Conflict with Lies

Those who bring truth into an important debate are always met by the custodians of the existing lies, and that means there will be conflict. That's what Jesus meant when he said, "I come with a sword," a metaphor that let his followers know that what was to come would not be some pleasant stroll into a world of instantaneous peace -- but a world of struggle, through what became two millennia of fitful, passionate, often badly pursued but nevertheless dogged work (undertaken by monks, theologians, musicians, scientists, lay people, healers, philosophers, teachers, and many others) on behalf of something that only now is becoming gradually recognized for what it is, a new paradigm of truth about the human condition, which has still not been fully understood. It is the same truth that Aldous Huxley wrote about in "The Perennial Philosophy": the understanding that power is not corporeal. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," Jesus also said, with no metaphors for that announcement. This is not about religion, it's about ontology. Violence is done to bodies, by bodies, on behalf of lies. Nonviolence is done by minds, for minds, on behalf of truth, and the saving and empowerment of life is always its purpose.