You are the peace that you seek

You cannot have the cake and eat it! The same way, you cannot cling on to things in Life and still want inner peace!

When you are clinging on to things in Life __ which is when you are attached to family, job, salary, EMIs, worries, problems and emotions, opinions, prejudices, you cannot live freely! You have been brought up to believe, just as I have been, and just as the way we are bringing up our children, that living equals ‘earning-a-living’. But does earning-a-living give you joy? It may give you comfort, but does it give you joy? And so, that’s how, in search of the true meaning of Life, your transformation from struggler and climber to seeker happens.

At the end of the day, everyone is seeking peace. But do you need to have worked so hard, not lived any of the 70 years of your Life, and then discover that peace is easy to find and easier to retain, if only you stopped clinging on to things in Life!? There’s a story that Swami Rama, the legendary Himalayan Yogi, used to say. It is the story of two monks. The two monks were on a journey by foot. And the younger monk asked the older one how detachment can be practiced. “By letting go,” said the older one. “But my worldly responsibilities refuse to let me to let go,” complained the younger one. The older one did not reply. They retired under a big tree for the night. The next morning, when the younger monk woke up, he found the older one hugging the tree’s trunk. Saying that it was getting late, the younger one respectfully invited the older one to continue their journey. But the older monk complained that the tree wouldn’t let him go! The younger monk tried pulling the older one away from the tree. But to no avail. Finally, disgusted at the older monk’s childish behavior, the younger one said, “Master, you are foolish. It is not the tree which is holding you. You are the one who is holding on to the tree. You have to let go to be free and go along on our journey.” The older monk smiled and replied: “But how can I? I am attached to it pretty much the way you are attached too, with your worldly Life?” The younger monk got the lesson. And hopefully you too have got it!

In reality, we are the peace we seek. We don’t have to find it, or seek it. We must just stop clinging on to all that which is an impediment to us feeling our inner peace. We must just let go of everything that we cling on to. What will then remain is only peace!