Peace Is Within You Right There

Happy Friday folks. I hope everyone’s holding up well. So, for today’s blog I am going to be talking about peace. A hell lotta times we are searching for peace and tranquillity in the middle of a few drinks. Some smoke up or indulge in drugs, however all these ways can only provide peace momentarily. Okay just for the sake of it, try thinking about the pizza or the cookie that you’ve been wanting to try for a long time, and when you do try it actually, you see that it exists only for a short time and that in reality it wasn’t perhaps as great as you thought it would. 

In my case, things are exactly as I had mentioned above and also I have realised no matter who you talk to (unless that person has had huge spiritual realisations), none can provide a permanent solution to your problems, nor bring about peace in your chaotic life. It’s your own responsibility and that lies solely with you. This isn’t just about being an introvert or an extrovert, once things hit you on the head with a brick, you realise that you gotta sort things out. 

Now talking about peace and calm. Our ancient scriptures tell us that we need not necessarily have to travel to a peaceful place, climb up the mountains and start looking for peace, in fact that person is truthfully the most peaceful person who can manage to remain absolutely peaceful amid chaos, and not let the external voices or the opinions of others affect him. Sounds much? I bet. 

In my early days, I used to listen to this spiritual guide from the West who would insist and thereby prove also that peace, love and calmness are our eternal qualities and that we are inherently peaceful from inside. All we have to do is connect with our souls, recognise our true selves and hang in there for a while. She further said that if we continue working and training our minds in this way we’ll gradually realise that in the midst of unforeseen circumstances and the greatest of calamities, we’ll not be shaken from our own nature and that anger and hatred would be an effort. 

I was bedazzled hearing this. I kept pondering if there was any truth in her words, and what did she say? That love, peace and calmness are our very nature and not anger, hatred or jealousy? Why is it then that we’d often get bothered by every little thing in the world? Then there was another video where I heard a monk talking about Lord Buddha. Buddha mentioned that the world hits you with two arrows - one is where it actually causes you harm, like someone saying something harsh to you, or consider the outbreak of the pandemic, and the other is how you react to that arrow. 

Often it was noted that it’s our reactions that cause us more pain. We keep repeating things to our head ten times a day, when the actual deal was just once. We prefer to cling on, for no reason. When I think of my personal life, I wonder whether letting go has been so easy, and I'll be honest here and say that it hasn’t been easy at all. At least not for me. There are countless such times when I keep thinking about old memories and it does take me a lotta effort to pull myself out from there. 

But, you know what? It’s possible. Absolutely possible. You choose your own territory, your own peace, why would you be rattled by anything else? Peace was right there, it is right here and now it’s time that you must acknowledge it and turn your chaotic situations into peaceful ones. 

This may sound hard, but as they say humans have been constructed to undertake hard things and honestly we’ve seen harder days and passed out with flying colours, and I am sure we will too, this time.

Image courtesy: Sungkuk Kim on Unsplash