Learn to meet the world peacefully, just as it is, Not as you insist it is. Paradoxically, this is how change happens.
Last night, in our Mindfulness circle, there were a number of fresh insights. I say ‘fresh’ because these are insights that build on previous insights that people have had.
Let me recount a couple of these:
#1 PEACE
Peace is not something you can aim for and attain. It is your very nature. That timeless nature that pre-dates your thinking mind, your conditioning, your learned ways of perceiving and making sense of the the world, your very ideas of who you are!
So, how do we experience (not attain) peace?
By NOTICING all the barriers we have to it.
And what are these barriers?
Your thoughts, your beliefs, your judgements, your attachments, your aversions, your resistances and the emotions that they give rise to and which you dwell in/identify with (Eg I am angry. I am tired. I am… instead of ‘Anger/Tiredness is happening’).
Mindfulness practice is the practice of noticing IN REAL TIME all of this instead of mindlessly falling into the sweeping current of such conditioning, such habits, such RE-ACTIVE behaviour. (Re-action = repeating actions). Perhaps you may have discovered that whenever you’re caught up in these habits of thought, speech and behaviour, you’re not in peace.
#2 PERFECT CONDITIONS
We have a tacit (hidden/subconscious) belief that we will experience peace and joy and fulfilment etc WHEN certain conditions in our life are met.
For instance, take the simple practice of Mindfulness/Meditation. We want the lighting to be just right, the cushions to be just so, some ambient music of our liking, the household and the neighbours to be quiet, our stomachs to be adequately filled, the meditation guide to speak in a particular way or not to speak at all and so on. If these conditions aren’t fulfilled, we feel that our practice will be jeopardized.
If, on the other hand, we really understand what mindfulness practice is, we will see that it is about meeting the world exactly the way it is and not how we insist it should be. In this way, we meet it in peace, meaning, we lay aside our judgements, demands, preferences, attachments, aversions…And when these arise within our mind and body as they most surely do, we simply meet/NOTICE them as well.
In this way, we meet all of life in peace WHICH IS OUR DEFAULT STATE OF BEING when we simply NOTICE.
Stop searching for peace, for wellbeing, for power, for fulfilment. These are all YOUR NATURAL STATE. Stop being the fish swimming in water and asking ‘What’s water?’ or ‘Where is the water?’ Ask instead, ‘How can I experience all of this?’ And then see that the answer is by practising NOTICING ALL THE BARRIERS YOU HAVE BUILT AGAINST THEM.
Mindfulness practice is the practice of UNCONDITIONAL PEACE.
Most of us have lived long enough to see that the world ain’t gonna be just the way you personally want it. There are 7 billion of us, each carrying an idea of our personal, ‘perfect’ world. Whose idea shall we agree to?
So stop demanding that of the world, of life. Instead, be the naturally powerful and infinitely possible being that you are. Meet life just the way it is. With a smile. Each time you NOTICE one of the barriers you have built against it. It is possible as we discovered last night…
There was much ‘noise’, neighbours talking loudly, yelling, dogs barking, breaking through fences…and guess what? We kept noticing…and in that noticing, we experienced our natural great, unconditional peace 
.
When required, action was taken. Action that arose from a peaceful state of being.
MENTORING
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