It’s important to understand that we are all people, and there is no “them versus me.” Bad people think they’re good people, and good people can think they’re bad people. It depends on what day you see someone. People are both.

We’re human beings, and there is no me versus them. That separation is part of the creation of conflict, an illusion of duality that makes us feel superior and righteous. We have to watch for that egoic food, that arrogance that feeds the ego.

If everyone were a good person, yes, the world would be an incredible place. But if we don’t train and teach everybody to overcome their ego, to heal their pain, and to stay present, then when something we wouldn’t want to happen does happen, which is inevitable, because there are floods, fires, and all sorts of things outside human control, we won’t know how to respond.

We need to make sure that everyone has the spiritual tools to heal, so that they do not pass on their trauma and pain. Then we get really close to that utopian vision, and it is very possible.

We like to think that if all the bad people were gone, or if I were rich, I’d be happy. But this is really not the case. We get bored. We have selfish needs. And even if all conflict disappeared, someone would bump into someone else and say, “Hey man, what’s your problem?” And they would start the whole world’s conflict back up again—because that’s how it all started.

We’ve still got the ego problem. So what I’m saying is that peace without inner work would not last very long.

It is truly the conflict, the suffering, the struggle, the stress, the worries, the anxieties, the resentment, anger, and hatred that are there for us to learn to overcome, so that we can discover peace. Because the perfect utopia we’re waiting for isn’t coming. And even if it were here, it wouldn’t last long.

We need to develop the qualities of forgiveness, the qualities of loving our enemies, and the ability to practice gratitude even when we are worried about our income and resources. Only then will we have peace and be able to keep it.

So the suffering is there for our benefit.

Take a child of very loving, very wealthy parents who are unable to tell the child no. They love the child so much. They do everything for them, everything the child could ever want. And I think we all know how that child turns out: spoiled, lazy, probably addicted to many things, and unable to cope with the slightest inconvenience, difficulty, or challenge in life.

So the question is: what if everyone were the same level of nice and the same level of income? Would we have a utopia and be able to keep it? The answer is only if we teach kids how to stay peaceful, how to stay loving and kind, and how to deal with and overcome the ego, feelings of anger, bitterness, superiority, or inferiority.

A hundred years ago, treating minorities and people of other races badly was not considered wrong. We had no empathy for their pain, no awareness of the pain we were causing. Four hundred years ago, we enslaved human beings. Today, we are creating so much suffering in this world that we are unaware of.

As we evolve as human beings, we are moving toward full awareness, awareness of the suffering we are causing, awareness of our interconnection with everyone and every living being on this planet, and awareness of the oneness that connects us all.

When that happens, those base impulses of anger, hatred, violence, theft, and betrayal become impossible. Because we know we are doing it to ourselves. Because we feel the pain. Because we have built a bridge of love that connects us.

We are moving in this direction, and it’s very exciting how fast we can evolve.