Conflict Resolution

by Pradeep Gidwani

While I was having dinner at a restaurant bar not long ago, the gentleman seated next to me struck up a conversation. We talked about many things, and eventually the conversation turned to our occupations. I learned that he worked at a local university where he taught conflict resolution. I listened as he shared his life’s story and how it related to his career choice.

As I drove home that evening I considered how, from Life’s point of view, there is no conflict. I began to see how I learned to create the story of conflict in my personal dream early on. As my story unraveled, I saw something more. I saw how what I called conflict might better be described as friction. When two dreams interact, there exists a certain degree of friction, and that friction is part of evolution. When that friction results in a pleasant experience, I do not label it. When the result is unpleasant, I label it as conflict. When I shifted from seeing conflict to seeing friction, I lost my interest in labeling it at all.

Friction – the play and touch of two moving objects – is the way all things interact, and it is through all Life’s interactions that we live and we learn. I see now how I have always resisted many types of interaction from a fear of conflict. Instead of resisting, I see that I can open myself to experience Life, even in memories of past encounters. If I should feel discomfort, a belief is usually responsible, one that has been ruling my attention. Seeing that, I have the opportunity to modify the belief or to end it.

In experimenting with this process, I initially focused on my interactions with other people’s dreams. When I shifted my focus to my interactions with Life, I saw friction from another point of view. Friction is a gift from Life to remind me that I am more than this dream.

My interaction with that gentleman allowed me to look once again at the ultimate conflict, which is between truth and lies. The greatest lie of all is that I am separate from Life. The truth is that I am Life, and all the countless interactions – or moments of divine friction – that cause Creation to happen.