viscous circle is to first identify as human. Next, we have to come to a common understanding that each and every life is sacred. No exceptions. All sides have to subscribe to this understanding — no more Animal Farm — and now we have created a basis from which we can start seeking solutions which are in concert with nature’s divine intelligence: balance and harmony.

There can be no peace in Israel until both sides identify as humans first and vow to consider that all life is sacred. There can be no peace in any of the enduring wars and violent conflicts that are scattered all over this planet until we collectively identify as humans first. What’s before us is the invitation to raise our awareness and consciousness as a species if we are to prosper. To solve wars, hate and violent conflicts we have to first identify as humans. To solve many of the other crises that face mankind like our health, climate change, eradication of animal species and natural habitat, and runaway pollution just to name a few we have to start seeing all life as sacred including Mother Earth, the very place that gives us life to start with.

I am convinced that the souls that have fallen will tell you they are not separate now, they were reunited with the very souls they fought here in our Earthly reality. We are all sons and daughters of the same divine Source — no matter what you label that Source — and the moment we all realize that while we’re here we will have finally created a path to no longer fill our military graveyards.

Love & Truth,

Robert