Non-Peace

By Dr. Thynn Thynn

If we agree that we have inner peace, what do you think that gives us non-peace? From the standpoint of peace of mind, thoughts by themselves are neither good nor bad. It is only when the concept of ‘I’ and ‘Mine arise that the mind  is thrown into conflict. Likes and dislikes quickly follow these concepts of self.This is where the real trouble begins.

A thought by itself is okay. Let’s say you’ve lost your keys. It happens. The problem begins when you start judging the fact that you misplaced your keys. “I dislike it when I lose my keys …. I like it so much better when I have  my keys and I can continue my busy schedule.” You might go on with your thinking :”Why am I so careless ? It must have been because the children were rowdy.” Then you might put your thoughts  into words. “Look what you have made me do – I was so busy with you  that I lost my keys.” You might put those thoughts and emotions into physical actions by rushing around looking for the lost keys.

All this commotion stems from your reaction to a couple of misplaced keys. Let’s go back to what prompted the commotion. When you had the thought, “ I lost my keys.”, you would be able to let go of the thought. Instead, you immediately jumped into likes and dislikes. Feeling, conflicts and frustrations are born from this dichotomy of likes and dislikes. You allowed yourself to be swept away by your judgments, your feelings, and your frustrations.

But let’s look at  the thoughts for a moment. They arise, and by their own accord, they fall away. That is, unless we cling upon them. If we allow thoughts to continue their normal span, they will naturally fall away. All thoughts are subject to the universal law of impermanence (anicca).

For those  of you who are familiar with Buddhism, you know  this law of change. you accept it in many aspects  of your lives  but can you apply it to the most important area of all – your mind ? Can you watch thoughts and emotions  as they arise in the mind ? Can you allow  them  to naturally fade away, without clinging upon them ? Or do you indulge in letting the ‘I’ grasp upon a thought or an emotion ?  

By their nature, thoughts are transient, unless the ‘I’ interferes and refuses to let them go. By clinging upon thoughts  and emotions, the ‘I’ prolongs  the emotion span – on and on. It is the ‘I’ which insists  on clinging upon  thoughts  and emotions  that creates non-peace.

Peace has nothing to do with the ‘I’. It is not ‘my’ peace. As long as you think you own peace – as long as you think, “I like my peace.”- then you do not experience  peace.

A friend of mine, a spiritual educator, came up with a metaphor that may help explain the process. Let’s take the phrase, “I like peace.” If we eliminate the ‘I’, then we are left with ‘like peace’. If we go further and eliminate  the ‘like’, then all that remain is ‘peace’. Peace is something that can be  felt but not owned. Peace can be experienced when we eliminate our ideas of likes and dislikes about peace.

P: It sounds as though we can do something to realize this state of peace… that we can purposely eliminate concepts of ‘I’ and likes and dislikes.

T: No, this example is just a metaphor. Realization of peace does not come  with ‘doing’ anything with your mind , nor  does it come with ‘Not doing’. ‘Doing’ and ‘Not doing’ are just  more concepts to cling upon. Right ? When you can let go of your ideas of how  to obtain peace, of what  to do  and not to do, then your mind  is silent and you can  experience peace.  As long as your mind  is rushing back and forth between likes and dislikes , your mind is too busy to experience peace. When the mind calms and is silent, then you can realize its innate peaceful nature.