FINDING PEACE WITHIN OURSELVES
Joseph Danladi Elvis Bot
September 11, 2006
These are troubled times. For some odd reason, even though we have achieved a standard of living never before known in history, having obtained that which was only hoped for by our ancestors, we have not found peace. On the contrary, we seem to have less peace than those who came before us. We are told that the reason their lives were filled with misery was because they didn’t have a nice home or a nice car, or a nice vacation. Their lives were filled with drudgery, disease and disappointment. Now we have plenty of paperwork jobs for women and men who find physical labor distasteful. We worry more about sexually transmitted disease than we do smallpox. Now that we are approaching that brave new world where we are learning how to master the forces of nature, even the inner workings of the mind of man, are we at the threshold of finding inner peace, or are we just making things worse?
Life is miserable without inner peace. There is no need to belabor the point. Money can buy a lot of things, maybe even love, but it cannot buy inner peace. It may buy time or it may buy off bureaucrats, it may buy protection, but only for a while. It soon loses its power when we are dealing with inner peace. For every wave safely surfed, there are a million more waiting that can take us down. We suspect it and it is confirmed daily. The anxiety grows. Depression or despair are only some of the common symptoms of no inner peace. Feelings of guilt can hang over us even though we feel like we did nothing wrong. Or we may just give up on inner peace and seek pleasure in things that are twisted and destructive. We may spend a lot of time and money trying to prove we are right to assuage our evil conscience. But inner peace brings happiness as no outside comfort or pleasure can. Having said all that, is there a way to inner peace?
One of the great truths from which we can benefit is that by clinging to the false ego of name, body, occupation - or any other mask/persona we adopt - instead of the real Self, which is an eternally valid part of God manifesting in the physical realm, we create suffering for ourselves. We cling to an illusion.
Now, the challenge is "Now do we realise our inseparability from the Source? How do we make direct, personal union with God?" We do this by turning within. If we seek first the kingdom of God which is within us, all else is added to us. Gift upon gift.
Well, that's great, but what is it we are seeking? And what is the 'Kingdom of God within' anyway? This is what it is: It is perfect Wisdom, perfect Love, perfect Peace and perfect Power, and they are not 'given' to you in a sudden flash of enlightenment, but are grown and developed within; watered by your longing and fertilised by your practice.
That which we call 'God' has always been within, about and throughout us, and it is typical of Man's outer search for God, by doing rather than by being, that he tries to 'find' God. How can you find what was never lost?. It is in recognizing the Peace of God that has been within and part of us all this while, that we truly find this ‘ever elusive’ inner peace.
Life is miserable without inner peace. There is no need to belabor the point. Money can buy a lot of things, maybe even love, but it cannot buy inner peace. It may buy time or it may buy off bureaucrats, it may buy protection, but only for a while. It soon loses its power when we are dealing with inner peace. For every wave safely surfed, there are a million more waiting that can take us down. We suspect it and it is confirmed daily. The anxiety grows. Depression or despair are only some of the common symptoms of no inner peace. Feelings of guilt can hang over us even though we feel like we did nothing wrong. Or we may just give up on inner peace and seek pleasure in things that are twisted and destructive. We may spend a lot of time and money trying to prove we are right to assuage our evil conscience. But inner peace brings happiness as no outside comfort or pleasure can. Having said all that, is there a way to inner peace?
One of the great truths from which we can benefit is that by clinging to the false ego of name, body, occupation - or any other mask/persona we adopt - instead of the real Self, which is an eternally valid part of God manifesting in the physical realm, we create suffering for ourselves. We cling to an illusion.
Now, the challenge is "Now do we realise our inseparability from the Source? How do we make direct, personal union with God?" We do this by turning within. If we seek first the kingdom of God which is within us, all else is added to us. Gift upon gift.
Well, that's great, but what is it we are seeking? And what is the 'Kingdom of God within' anyway? This is what it is: It is perfect Wisdom, perfect Love, perfect Peace and perfect Power, and they are not 'given' to you in a sudden flash of enlightenment, but are grown and developed within; watered by your longing and fertilised by your practice.
That which we call 'God' has always been within, about and throughout us, and it is typical of Man's outer search for God, by doing rather than by being, that he tries to 'find' God. How can you find what was never lost?. It is in recognizing the Peace of God that has been within and part of us all this while, that we truly find this ‘ever elusive’ inner peace.
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