Cultivating Peace? If it’s Still it’s Dead
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The cultivation of peace is at the center of psychological and spiritual practices that strive for growth. Defined by Webster as; serenity; calm; quiet; tranquility; harmony, we tend to assume that means a cessation of thought.
But if you’ve ever tried to still your mind you will have discovered you could not. This failure causes most of us to believe something is wrong with us. Whether it was in the middle of the night when you couldn’t sleep or in a meditation or yoga class or at school or work when you were “supposed” to be quiet, you will have discovered the mind is NEVER still. It’s not just you; you’re not broken, but life can best be described as a state of perpetual motion. Physics has proven that all matter is in motion, and though we’re unable to see a rock moving, we now know that it is.
So if peace isn’t an absence of thought, what is it? The answer to discovering a peaceful state is in the last word of the dictionary definition; harmony which is an absence of conflict. Since I cannot stop my mind from thinking, and would not wish to for it would mean I was no longer alive, my thinking must become harmonious.
A mindful practice is one in which one watches their thoughts. Have you ever just watched and not been drawn in? If drawn in you will discover tension as at the heart of most of our thinking whether it’s problem solving, worrying, regretting, etc. In other words; most thinking is conflictual by nature. Does that mean harmonious thinking is not possible?
Not at all, just unusual. When we’re able to watch our thoughts without being drawn in to the conflict, harmony is the result. Accept everything, reject nothing, and the mind is at peace.
