The Origin of Peace..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Since the beginning of humankind there has been talk of peace.  The Buddha talks of peace, the ancient Hindu philosophies, the Vedas talk of peace as their main focus, ancient Greek translations of the Bible speak of peace, all the great sages of India, all the profits, all the great scholars, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Baba Ram Dass, even my Mother and Spiritual Teacher Sri Karunamayi Amma speaks of the necessity of peace in this world family, all these spiritual forces speak of peace, and there is still so much violence, confusion, conflict, anger, greed and so on.  To have peace one must first understand the truth in that word, peace, to weight this word in such a way that one has total understanding of the peace inherent in the heart.  These words that I speak, and the discoveries we will make will be done together.  They are not words from a learned place, from a book, from an individual telling you what peace it, but from a place of inner sanctuary, a place of the inner voice.  Together, here, right now, in this space we will travel together to find the truth in the word peace, to uncover the essence of that word, the true fragrance and effluent light that comes from this divine feeling.

            In peace there exists only peace.  There is no other emotion, or stimuli, just peace.  Peace exists in the realm of our true nature.  Our true nature is found inwardly.  The external vibrations, the social vibrations, the materialistic vibrations, is what will create in us the nervous tensions that cause unrest in the heart and mind.  The only way to find peace is to turn inwardly.  Humankind has performed so many great acts with the mind—traveling in space, creation of the computer, the internet, tiny mechanical devices that contain a whole lifetime of paperwork, yet somehow we have done very little searching inwardly.  The valleys that rest in the inward mind are as endless of the expanse of this universe, we must first discover this inner universe, before we can create change in the world around us.  It has been said many times, yes, that one cannot do good for others unless they are, strong enough and healthy enough in body and mind to do good by oneself.  This is not a new thought or inclination—it is well known, easy to see, very clear.   So, how do we attain peace?  I ask you, how do you give peace to your life and to others?  First, we must understand the origin of peace.  Where does peace come from—what is it that creates the feeling of peace—and most importantly how do we attain peace?  These are all questions we must ask before we can begin to spread peace to others—we must know the deepest answers to these questions and have true understanding of them, before we can give it to anyone else, is this right?  Are we together?  I hope so.

            What happens when conflict between two people arises?  The energy is very heavy, a very low, and heavy vibration ensues.  The heart will feel weighed down, the mind drags, and the rest of our outward lives will seem in chaos.  These feelings are not our true nature.  It is easy to see that—conflict creates unhappiness and peace creates joy and love in the heart.  So the core of conflict is unhappiness and the core of peace is love.  So, now, to understand peace we must understand love.  Love creates an unforgettable perfume.  When one loves another, in the purest sense of the word, the bond that is created is stronger than any tank, more powerful than any missile, and can heal better than any medicine.  To give love to the people around you is to give the highest, most healing, medicine.  Just as peace is only peace—love dwells in love, only.  That is not to say that if you love you do not have conflict, hatred, anger, depression—all of these emotions are seeds that lie within your consciousness, just as seeds of love are there as well.  The seeds of love are covered by all this dissolution.  To uncover the seeds of love is to give water to the good seeds so that the plant of love may grow and blossom to gently take care of the bad seeds.  Are you with me, am I making myself clear?  Let us back up a bit.

            Can we live in a state of non-conflict?  Can human beings live peacefully among each other without any conflict what so ever?  Is it possible?  So, now, to understand peace is to understand conflict, because in peace there is no room for conflict.  I was once listening to a lecture given by Ram Dass, he said, "I went to a peace protest in San Fransico, and I swear I’ve never seen more angry people in all my life, I thought ’where’s the peace protest, I thought everyone was supposed to be peaceful.’"  This would be an example of misguided thought.  Peace is not aggression.  There is a way to spread peace without turning into the aggressor—in that way we are only adding to the conflict.  The moment we set ourselves in an aggressive position we are perpetuating the anger and violence we fight against.  If we are truly peaceful inwardly—where does the anger have to go—anger cannot feed off of peace, it only feeds off of anger.  There really, is just a fine line.  Gandhi never stood down from his beliefs until the day his body perished on this earth, and liberated his country in doing so, yet never did he have anger in his heart, or unrest, or nervousness, or greed, or loneliness.  He was always in communion with the divine force that truly governs our existence.  God, the ultimate truth, peace, love, whatever word you choose to use for the representation of this ultimate energy—that is what Gandhi used as his defense against the unjust.  He did not retort the unjust with anger—feeding the negativity—he fought the unjust with a peaceful, non-violent heart, that was always directed toward God, or God consciousness. 

            Now we are in a subject that is very touchy between one individual and another, and creates one of the main sources of conflict in our society.  The idea of God in the human mind is based on a set system of beliefs, and really the paths are different but the goal is the same.  Just as the rays of the sun are many but the source of the rays come from one Sun.  The human belief system is what creates conflict among humanity, not God.  Whether you are a believer, a non-believer, whatever spiritual path you may be on, whatever religion you may claim, if you have peace in your heart there is no room for conflict between you and another, no matter their spiritual path or set system of beliefs.  Does this make sense?  If you have peace in your heart, you only have peace.  To have peace is to have love, and in love there is no room for conflict. 

