If people just asked: "Here are the needs of both sides, here are the resources. What can be done to meet these needs?" the conflict would be easy to resolve.

My ultimate goal is to spend as many of my moments in life as I can in that world that the poet Rumi talks about, 'a place beyond rightness and wrongness.

Anger, depression, guilt, and shame are the product of the thinking that is at the base of violence on our planet.

The intention behind the protective use of force is to prevent injury, never to punish or to cause individuals to suffer, repent or change.

Classifying and judging people promotes violence.

If you think ahead to what to say next - like how to fix it or make the person feel better - BOOM! Off the board. You're into the future. Empathy requires staying with the energy that's here right now. Not using any technique. Just being present. When I have really connected to this energy, it's like I wasn't there. I call this "watching the magic show". In this presence, a very precious energy works through us that can heal anything, and this relieves me from my "fix-it" tendencies.

The first step in healing is to put the focus on what's alive now, not what happened in the past.