It is helpful to remember that the opposing sides in any conflict both spring from the same Ground of Being.

The world's great mystical traditions all understand that the opposing sides in any conflict both spring from the same Ground of Being. They encourage us, therefore, to look for our commonalities and to practice putting ourselves in the other's shoes. Meditation practice is especially helpful in realizing this oneness, for it teaches us to drop our tendency to over-identifiy with our thoughts, emotions and tenaciously-held views, and instead to melt into the vast Ground of Being and spacious sky of Divine Awareness out of which we all emerge.

This is a lesson that humanity is in the process of learning, especially in the realms of religion, politics, ethnic conflict, gender conflict, and in the day to day interpersonal conflicts we all face. Perhaps this impulse toward oneness is one of the "silver linings" of the great environmental crises we are now entering. Climate change, chemical and nuclear pollution and diminishing water supplies, for example, help remind us that we all inhabit a common planet spinning through space. It is therefore in the best interest of all of us to focus on our common Unity.

Photo: Two Pasqueflowers springing up through a dried Cottonwood leaf, Hewlett Gulch, Roosevelt National Forest, CO, March 18, 2015