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If there is one obstacle greater than any other to world peace and security, it is what Alice Bailey has named "the great heresy of separateness". It is the subtle root cause of all types of conflicts, whether motivated by religion, ideology or economics. It is the wall in the mind and in the heart that divides "us" from "them". On one side of the wall, we fondly imagine, are the positive values that all "right-thinking" people must agree with. On the other side are the delusions and corrupt morals of madmen, fanatics and sub-humans. Perhaps this seems too stark a division? Yet who would deny that some version of this wall does not separate their mental world into the enlightened and the deluded? The wall may branch in a labyrinthine way, splitting "them" into sub-categories - the transnational corporate executive might dwell in the enclosure for the environmentally benighted, while the religious extremist lives in the cage for those who oppose some basic human rights - but all are on the other side of the fence, where their thoughts and feelings can safely be discounted, denigrated or ignored. How they acquired their strange and repellent views is a matter of little or no interest. And when they are encountered in daily life, our default reaction is opposition.
Yet we are all "in this" together. Human life on planet Earth is not really different, at bottom, wherever we go. We all have certain basic physical needs, for food, warmth and sleep. Our emotions of pleasure and pain are universally the same, even if the cultural triggers for them may vary. And our ordinary thoughts generally flow along well-worn lines that are the same everywhere - how to make a living, meet a partner, build a family life etc.. Even our loftiest ideals, of God, Eternity, Love, Justice and Freedom, to name a few, show a startling resemblance around the world when carefully investigated. To quote the simple, wise words of the Dalai Lama, " the more I see of the world, the clearer it becomes that, no matter what our situation, whether we are rich or poor, educated or not, of one race, gender, religion or another, we all desire to be happy and to avoid suffering. Our every intended action, in a sense our whole life - how we choose to live it within the context of the limitations imposed by our circumstances - can be seen as our answer to the great question which confronts us all: 'How am I to be happy?'"1
So why, if everyone's goal is to be happy, do we persist in thinking and acting in ways that seek to actively or passively exclude some people from realising this goal?
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