Peace arrives when you stop
resisting, stop fighting and stop struggling with Life.
Each
of us is fighting something or the other. All the time. Someone fights for
health. Someone else for wealth. There’s someone fighting for dignity. And
someone for identity. Someone out there fights for companionship. Another
soldiers on for acceptance. Yet a factor that’s common to all constituencies is
that everyone, despite their individual fights, wants peace. You look around.
Ask around. And you will find that almost everyone wants just peace. And they
will all talk about inner peace __
bliss, joy, plain, good ol’ happiness.
But
you can’t pursue peace when you are struggling with Life, fighting its every
dimension. You cannot be angry with your situation in Life and expect to find
peace in it at the same time. Peace will come, when you suspend all hostility
in your mind, and through that act, make your immediate circle of influence
peaceful. Peace has a price to be paid for, and that is to be accepting of a
situation or a person or an outcome. Many people wonder what is the way to
peace. And the simplest answer to their query is what Vietnamese Buddhist monk
Thich Nhat Hanh champions: “Peace is
the way!”
But
by ceasing to fight, are you embracing inaction? And isn’t inaction equal to
committing hara-kiri? Let me clarify:
ceasing to fight is not inaction. It means acceptance. You can be accepting of
a situation, be peaceful, and yet work towards changing it. They are not
mutually exclusive. On the other hand, they are complementary. The other day,
at a coffee shop, I noticed a young couple argue with each other at another
table. The lady was agitated. Often gesticulating wildly, raising her voice just
so much that others around could hear and perceive that she was upset with the
gentleman. The man, on the other hand, was stoic. He was calm and in control of
himself, even if he was not in control of the situation. At the end of their
discussions and arguments, I felt nothing had been resolved. Things were where
they were when they came in. But the lady stomped out in a huff, and I believe
she must have been continuing to fight the situation, or the man, in her mind.
The man was calm, perhaps not happy either with the way the meeting ended, and
made a slow, peaceful exit. He may also have felt that things could have been
better, but for sure, he wasn’t feeling worse. He was peaceful. He wasn’t
fighting. Yet he was not abstaining from action. Coming to the meeting, making
an attempt, while staying calm, was indeed action.
We
too can embrace this way of living. Simply, don’t start with asking ‘WHY?’ of
Life at each of its twists and turns. Exclaim instead, ‘Interesting, so, we
have a situation…!’, and mobilize your action to resolving it. Even a fight for
a nation’s independence can be a peaceful__and successful__one. Gandhi proved
it and so did 300 million of his followers, fellow Indians, back then. The same
principle applies here. End all violent thinking __ about anyone or anything __
and approach each problem or situation with complete focus and total
equanimity. Remember: to find peace, inner
peace, peace is the way!
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