It occured to me that my desire for peace - what seems to be the constant overriding desire above all else, may in fact be creating suffering.
This is a profound realization that touches on one of the core paradoxes of spiritual seeking. The desire for peace can indeed become another form of suffering. Here's why:
The Ego's Trap
When we make peace an object of desire, we create a gap between where we are and where we want to be
This gap itself becomes a source of suffering
The ego claims ownership of the spiritual journey, turning it into another achievement to pursue The Peace-Seeking Contradiction
Peace is our natural state
By desperately seeking it, we imply it's somewhere else
This seeking creates tension and unrest - the opposite of peace
The very act of striving for peace can prevent us from experiencing it
Already Here
Peace isn't something to be achieved
It's what remains when we stop creating conflict through desire
It's our natural state when we're not resisting what is The Role of Acceptance
Peace comes from accepting what is, including our non-peaceful states
Even accepting our desire for peace becomes part of the path
When we stop fighting against our current experience, peace naturally emerges
Instead of desiring peace, we might:
Notice when peace is already present
Observe how the desire for peace creates tension
Allow whatever is present to be there, including unpeace
Recognize that peace isn't a destination but our natural state The key shift is from "seeking peace" to "allowing peace" - from doing to being. This doesn't mean giving up your appreciation for peace, but rather recognizing that it's not something to be achieved through desire or effort.
In the unified field, peace is always present. The pace of our modern world (and always on tech) is blocking our access to it. But going deeper, it's our drive for more. FOMO also blocks access to it. FOMO is wanting what you don't have, and in having FOMO, you disregard the space & time you have been given. FOMO is a form of neglect. It's the ego that wants more. It's the ego that wants what we don't need. Often the pursuit of more is the source of more problems. Want to experience peace right now? Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. That's how close peace is. Peace is within you and available 'on demand.'
Patience is Peace. When I strip everything else away, what's the only thing I truly desire for my life? At the end of the day, it's peace. The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance - resistance to what is. Every negative thought is triggered by some form of judgement - which at an emotional level creates unwanted emotions. The key is to accept it all unconditionally without judgement. I experienced this once before: It was the morning after an especially powerful evening at Landmark. When I went down to get my car, I discovered it had been towed. I wasn't the least bit upset. I had accepted that I was the cause (by parking somewhere I shouldn't have), and instead of wasting energy getting upset, I worked to resolve the situation as quickly as I could. The lesson I learned is one I share whenever I can. The person who called to have me towed felt bad - he told me that if I had just put a note on the dashboard with my name and number, he would have called me before calling the towing company. Now, whenever I park somewhere that might result in me getting towed, I put a note in the dashboard explaining why I parked there and how to reach me.
There's a chapter in The Miracle Equation entitled Becoming Emotionally Invincible. For me, it was the best chapter in the book. Choose to accept life unconditionally before it happens and you will always be at peace. Hal explains that our moment of peace is found in the space between our emotions. Key takeaways:
All emotional pain that we have ever experienced, experience now, or will in the future is caused by our resistance to reality.
The only way to never experience unwanted emotional pain is to make a conscious decision to accept everything that has ever happened or will happen to you. Love life and everything that happens unconditionally. Just accept all that is. The solution seems too simple - and our minds seek a more complex answer. Our minds (or egoic mind) needs to make it difficult so it has something to overcome. Where we get off-track is believing that the event or circumstance is the cause of our emotional pain, when in fact, it's our reaction to that event or circumstance that is causing the emotional pain. By accepting everything (and everyone) unconditionally, you give yourself the gift of peace. You are a peace with what is and it helps to recite the mantra:
"My life is perfect. I am always where I need to be, and every experience in my life unfolds perfectly - teaching me the lessons I need to level up my life and realize my full potential as a human being." (Hal is big on mantras) This reinforces my Triangle of Contentment - the triangle consists of 3 main drivers in life: 1. Our desire to fulfill our potential and become more than we are. 2. That our 'born on' and 'died on' dates are predetermined before we started and 3. Trusting in the perfection of the moment (that everything has ever happened or will ever happen to me is perfectly part of a grand plan).
