Peace and You

You could also experience peace when you lie down after a full stomach. The meaning of peace differs from person to person.

Peace and humans
It is understood that whenever your ego is satisfied; you are at peace with yourself. And the ego is born when your needs are recognized. It is quite simple really! A person who is deprived of many things in his life will never want for much. Alternatively a person who has achieved certain stages in life will be praised. And in this appraisal by many (generally not by a single soul), is when he develops self-confidence. Self-confidence, also recognized by many as self esteem is at the base of success of any kind.

For some self-confidence is one aspect in their life that accelerates at a rapid pace. It is generally the struggler who understands and develops this confidence. Commoners like us who are at the other side of the sea dub confidence at this stage as being "stubborn". For many first timers, the need for encouragement is so great that if you do not get it at the time when you need it most, you are likely to work towards it.

For people who are trying to make their mark, this is quite typical. Being at peace is their primary goal. And that goal can be achieved if they have passed the tests that meet them at every step of the way! While we talk of ego, to understand peace, let's also understand that most people who have an ego are loners.

They are people who have reached a certain position by means of their strength and grit. With sans help from anyone outside their domain, they have achieved the unthinkable. It is the achievement of the unthinkable that the ego is born. If you'd notice, when you achieve something, you get the feeling of great pride. Ever wondered why? Because the achievement puts you on to such a pedestal that it is next to impossible to step down from. When you have already has a taste of what is in store for you, you seek to achieve this even further!

In this process of what may be termed as pursuing your dream, you become ruthless, self centered, stubborn and yes, you guessed right, egoistic! Of course ego is the next bad thing known to mankind, so you refuse to accept it. You would like to believe that while you achieved something, it is important that the world knows that you have adequate control over everything, your weaknesses, your anger, in short all your flaws.

When there are people to point out these to you, you blast them with, "No-that-is-not-true!". While being in control and egoistic nourishes your soul, it also makes you feel at peace with yourself! If there are people willing to support and boost your ego, you feel at peace with yourself. It is only in places where your ego takes a thrashing is demand peace; tell me if I am wrong?

Characteristics of Peace
Generally, when people talk about peace of mind, it is only about somehow making their ego comfortable. Instead of being in a disturbed state, they would rather have their own way and be comfortable. Although the process of trying to make your ego comfortable is not a cakewalk, you would go to any length to achieve this! It is ironical then that in trying to make peace with yourself, you actually fight your way through it! The whole process also deals with a lot of discomfort. The more a person tries to be at peace with himself, the more he loses his own mental peace. Sometimes he also needs to get out of the place that he is in, in search of peace! Strange but true!

A person who tries hard to be at peace with himself can never really be at peace with himself. It’s more like forcing yourself to believe that you are happy when you are not! Try as much as you would want to, it just doesn't happen! Peace broadly means the existence of nothingness. It is that state of mind that you just cannot create; but something that you can prepare yourself objectively. Peace is also not something that happens off the cuff! It is something that always was existent; it just needed to be understood through silencing oneself.

A fundamental existence, peace is like an ocean. You can see the waves on the surface of the ocean, you'd also notice tremendous turbulence, turmoil that goes on and on for as far as your gaze can reach. But going deep down, you'd find that the situation is perfectly peaceful. The fundamental quality of existence has always been peace.

Largely speaking, peace is what you achieve by making yourself comfortable. When you look around you, you'd realize that the world is full of distractions and these can only be observed when you are at peace with yourself. When you look at the mountains, you feel at peace. Quite simply because nature is teaching you to be at peace with yourself, much like the silent mountains that also bear the heat and cold weather and still stand upright in any situation.

Let's take an example to explore this further! While you peacefully enjoy the mountains, there is a sudden rustle in the leaves and suddenly out of nowhere an elephant rushes out of the forest, it rams itself towards you and peace disappears all at once. Life is like this to you. While searching for peace you try all your might to be at peace with yourself and are suddenly faced with a situation that makes it impossible for you to be in this peaceful existence.

In conclusion
We must understand that if you seek peace then you also need to give it to others. While situations make it difficult is just okay. At least for some time, off and on you are able to experience a little bit of peace. In fact it is better to be disturbed, because it is only when you are disturbed your search for peace can get intensified. This not only makes you peaceful, it also makes you complacent.

There are a few things one learns through this. One being that complacence, and not disturbance is your greatest enemy. Your complacence is the greatest enemy, as by being complacent, you not only mark your territory but can also allow unpleasantness to usurp other people's grounds. Peace needs to have a symbiotic nature, if you want it for yourself; you need to give it away. Being peaceful requires you to silence your mind and not externally evacuate people's minds for it!