“Inside you, there’s a stillness and a sanctuary to which you’ll be able to retreat at any time and be your self.” ~Hermann Hesse
After I work with people who find themselves affected by anxiousness, concern, grief, or different difficult points, I wish to take them by a easy train I name “The Noticing Train.”
It’s my first port of name when serving to individuals break away from mind-created struggling.
It’s wonderful how rapidly, and effortlessly, individuals can transfer from struggling to peace, merely by shifting their focus to being conscious of the current second—noticing the feeling of the physique touching the chair, the ribs increasing on the in breath, or the sounds within the room.
Even deeply troubled people can expertise peace the very first time they do this easy meditation.
How is that this attainable?
It’s as a result of peace is already there inside all of us. It’s an integral a part of who we’re. When the thoughts’s exercise subsides, even for a second, peace is what stays.
The ocean supplies analogy.
On the floor, the water is consistently in movement. It by no means stops, even for a second. However if you drop down into the depths, there’s stillness and peace.
It’s precisely the identical with the thoughts.
On the floor stage, the thoughts is at all times lively however, within the depths of our being, there’s a pure peace and stillness that’s unchanging… at all times current, at all times out there. Being a part of our important nature, it might by no means go away us.
Though this inherent peace is at all times there, it goes unnoticed in most individuals by the deep-seated behavior of giving our unique consideration to the floor actions of the thoughts.
We’re so pre-occupied with what’s happening on the floor that we merely fail to spot what’s taking place within the depths of our expertise.
And, after all, there’s nothing ‘mistaken’ with any of this.
Spending our days misplaced in pondering is the human situation. It’s what all of us do.
Being swept away by the stressed waters of the thoughts is completely regular, notably once we are confronted with intense patterns akin to anxiousness, trauma, or grief. And but, the very fact stays that, regardless of appearances, there’s a peace inside each certainly one of us that’s untouched by what’s happening on the floor, nevertheless intense it could be.
Withdraw your consideration from the thoughts, even for a second, and it’s there.
You don’t must create it; simply acknowledge what has at all times been there.
Peace doesn’t go away you. You allow peace.
Stress, anxiousness, and unhappiness exist primarily within the type of ideas.
If you’ll be able to turn out to be totally current within the second, ideas subside, and stress and anxiousness are changed by peace and stillness.
In fact, most individuals will decide up their painful tales once more as quickly because the meditation involves an finish, however the truth they had been in a position to be freed from their struggling, even briefly, supplies us with clues for locating a extra everlasting resolution.
With follow, anybody can study to withdraw their consideration from the thoughts for longer intervals of time and thereby prolong the intervals of peace.
Have You Been Barking Up the Flawed Tree?
Most individuals are on the lookout for peace the place it might by no means be discovered—not lasting peace anyway.
It’s a bit like shedding your keys in the home and on the lookout for them within the backyard.
You’re by no means going to seek out them… as a result of they don’t seem to be there.
Most individuals I assist have been trying to find peace by the trail of self-improvement, typically for years.
And it makes complete sense.
If my thoughts is inflicting me bother, then the plain resolution is to attempt to repair it—to ‘work on myself’ and attempt to convert all my anxious and sad ideas and emotions into nice, comfortable ones. Attempt to create a brand new, improved model of myself.
However, in the event you’ve been down this path for any size of time, as I’ve, you’ll know that basically altering the thoughts shouldn’t be really easy.
The issue with this strategy is encapsulated within the following quote from the Indian religious instructor, Nisargadatta:
“There isn’t a such factor as peace of thoughts. Thoughts means disturbance; restlessness itself is thoughts.”
Just like the floor of the ocean, the thoughts is consistently in movement. It’s stressed by nature.
And, though there could be fleeting moments of peace right here and there, they are going to inevitably be adopted by moments of agitation and disturbance.
Restlessness is the character of the thoughts. Making an attempt to make it calm and peaceable is like attempting to iron the floor of the ocean. It’s merely by no means going to occur.
Making Peace with The Thoughts Simply as It Is
To discover a resolution that really works, we should first perceive the true reason behind struggling. It’s not what most folk suppose.
Individuals consider, as I did for years, that the anxious, demanding, or fearful ideas themselves are the first reason behind struggling.
They consider that:
- the thoughts is damaged and must be mounted.
- anxiousness, concern, confusion, and so on. are inherently unhealthy or mistaken.
- there’s one thing mistaken with them for having these ideas.
- they’ll’t expertise peace or happiness till they’re gone.
These beliefs are the primary purpose individuals endure.
Because the Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello stated:
“There’s just one reason behind unhappiness; the false beliefs you will have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so widespread, that it by no means happens to you to query them.”
What if, as a substitute of spending years attempting to repair the content material of the thoughts, we centered as a substitute on making peace with the thoughts, simply as it’s?
What if, relatively than combating and resisting concern, unhappiness, envy, or confusion, you had been in a position to settle for them as pure expressions of the human situation?
What would occur to your anxiousness in the event you didn’t see something ‘mistaken’ with it?
Or your unhappiness in the event you didn’t thoughts it being there?
They might nonetheless really feel disagreeable however, within the absence of resistance, they’d lose their energy to have an effect on your peace.
We are able to wrap our non-peace within the peace of acceptance.
You Don’t Have to Have a Peaceable Thoughts to Expertise Peace
On the trail of self-improvement, the objective is to seek out peace of thoughts.
However this strategy is unlikely to succeed just because the thoughts is stressed by nature.
Right here’s the reality:
You may’t cease bothersome ideas from arising, however you may cease bothering about them.
One among my academics used to say, “You endure since you are open for enterprise.”
You entertain your ideas and invite them in for tea—have interaction with them, ruminate over them, wallow in them, play them again and again in your head—and create struggling for your self consequently.
You don’t must have a peaceable thoughts to expertise peace.
You have to cease giving your ideas a lot consideration and significance.
If you’ll be able to settle for no matter seems in your head, whether or not nice or disagreeable, with an perspective of non-judgmental acceptance, you’ll at all times be at peace.
Acceptance is like kryptonite to the thoughts. It loses its energy to disturb your peace.
The Two Sorts of Peace
There are two forms of peace.
There’s the sensation of peace, which is a brief respite from feeling stressed or agitated. Like all emotions, it comes and goes, like clouds passing throughout the sky.
Then there’s the peace that exists within the depths of your being; the backdrop of peace that’s unchanging, ever-present, and has nothing to do with what’s going on in your head.
Even within the midst of probably the most turbulent storm at sea, within the depths, the ocean stays calm and unmoving.
There’s a peace inside each certainly one of us that is still untouched by the actions on the floor, regardless of how intense.
And it’s not troublesome to seek out. How may it’s if it’s already who you’re?
You don’t want to repair or change something about your self to expertise what’s ever-present inside you.
You simply must dive under the floor and uncover what’s at all times there.
The peace you’re on the lookout for is with you at all times. However you’ll by no means discover it on the extent of the thoughts.