Level 1
"Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace..." - From the Serenity Prayer. I am learning that hardship is the pathway to the one thing I desire most in life: Peace.
Level 2
When do I experience the highest levels of peace? When I awake. When I am not worried about something. When others are not waiting on me. Without obligations. When all is quiet. Often in the early morning.
Level 3
When I am at peace.
When am I most fully content? I awoke at 4am. It was too early to get up. I meditated. About 20 minutes later, I returned to bed, still exhausted. As I fell back into a state that is best described as between being asleep and being awake, I had a sense of peace rush over me. It's happened before. In fact, these kind of mornings are what I live for! Not stressed about anything. Not feeling incomplete in anyway. No sense that I need to 'be' or 'do' more. That I am whole and complete. The knowing that I have enough (always have and always will). That not only this moment, but that my entire life is enough. Everything else is icing on the cake. All I need to do is make it to the end of the day. Peaceful sleep being the ultimate reward of life. I feel blessed that now I know what I think a lot of older people discover - the secret to just enjoying this life as it is. The pay off of a life well lived being that peaceful rest that we get and knowing that when our number is up, we've done our part while we could. What if we all received validation that we are doing the best we can with what we can, and that everyone is enough? Imagine an entire planet where every person on it had a sense of peace at the end of the day and were rewarded for a days work with a nights sleep - and that reward was enough. Beyond having a home, people who love us, and the comforts of modern living, what more do we truly need? What is it that impedes a sense of peace in our lives? Identify what it is an get to work on eliminating. I am reminded of the quote by BKS Iyengar: "Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured." I feel that quote in fact points to the purpose of life. To fix what we can and live with what can't. Pegging this concept to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it pretty much sums up the priorities in life: 1. Take care of your basic needs: Food, shelter, sex and sleep. 2. A sense of stability & security: Knowing you can pay your rent/mortgage. Knowing you have basic health coverage when you get sick. 3. Love & sense of belonging: Social intercourse - friendships, family, and intimacy. Assuming we have those 3 met - we can explore going further - but it's optional.Level 4
If you won't be satisfied until you have:
The admiration of your peers
Significant accomplishments.
Respect by others. It's when we let others define our success that we begin to get tripped up. "Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful."
According to Maslow, the top end of the self-actualization hierarchy is creativity, spontaneity, problem-solving, not judging, and accepting what is. Here's where I pivot from the traditional model. If you have to get through level 4 to get to level 5, then you'll be stuck in level 4. What's funny to me is how all those states in level 5 reflect exactly what mindfulness teaches us. I get that people want to aspire for more. And many are driven to do something significant - more significant than their own life. But if we understood reaching the summit of the 3rd level was enough... then more or us could live with far greater peace and contentment. We would see that all we need is what we already have. What I believe is a more accurate category for level 4 is livelihood. Once you've reached Level 3 - you have enough to live in peace. You can go to bed each night and sleep peacefully. Anything beyond that is highly subjective. It's why some of the people who've achieved so much still feel unfilled in life. It's subjective. While we are bombarded by messaging that we are not enough... For me, I've discovered keeping music, yoga, and meditation in my life is more important than anything else. Travel, material goods, fancy meals, social status - it's all optional and unnecessary for my peace and happiness.
What if the reward for living was sleeping? You don't sleep to live, you live to sleep. Is there truly anything better than a peaceful rest? Maybe the goal of life ought to be to live in such a way that you are able to go to bed each night and have a peaceful nights rest. To be free of stress when we go to bed is ultimately what I think we all strive for. Why do we feel a need to do so much, to be so much?
