Living in Peace

Peace is the natural state of being. Everybody is at peace sometimes. For many people the greatest relief is sinking into dreamless sleep where they are never more content and unburdened. But the state, which approximates the peace that passes all understanding, cannot be remembered upon awakening into sensory awareness. Sometimes, however, there’s a split second before being fully aware in the senses while being conscious of the environment of the room. This is an aspect of the death state which when consciously realised as a living state of truth is the ultimate self-knowledge.

To be at peace is the right of everyone on earth; but the truth is that it’s impossible to live in peace before the work has been done inside. Otherwise, what will be changed are just the external effects while the fundamental cause – the underlying corruption and ignorance – continues unabated. The person can never be at peace while acting as a gofer in the world for the psychic self of pain. The compromise most settle for is to be at peace one moment when no external buttons are being pressed, and the next as an agency of force when something triggers the emotional virulence of past unresolved experiences.  Experience, while necessary as a means to navigate the path of life in the practical world, soon attaches the person to the continuity of time as a slave to the enticements of sensual existence. The spiritual challenge is to harmonise both world and earth as a unity of being.

A temporary state of peace is often experienced in the aftermath of a particularly stressful period, or when emotional force is released such as in a heated argument with another. But this doesn’t last long since the lack of conflict soon turns to boredom and, with it, the need to experience more of the stressful condition of normal living. This would be regarded as madness were it not the universal way of life devised by the human race. Peace is neither up nor down, but a state of equilibrium whereby the positivity of existence is neutralised through being conscious in the senses. From this inner and outer connection arises an absence of concern or conflict with the world. When people are very close to physical death they are more at peace than ever before. Having faced the inevitable, they have surrendered all hope – the final thread of attachment to existence. This state of peace is sometimes registered in those around the dying, which can be comforting at this time.

The biggest obstacle to peace is the human mind. It doesn’t matter to the mind what it reflects on as long as it’s active – which affirms its position as the chief of the body system. Just as coal keeps the fire burning in a steam engine, so the mind is stoked by emotion which creates a two-way circuit between the mental and emotional body. The more intense the emotional connection, the faster the mind processes the energetic exchange which attaches the person to the craving for experience in the world. Anything that causes movement within, such as fear or anxiety, is of the world. There is never any peace while worrying about the future or dwelling on the past, especially reviving old hurts and resentments. When there’s something to attend to, just looking at the facts of a situation and taking the necessary action prevents any build-up of past. The mind fears stillness and being disengaged for long since it gains its sense of security from the momentum of the thinking process.

One of the ironies of the higher states of mind is that it’s impossible to know what you are because at the moment of self-reflection the state is immediately lost. But it’s perfectly possible to be what I am without needing to know or question the truth of what has been realised. In the spiritual process, self-knowledge is revealed through the contrast of experiences. To a developing consciousness the dynamic of the pleasure and pain of the emotional way of living provides the discernment to gradually detach from the identification with one’s former ignorance of reality. So, for example, as someone becomes increasingly conscious of when an emotional demand or feeling arises, there is the knowledge that they have left the state of peace. When the practice of being alert and present in the senses becomes a way of life, the emotion is prevented from moving within the body. Over time, and in accordance with the cosmic will, the resonance of the body of pain and sorrow is transformed back to love, which is another term for peace and the fulfilment of life on earth.

Here’s a link to my latest YouTube video: ‘The Pressure of the Times’ for anyone interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFr_jWmW2Nw&t=26s