            To have love is to know the truth.  The truth is, understanding the true nature of humanity.  We do not know the answer to the question of why—why we are here on this earth—or why so many terrible injustices are happening in this world.  The only thing we know for sure is the energies that reside in the space in our heart.  We know what will cause us happiness and what will cause us unhappiness.  The only thing you can really change is yourself.  This, too, has been said many times over, by many schools of thought.  The way to change the world around you is to change yourself for the better.  So, to be at peace in your heart is the only thing you can control in this life.  You can be at peace.

            Now, how can we remain at peace in the heart and witness so much injustice.  If we are shaken and stirred by injustices we are not at peace.  To be at peace is to understand the truth and the facts of this world—and most importantly of all—to not be at judgment with them.  The moment we take time to judge a situation, whether we know we are right in doing so or not, we move outside the realm of peace.  To be at peace is to always have this understanding—we cannot serve others in peace if we have not peace in our hearts.  This is a constant practice.  It takes years and years of practice to be in a space where we can train ourselves to remain in peace, always.   You want to do good in this world, yes?  You want to change this world for the better, yes?  How can you be affective if what you want to change makes you angry or frustrated?  You can create change that way, yet the energy is short lived, and misguided.  To create longevity of peace, one must make the practice of peace in your own heart the first discipline.  Be content and know that you are peaceful—be content and know that you have love in your heart, that you do not judge, that you have no conflict.  This practice will bring about so much change in the world around you, and so much so that you will have not even needed to leave your own community to do so.  You can try this at work, in your daily life.  I’m not talking about activism here, I’m talking about your daily life, making your daily life a practice of peace.  To practice peace in your daily life is the greatest surrender you can give to the cause that you promote.  This all starts with peace in the home

            If there is no peace in the home life, there will be no peace in the world.  We must get back to creating peace.  First, be a peace maker in your own home.  To be a peace maker is to be a pillar in the society.  To be a peace maker is to be a very strong willed individual.  Peace creates the strongest determination, because the energy of love that resides in peace, is stronger than any political power, stronger than any armed forces.  Love will be the sword.  Divine Mother Amma says, "sleigh the enemies of peace with the sword of compassion."  Peace starts with compassion.  You are all here because you are passionate—don’t lose that passion, yet turn it into the passion of loving kindness.  Loving kindness is the compassion that will bring about the change you desire. 

            Peace is freedom, peace is harmony.  These divine feelings are found in silence.  How can we attain peace with so much commotion around us—it is simple—silence.  Silence is the greatest peace—where do we discover all the answers to life’s greatest mysteries, such as; "can we live in peace?"  The answers come from silencing ourselves enough to work through a contented, peaceful heart. 

            If we really want peace we can have it without national leaders, because peace lives in the nation of our hearts, and that nation is as vast as the expanse of our entire cosmos, if we can only realize this fact.  Practice looking inwardly.  Practice this daily, every minute ever second.  People learn from your actions, if you act always in peace, with a peaceful heart, you will see, without any force of effort from your own, peace will spread throughout the world.  It starts with the home.  Give peace to the home.  To give peace to the home is to give love to the world.  To give love to one mother, or one sister, or one father, or one brother, is to give peace to all the families in this world.  Those vibrations last, and spread out to the infinite.  This is all meditation, this is all the practice of meditation—to probe deep into oneself.  To discover the true understanding of the feelings behind words that we use so easily.  It is easy to say, you have peace, or you promote peace, and much harder to make it a minute by minute true discipline.  This is what I hope for you all.  You know what is happening in the world, you are current on political events, wars, injustice, injustice in our own country and in other countries.  You see the change you want to make in the world—the art of this change is being the change you see in the world—again very easy to say, much more difficult to practice. 

            You are in the practice of communication.  Without love there is no communication.  Without love there will only be barriers created around you.  To place love in your speech is to bring peace to your communication.  Speaking peaceful, kind, loving, thoughtful words is the best way to spread peace into the world.  This is why silence is so important—in times when you are unable to speak peacefully and lovingly—is a time for silence.  In this silence one is able to see the true reality of the emotions which cause you to move away from your state of peace.  In silence one has the capacity to return to yourself and re-establish and re-sprout the seeds of love and peace within you.  It is almost as if you are re-charging your spiritual mind, your true self.  Being nervous, frustrated, angry, full of hatred, greedy, and so on, take a lot of effort, it expends all you energy.  So, to be in calm, peaceful, loving silence, being kind to yourself, is a way to bring yourself back to your true nature, so that you may again be able to go back into a world of mass chaos and confusion and still have the strong will of a peaceful warrior.  So, sometimes the best way to communicate is to remain in silence until that light of peace and love enters your heart once again.  Do not waste your words in negative activity.  Time is precious, human life is precious and delicate.  Imagine the profound effects of speaking one kind and peaceful word to a person who has grown up around hatred, imagine the insufferable weight that is lifted away from the heart of the person your kind words are directed.  Treat every moment, every opportunity to communicated as your daily, inward, peaceful practice.  Look at your life as an opportunity to spread this level of kindness, love and understanding to those around you.  Only then, will you begin to see the longevity and the fruitfulness of peace activism.

All my love, prayers, and blessings to you all.

Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantihi

May all beings experience peace…

Tyagaraja