The path to peace is within you. Becoming one is the path to peace. When you see all is one and you are one with all, you will discover peace is simply the absence of believe we are not one. Reflect on this statement:
"If we are all one, when we are at war, who wins?" When you become one with the world, you become the cause of all conflict and all resolution. As your own creator, all of it is your doing - good and bad. To believe otherwise is duality, and to live in peace, seek non-duality. When you live in the NOW, there is no conflict. When you live in the now, you you are one with all. Your thoughts arise and life is unfolds simultaneously. It's only when we have thoughts of separation that conflict has space to exist. Eliminate the separation, and you will eliminate the space for conflict.
Where do our thoughts come from and where do they go?
There's no space between when a thought enters our mind and when it leaves it. Study your thoughts that arise. How many of your thoughts arise from a feeling of incomplete? of discontent? of disorder? We our existence as something to fix. We can always do better. There's always room for improvement. There's always more and it's not enough. How would your thoughts change if you assumed that everything everywhere was whole and complete? That every problem was simultaneously solved. If there's no solution, there's no problem. Life is not a problem to be solved, it's an adventure to enjoy. And if you live continuously from this space, you don't give anxiety room to grow. The only thing I'm anxious about is getting pulled back into the illusion of the undone. I am complete and at peace - I was from the moment I was born. Let go of thoughts that arise from a sense that something is incomplete. Something is wrong. And the mind has a solution. For the creators, there's no gap between what they want and what they have because all you'll ever have is what you've got. Everything is temporary. Feelings will come and go. It's only when we get wrapped up in this idea of duality that we get hung up. It's when we forget everything is impermanent. When you truly live in the moment, you are never in conflict with the moment called life. The only conflict with life is death. How does conflict begin? By resisting the moment. By resisting what is. By believing this moment should be anything other than what it is. By believing that we are somehow separate from this moment. To believe that we are separate from anything in our experience. To believe that we are not creators. Awareness defines our reality.
Peace of Mind (Happiness & Peace)
Meditation as a tool for peace
"On the platform of Bliss, peace can be established in a permanent manner. Essentially, the state of happiness is the basis of lasting peace in daily life." - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Peace of mind in daily life.
Daily life of man is a collection of events. Some events go to supplement the cause of happiness. Others disrupt, or tend to disrupt, happiness. Peace is disturbed if happiness is in danger. Something we want to know in order to be happy. Something we want to possess in order to be happy. Something we want to do in order to be happy. If these different phases of action are disrupted, then we feel disappointment, peacelessness, worries. So, the cause of peacelessness in daily life is the discontentment. It may be due to thousand things. If your sense of peace is conditional on the complete, you will never find peace. Same can be said for happiness. When we meditate, we find the happiness and bliss that is already present. We go through our thinking mind and into bliss. From a place bliss, we see our thinking from a distance. How can we experience this peace our active lives?
I am going to compare the differences between my experience meditating and my experience of active life: First off, is time. I sit down and commit to 20 mins. I am at ease because I know I have nothing else to do for the next 20 mins but just sit in silence. I also know from past experience that the reward of doing so is a sense of deep peace (on occasion), and I always feel slightly reinvigorated afterwards. I'm reciting a mantra and intentionally not thinking. The mantra is designed to consume the energy of my thinking and since the mantra has no meaning, it doesn't trigger other thoughts. It's not always easy and is particularly difficult if I try to meditate me first in the morning. Time is a biggie for me. I'm constantly aware of the time. The deadline - the trigger for the next thing I have to do - even if those are things I want to do.
