The Enemy is Not Outside Yourself, The Real Enemy is Within

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"This is for everybody that's dealing with internal struggles. The enemy is not outside yourself; the enemy exists within yourself. Always remember that. Once you deal with the demons inside your own system, then you can conquer the world. Snatch your mask off. Snatch that mask off, yeah." – K-Rino; concluding words, Man in the Mask:

Today I just wanted to share that quote and this song, which has been a major inspiration to me during times when I'm fighting personal inner battles, dealing with my own internal struggles of which we all have our own. The song itself is a work of lyrical genius in my opinion, and tells the short story of a man in a mask who materializes first in a mirror and then begins to chase K, chasing him through streets named after various evils of which he experiences each one as he passes through. In the end, K ends up chasing the masked man down:

I grabbed his head, snatched his mask off, and the face in it was mine!
I almost went blind, then it came together step by step.
I was being chased by my own sin, runnin' from the dark side of myself.
As I choked him in a tight grasp, I began to understand.
Right then and there the man in the mask just disappeared inside my hand.
It was all a sign for me to change and see the world clearer.
I closed my eyes and when I opened em' I was back in front of the mirror.
But even though the man was gone, I still can't say that it's the end. (Why?)
Because I know that if I slip up, I'll see that mask again! Yeah..

We all have internal battles to face in our lives, and the choice is always ours whether to fight and slay the inner demons or to allow them to win. You can only run from the dark side of yourself for so long before it catches up to you, at which point you have to either face off against your inner darkness or give in and be overcome by it, allowing the darkness to consume you. We all have our own battles to fight, our own crosses to bear, our own lessons to learn, and our own inner demons to slay.

Whether it is overcoming anger, hate, jealousy, or fighting bad habits or an addiction; we all have inner battles we are fighting whether we are consciously aware of it or not, and I hope this post will inspire you to never give up and instead to keep fighting your own personal battle within. Every day is an inner battle; to choose right or wrong, truth or deception, humility or pride, love or fear, forgiveness or revenge, peace or violence, knowledge or ignorance, mercy or sacrifice, compassion or judgement, vice or virtue, beauty and appreciation or disgust and hatred. And the list goes on...

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it so well: "Nonviolence means not only avoiding external physical violence, but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, you refuse to hate a man."

It seems, however, that many if not most people in the world right now would rather blame all the problems and negativity in the world on an external enemy, instead of facing their own inner demons which hold them down and keep them from reaching their full potential. It is always easier to blame our problems on someone else, and even when it is clearly those people outside yourself who are the cause of certain problems in your life, it does not mean that the external problems they have created are not also mirroring internal problems, imbalances or unconquered fears of your own.

The inner battle is the real battle, and once the inner battle is won, what was once the outer battlefield will be transformed into a world of limitless possibilities which can only be attained with the inner power gained from defeating those inner demons and conquering those inner fears. The inner battle is the only real battle; the world outside ourselves is the illusion we are daily creating with our own thoughts and emotions.

The world around us is nothing less than a mirror of what we have become from within. - Gregg Braden

And once we win the inner battle, we truly can conquer the world, and nothing good is out of our reach or impossible. Then just watch the infinite inner power you will be shown. As Lao Tzu taught, "Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true Power." This is why knowing yourself is key, and why to know yourself is considered by the ancients as the beginning of all wisdom..

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By transforming ourselves from within, we are at the very same time transforming the world and reality around and outside of us. If you fail to overcome your inner demons and instead allow your ego to run your life, and you remain stuck in the crippling ideology that life and our reality is only externally happening to us rather than also being constantly created by ourselves from within, you will still have to face yourself in the end - and on that day you will no doubt find that you yourself are the toughest judge you'll ever have to face.

So if you feel like giving up on whatever internal struggles you're going through right now, and you feel like it's impossible to win this inner battle, just know that, "What helped your brother win, you got the same inside you." Look around at your heroes or look back into the past to see them, or visualize acquaintances who have won the battle you're now fighting, who have already overcome whatever your struggle is; and realize you have the same inner power they had to overcome their internal struggle to get where they got in history, or to where they are today. And then keep on fighting, and never give up.

We all fall in life, but not all of us decide to get back up, and some don't even begin to crawl. God may have given us mountains so we can learn how to climb, but that doesn't mean we all make it to the top, and some never even begin the long and slow climb; so just lift your eyes to heaven and keep on climbing. It's not easy; but where there's a will, there's a way; for the human will is one of the most powerful forces we each have within us at our disposal.

To quote from a quote I already used for my very first daily quote this year:

"To lift your eyes to heaven, when the eyes of others are on the ground is not always easy; and to worship at the feet of angels, when others worship fame and riches is not always easy; and perhaps the most difficult of all, is to think the thoughts of angels and to do as angels do." (full quote & context)

The path to life and true freedom may be difficult and feel impossible at times, but the rewards of withstanding the pain and overcoming our weaknesses far outweighs the temporary pain and suffering felt during the struggle. Know you are never alone, lift your eyes to heaven, get back off the ground, and keep on climbing.

In conclusion and to quote the words of K-Rino from another song (Life and Death): "I hold my mirror up, cause' I ain't who I seek to be;
Yeah I'm still struggling, so when I speak to you, I speak to me."

Have a great day everyone, keep up the good fight, and whatever you do, never give up. Peace.

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Here is the link to the introduction post and first daily quote of this #dailyquotes series of mine I just began as a part of my 2019 New Year's Resolution to begin to more actively work towards creating heaven on earth and world peace. I hope you find these quotes and/or photos inspiring; together we can create a much better world, lasting peace on earth and true freedom for humanity.