Last week the Ashram hosted Peace in the Plaza – an event in the main plaza in Sonoma to inspire the community towards inner peace. Many joined us and it was a beautiful gathering that we hope to do for many years to come. So this word “peace” has been very much on my mind for the past few weeks.
Peace is there. It’s always there. But how easily we lose it over small things like: somebody didn’t smile at me, somebody didn’t acknowledge what I did, didn’t hear me, didn’t make time for me, didn’t do what I wanted them to do. All of these feelings come, and we lose our peace.
We can sit and meditate for hours, go to seminars, read all the books and pray, and look very holy from the outside. Are we really maintaining our peace?
What does it take to maintain our peace?
It reminds me of a story. There was an old monk and a young monk living together. The old monk asked the young one, “What is conflict? I have lived alone, and this word ‘conflict’ I read about but I don’t understand it.” The young monk nodded and didn’t say anything.
Later that morning when they were having breakfast, suddenly, the young monk pulled the elder’s bowl towards him. The old monk said, “That’s mine. Give it to me.” The young monk pulled the bowl back. And this went on two, three times. Finally, the old monk said – “Okay, you have it.” The young one said, “Just a minute ago, we were having a conflict. But the moment you said, ‘Okay, you have it,’ you ended the conflict.”
It’s our insistence on our desire, our way of thinking, our idea, our way of seeing something that creates conflict. The day we develop this ability within us to allow a little space for the other we end the conflict. In those moments, we are creating peace.
How can we develop the practice of looking for our own happiness in the smile of the other person? It is this attitude that truly brings peace into the world. This is more than feeling good about ourselves because we have done something or given something – it is truly experiencing a state of joy from the receiver’s happiness.
Sitting in meditation with our eyes closed is good, but the real spiritual practice is how we live our day to day lives. Do we walk in the world with the sense of “What can I do for you?” instead of “I have the right of way, I need to go.” Can we find a little joy in just letting the other person have what they want or go their own way?
Our sense of entitlement, our sense of “I know best” – these are human habits that we all have. But they become collective and we are seeing it all over the world today – they are the reason for conflict. We have enough. We don’t need to accumulate more. Yes, it may make my life a little easier, but at what cost? Creating so much anxiety, fear all over the world. Others lose their peace, we lose our peace.
Creating a peaceful world begins with developing peace as an individual and it’s everybody’s responsibility to create peace.
If you say, “I’m not fighting, I don’t bother anybody. What can I do to bring peace?” just look at yourself. There are moments we are all presented with when we lose our peace. In that moment, if we can take a nice deep breath and honor that peace within, we have made a great contribution to the collective peace.
We all can practice this. We all have moments when we are presented in our life, and anytime we avoid conflict and preserve our peace is a very sacred moment.
It is said: if you want to maintain your peace, forget two things: the good you have done to the other, and the harm that the other has done to you. And remember two things: remember God, and remember death.
When we keep remembering or reminding someone of our good deed, expectation grows. We all know that our expectations of others often don’t get met, and then we lose our peace. When we constantly bring to mind the harm that another has done, we keep living in bitterness. The more we remember, the more we talk about it, the more that negativity just lives. Remember God – remember that higher presence within you and all around you and remember death—everything ends there.
The choice is ours while we are living: do we want to live in peace or do we want to live in misery? Every moment provides us an opportunity to work on peace: our individual peace and collective peace. May we be able to catch ourselves in those moments when we start to lose our peace, and watch our minds. Are we justifying our reaction? That’s one option. The other option is:
Stop, take a step back, take a deep breath. Maintain your peace.
It’s such a powerful practice that transcends all religions and all traditions. It’s all about you. Maintaining your peace is the greatest spiritual practice.
Every soul has its own journey. This is your journey, it’s not somebody else’s journey. And this is your work. You have to do it. It’s all of our individual work and responsibility to create more peace in the world.