Peace of mind may be lasting if man comes to a position of gaining what he desires without any obstruction. If he gets to a position to gain anything at will, peace of mind will be permanent. Or, if he comes to a stand where he feels contented, comes to a status where he doesn't need anything more, contentment, lasting contentment of capacity to gain anything at will, these are the only two planes where the peace of mind may be lasting. What are the possibilities for man in this life under this set up of modern living? Whether it is possible to rise to a position where anything could be gained at will, or whether it is possible to rise to a position where we don't need anything, eternally contended we are with whatever we have. As far as the question of contentment goes, mind will not be contented unless he is established in bliss, unless he is in the realm of that great happiness, which is of absolute order and permanent nature. Unless greatest happiness of lasting nature be attained, mind is not going to be contented. As long as there is a chance of greater happiness to be gained, there will be a try, always mind will be trying, and trying, trying for something, and if not in a position to gain it, peacelessness will prevail, discontentment, frustration. So if there could be a way to lead to the field of greatest happiness of permanent nature, peace of mind will be natural. Now as it is, things of the world tempt the mind, tempt the senses, invite the senses to enjoy the glory, but nothing in the objective world is so glorified as to provide that great happiness which would bring satisfaction to the mind, that great happiness which would satisfy the thirst of happiness of the mind - nothing we see. And that's why the mind having gone to one object is repelled from there; goes to the other, to the third, fourth, fifth. All the time the mind is wandering from point to point only because no point is able to give that great happiness which could satisfy the thirst of happiness of the mind. We read in the scriptures, we read in metaphysics, that there is a state of Being which is Bliss. Bliss is that which is happiness of greatest order, happiness of Absolute nature. Absolute happiness is that which is happiness much greater than the greatest happiness of the relative field - small happiness, small joy, small, a medium of some joy, a medium of greater joy, a medium of greater joy. Some joy which is ever the same, never changing, that is Absolute, transcends all the limits of relativity. Unless that realm of great happiness is achieved, peace of mind will not be permanent because we know we become peaceless. We want this thing, this thing and if something is attained, feel peace, feel peace. But that peace is disturbed when we begin to aim for something greater, something greater, something greater. Therefore unless that greatest happiness is gained, peace is not going to be permanent. That is an established principle of life. The attainment of that happiness is a simple affair because it lies within us. It is the truth of life, the ultimate absolute principle of Being. Through meditation, we get to that and once that is tapped, once the source of that great happiness is tapped, mind becomes contented. That contented state of mind is a natural peace and once that comes, peace lasts throughout the day, through all the thick and thin of life, whatever it is. This simple system of meditation is the technique of having lasting peace in the day-to-day life. Peace on the basis of happiness, will be lasting. We get up in the morning after good sleep, we feel some peace of mind. But that peace of mind is on the basis of negation of thoughts. For four hours, six hours, the mind was devoid of thoughts. The mind was devoid of the pressure of thoughts and the peace was felt. So, the peace after night's rest is due to absence of thoughts for some time, but that peace which is on the basis of absence of thoughts is disturbed, is well disturbed, when we come into the field of thoughts and action. After two or three hours of waking, when the mind is engaged in the daily affairs, the pressure of the thoughts begins to oppress the mind and peace is disturbed. So, the principle is drawn that the peace on the basis of negation of thoughts, on the basis of vacancy of mind, will not be permanent. It will be felt, it will be experienced, only as long as the mind is devoid of thoughts. In order that the peace may be had throughout the day, through all the walks of life, it is very necessary that the mind is established in happiness through all the activities of life, because vacancy of thoughts doesn't establish lasting peace. If the mind is happy - by any means, by any method, by any gain - if the mind is happy, then through all the activities of daily life, the mind is happy. And once it is in a happy mood, peace of mind is there. Peace of mind is not so great a gain as is happiness of mind. Positive happiness of mind is a great gain, is a positive gain. Peace of mind is just a negative state, negation of thoughts. Thoughts are not there, and