Peace in the Land of Now



There is no "Holy Land." For the whole earth is sacred.

All land is holy because it belongs to God, not to men. No land belongs to any tribe or nation. We are just stewards and pilgrims here.

If you say that God gave you the land, you lie. You have no proof of ownership but an old book and the blood on your sword. God did not give any land to you or me. We took it. We took it in the Middle East and we took in America. We took it in the name of the Chosen People, in the name of the Sword of Islam, in the name of American Exceptionalism. But they are all the same name: imperialism.

We take the Land from God and from the People of the Land. We take it not with the permission of the earth's Creator, but with scimitars and bombs, jets and drones. Then we use ancient myths and stories to justify our theft.

But the age of imperialism is over, and so is any religion invented to justify it. It is time to give up the old story and dwell in the Land of Now. For Now is the only space where humans co-abide in passionate neutrality, listening with open hearts.

Your duty is not holy war: not חרם  or جهاد‎, 'herem' or 'jihad.' Your duty is to listen through your heart to the sound of children crying.

Your heart has exactly the same access to the revelation of God's Word right now as Moses, Jesus or Muhammad ever did. Now is the time to abandon prophecies spoken ages ago, and listen to your own prophecy, spoken in the silent wilderness of your own heart. Then you will hear the hearts of your Islamic and Jewish and Christian siblings too.

You will never find peace in any story or authority handed down from the past. Peace is now.

The Chosen People are the people who live here, in the holy land of Now, choosing to love.

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