waves crashing

Waves crashing, ocean foaming, spray flying, the nature of deep peace

The feeling of peace usually comes to us at quiet times, when the environment around us is still and calm, perhaps out in the countryside on a summer’s day or relaxing in the bath in the warm water, allowing the tensions in the body to melt away. Of course such peace comes and goes, for when there is turmoil and chaos around us, our peace vanishes. Or if our mind is busy worrying, concerned, then such peace again vanishes into the ether.

But there is a deeper peace, a peace which does not depend on the outer circumstances of the moment. Ultimately this deep peace does not even depend on the mind being quiet. For this peace, this deep peace, is born of our very centre, our essence, a still point within us. Once we have touched this centre, this essence, once we have become familiar with it, once we have returned to it as our home, then we can rest in peace even as the world is in mayhem around us. Even when the mind is busy thinking, doing its mindful things, we can still rest in this peaceful place at the centre of our being. This is the way the lucky ones live with eternal peace.