peace is felt. If too many thoughts are there, the peace is disturbed. So peace is the vacancy of thoughts. But mere vacancy of thoughts does not bring lasting peace because all the time it is not possible to keep the mind devoid of thoughts. All the time, it is not possible to keep the mind devoid of thoughts, and when the thoughts come, peace seems to be disturbed. State of happiness of the mind is that state where even the thoughts are entertained by the mind, but the mind is not allowed to be peaceless, to be worried, although it obviously appears that peace of mind is a state where the mind is not disturbed, as if it appears as if a state devoid of thoughts is a state of peace. But all the time it is not possible to have a vacant mind - so many responsibilities in life. But it is very well possible to bring the mind to a state where the mind will not feel peaceless. Even through all the activities, even when the mind is engaged, even when it is engaged, even then it is engaged peacefully. That will be when the nature of the mind becomes a happy nature. Whatever happens, this or that, black or white, the mind is happy. And in that state, the peace of mind will be retained through all the whites, through all the blacks. Because it is not possible to keep the mind vacant all the time, but because is possible to bring a state of happiness in the mind, so that through any states of life, the mind will not be disturbed, will not feel peaceless, will not feel worried. And that state will be when the mind naturally becomes happy. When happiness becomes the nature of the mind, then peace is lived in a lasting manner, most naturally. On the platform of Bliss, peace can be established in a permanent manner. Essentially, the state of happiness is the basis of lasting peace in daily life. If there could be a way to maintain happiness all the time, through all the walks of life, then peace will be natural. Nothing of the daily life would be able to disrupt the peace. Therefore, in order to have peace in daily life, we aim at acquiring happiness in daily life - one step ahead. In order to go to New York, we take a ticket round the world, and New York is the first stop. The technique of gaining peace in life is, let the nature of mind be happy. If the nature of mind could be infused in happiness, peace will be just, it'll be there without any doing for it, without any trying for it. We go round the world, and New York is the first stop. We aim at getting happiness in life, and peace is there. We are not required to work for peace. Otherwise, to work for peace alone, devoid of happiness, it'll be almost impossible, almost impracticable if not quite impossible. To remain peaceful, without being happy - impracticable if not quite impossible. It is not possible to be peaceful without being happy. Maybe for some time it is possible. We sleep during the night, and we feel peaceful for some time in the morning, but that is disturbed. But if you could be happy, naturally peace would be established. Always, the best policy to work for a higher degree in order to easily attain the lower. When you have a big scheme, then small schemes are easily fulfilled. That's why we aim at Bliss, Absolute Bliss. And for that we sit in meditation and go deep and reach the realm of Bliss, become happy, completely become happy, so much so that we lose our identity. We become it 10%, 100% we become it. We become Bliss, completely Bliss. Coming out, it naturally clings to the nature of mind. The mind naturally lives it. With the practice, the mind is tuned to live it more and more in its essence, more and more. Someday, it remains full. Then in and out have no meaning. The inner, transcendent, comes to the outer, relative. And then 100% nature of the mind is Bliss. When the mind is Bliss, no question of any misery, no question of any disaster, no worries, nothing - all happiness, always. Peace is naturally a lasting affair. This is how we create a natural state of peace, and that is on the basis of Self-realization. Realization of the nature of the inner Self. Inner Self is Bliss. We realize Bliss, so much so that we become it. We be it. We, being it when we come out, we are it. And then there is no chance of any outer element to disrupt the blissful state of the mind. Mind is naturally peaceful. This simple system of meditation, which readily unfolds the Self, taps into the 'Bliss of the Self' within, and brings the Bliss to be experienced through all walks of life, is a simple technique of permanent peace for the individual and for the universe. Bliss is there in the heart of everybody. Kingdom of heaven, that great happiness of permanent nature, is there in the heart of everybody. It is the subtlest aspect of our own Being. It is our own nature. We are that. Only, we have to experience it and having experienced it, peace of mind-not only peace of mind, blissful state of mind, through all the walks of life. It is only necessary to broadcast this message so that masses at large, people at large, may hear it, may practice it-be happy in their life.'
