“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
Once I work with people who find themselves affected by nervousness, concern, grief, or different difficult points, I prefer to take them via a easy train I name “The Noticing Train.”
It’s my first port of name when serving to folks break away from mind-created struggling.
It’s wonderful how shortly, and effortlessly, folks can transfer from struggling to peace, merely via 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 that easy meditation.
How is that this doable?
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 a superb analogy.
On the floor, the water is continually in movement. It by no means stops, even for a second. However while you drop down into the depths, there’s stillness and peace.
It’s precisely the identical with the thoughts.
On the floor degree, the thoughts is all the time energetic however, within the depths of our being, there’s a pure peace and stillness that’s unchanging… all the time current, all the time obtainable. Being a part of our important nature, it may by no means go away us.
Though this inherent peace is all the time there, it goes unnoticed in most individuals via 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 miss out on what’s taking place within the depths of our expertise.
And, in fact, there’s nothing ‘improper’ 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 resembling nervousness, trauma, or grief. And but, the very fact stays that, regardless of appearances, there’s a peace inside each one in every of us that’s untouched by what’s happening on the floor, nevertheless intense it might be.
Withdraw your consideration from the thoughts, even for a second, and it’s there.
You don’t need to create it; simply acknowledge what has all the time been there.
Peace doesn’t go away you. You permit peace.
Stress, nervousness, and unhappiness exist primarily within the type of ideas.
If you’ll be able to turn out to be absolutely current within the second, ideas subside, and stress and nervousness are changed by peace and stillness.
After all, most individuals will decide up their painful tales once more as quickly because the meditation involves an finish, however the truth they have been in a position to be freed from their struggling, even briefly, supplies us with clues for locating a extra everlasting answer.
With follow, anybody can study to withdraw their consideration from the thoughts for longer durations of time and thereby prolong the durations of peace.
Have You Been Barking Up the Improper Tree?
Most individuals are on the lookout for peace the place it may 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 aren’t there.
Most individuals I assist have been looking for peace via the trail of self-improvement, typically for years.
And it makes complete sense.
If my thoughts is inflicting me hassle, then the apparent answer is to attempt to repair it—to ‘work on myself’ and attempt to convert all my anxious and sad ideas and emotions into nice, pleased ones. Attempt to create a brand new, improved model of myself.
However, if you happen to’ve been down this path for any size of time, as I’ve, you’ll know that essentially altering the thoughts just isn’t really easy.
The issue with this strategy is encapsulated within the following quote from the Indian non secular instructor, Nisargadatta:
“There is no such thing as a such factor as peace of thoughts. Thoughts means disturbance; restlessness itself is thoughts.”
Just like the floor of the ocean, the thoughts is continually 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. Attempting to make it calm and peaceable is like making an attempt 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 answer that really works, we should first perceive the true reason for struggling. It’s not what most people assume.
Individuals consider, as I did for years, that the anxious, aggravating, or fearful ideas themselves are the first reason for struggling.
They consider that:
- the thoughts is damaged and must be mounted.
- nervousness, concern, confusion, and so forth. are inherently dangerous or improper.
- there’s one thing improper with them for having these ideas.
- they will’t expertise peace or happiness till they’re gone.
These beliefs are the principle motive folks endure.
Because the Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello mentioned:
“There’s just one reason for unhappiness; the false beliefs you have got in your head, beliefs so frequent, so widespread, that it by no means happens to you to query them.”
What if, as an alternative of spending years making an attempt to repair the content material of the thoughts, we targeted as an alternative on making peace with the thoughts, simply as it’s?
What if, moderately than preventing and resisting concern, unhappiness, envy, or confusion, you have been in a position to settle for them as pure expressions of the human situation?
What would occur to your nervousness if you happen to didn’t see something ‘improper’ with it?
Or your unhappiness if you happen to didn’t thoughts it being there?
They could nonetheless really feel disagreeable however, within the absence of resistance, they’d lose their energy to have an effect on your peace.
We will 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 aim 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 possibly can’t cease bothersome ideas from arising, however you may cease bothering about them.
Considered one of my academics used to say, “You endure since you are open for enterprise.”
You entertain your ideas and invite them in for tea—interact with them, ruminate over them, wallow in them, play them time and again in your head—and create struggling for your self because of this.
You don’t must have a peaceable thoughts to expertise peace.
It’s essential 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 angle of non-judgmental acceptance, you’ll all the time 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 varieties of peace.
There’s the sensation of peace, which is a short lived 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 essentially the most turbulent storm at sea, within the depths, the ocean stays calm and unmoving.
There’s a peace inside each one in every of us that is still untouched by the actions on the floor, regardless of how intense.
And it’s not tough to seek out. How may or not 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 beneath the floor and uncover what’s all the time there.
The peace you’re on the lookout for is with you all the time. However you’ll by no means discover it on the extent of the thoughts.