Making Peace with the Incomplete
Remixed from Adyashanti Enlightenment is simply a process of discovering that everything is already complete. Everything is totally and already complete. That doesn’t mean it’s ended. That doesn’t mean something’s gotten to a goal. It means just that it’s totally and completely complete. Everything and everyone is complete; perfect. Everything is a manifestation of the divine principle. Everything that exists is a manifestation of the divine, and therefore it’s complete. To our surface-mind it seems totally irrational, does it not? You open your surface-eyes and nothing looks complete. Things look in utter chaos. This can’t be complete! We’ve got to get to somewhere. We’ve got to get to a place of completion. We’ve got to keep going and moving, and completing, and completing, and completing, and completing, and completing. Yet this very mindset is the illusion. The perception that everything is actually complete even though it looks like it’s not. Everyone’s behaving as if it’s not and so, therefore, it looks like it’s not. If you don’t realize that everything’s complete, and whole, and perfect as it is, then your whole life becomes “things are not complete, and whole, and perfect as they are.” The world looks like everybody walking around, billions of human beings, actually manifesting a mindstate that says “things are not complete, they’re not whole, they’re not perfect, they’re not as they should be.” Billions of human beings walking the face of the planet with that mindstate, projecting that, living that out. What do we expect it’s all going to look like? Right? Complete disaster. And then the disaster seems to reinforce that things aren’t whole, things aren’t complete. Do you see that’s why the Buddha called it the Wheel of Saṃsāra: because it’s a closed loop. It looks like a closed loop, right? You believe something, you act it out, then the world starts to look exactly like you believe it looks, and it acts like you think it will act, and therefore it justifies the belief, and before you know it the loop is closed. It’s self-sustaining saṃsāra; self-sustaining illusion. And it just continues and continues. This is what the spiritual—anybody who’s really deeply awakened knows—this is what’s referred to as an illusion: this self-perpetuating cycle of saṃsāra, of suffering. It originates from a sense of wrongness. True awakening brings with it a sense of there isn’t anything wrong. And so even if you’re addressing what seems to be wrong, you’re not doing it because anything is wrong. This is a very subtle and yet one of the most important points of the whole spirituality: Realizing that the power of mind to create a given reality and manifest it out in the world, and then it self-perpetuates itself, yet nobody questions it. Because you look around and you say, “Nothing seems to justify that.” That’s why I say it’s a closed loop. But it’s amazing when people start to see really see; not as a theory, not a new-age thing where people walk around going, “Everything’s whole and complete and it’s all okay, so just don’t bother me, man. Mellow out.” Right? Not—that’s phony. Not phony-spiritual-person thing. I mean the direct perception. And it starts with you. You as presence are whole and complete. Everything unfolds outward from within. You discovers a sense of wholeness within yourself about yourself, which brings a sense of wholeness and completeness about the world. This is freedom from anxiety of the undone because you discover you are the source of it all and awareness itself.
When we act from a state of completeness and can see that the incomplete is a subjective perspective - anything can be viewed as incomplete because creation is an unending process - or you could say that creation is the end itself. We can find peace because our monkey minds are no longer on the wheel of saṃsāra... and we've stepped off the wheel to find nirvana. To awaken, and embody ,and live what’s awakened is all the remaining pieces within yourself that still function from the illusion that something’s not whole and not complete. That there’s someone to blame, there’s something to have regret for, and there’s something to hold in judgment. All those three conclusions come from a sense that something, somebody should be other than they actually are. And even after your awakening, bit by bit, those remaining pieces that still haven’t got the message of wholeness reveal themselves to be seen through. Basically, all you have to do is hold them in the light of a consciousness that sees everything as complete. You don’t necessarily have to do a whole lot about it, you just have to hold anything that doesn’t see itself as complete in the light of a consciousness that knows everything’s complete. Just hold it there, that’s all. In the light of presence. "There is no goal. Life is its own goal. There is nothing outside life that you have to achieve. All achievement is the projection of the ego. The very idea of achievement is ambition. What you achieve does not matter - money, power, knowledge; these are not in any way going to give you life. In fact, in achieving power, in achieving money, in achieving prestige, in achieving any other ambition, you are losing your life, you are sacrificing your life." ~ Osho Will the incompletes & undones ever stop coming? Never. Incompletes are the result of our ever-unfolding creation. We are the creator of all the incompletes we have. But we can 'step off the wheel' and see creation for what it is - the manifestation of our own awareness. Don't mistake reality for the movie. The movie is story. Reality is awareness.
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