EXPANSION of PEACE

We have spoken about the need to be at peace before we enter into our quiet space for HPT or meditation, where hopefully we will not be disturbed for ten minutes or maybe more.

But what is peace to you?
Is it Sunday afternoon in winter in front of a crackling log fire when the dishes are done, granddad’s gone for his nap and the kids have gone for a ramble in the woods, and you can settle down with a good book when you have at least half an hour to yourself?

I remember during my apprenticeship when I had to spend times in the machine shop or the sheet metal fabricators shop, in both places lip reading was a must as the noise precluded hearing. But with all that row I could be so absorbed in the work that I went into another world. Little did I know at the time what that was leading me towards! It is amazing how the threshold of sound changes with the situation and you can rise above or below a dB level.

You may know how I have mentioned certain sounds in the past that some may find disturbing, when in truth there is peace within any sound if you are prepared to look for it. There is also peace within a certain sight unaccompanied by sound such as the obvious view of a countryside vista or a solar flare or the birth of a star, but also the cry of a baby or the bay of a hound. Rhythms are also a good source of peace, like the sounds in the machine shop! You see peace is everywhere and not necessarily associated with quiet.

Peace with practice is there for the seeing, the hearing, the finding everywhere.
But is it within you? Are you at peace? Or do you see life itself as a disturbance?
Does next door’s practicing the violin still grate on the ears? Does the erratic motorist still upset you? Does your neighbour’s allowing the curse of the English garden to grow so high as to take all the sun from your garden a cause for legal action?

Do you pray for peace in Somalia, in Syria, between China, Japan and Taiwan, in Northern Ireland, in Mali and the DRC etc., ? The list is endless!
You see, to me peace like happiness is a level of consciousness that must precede just about everything in this life, this learning lifetime on planet Earth. For in order for you to be able to enter your Highly Precious Time effectively, or to expect there to be peace in the world, peace must be within you first. In order to expect a healthy Body, Mind and Spirit peace must be in every breath, every step and in every cell within you. Peace is already within the Soul.

We come now to the unassailable fact that if you concentrate on war you cannot expect peace! You have to concentrate on what you want and not on what you do not want. Simple isn’t it? But not easy believe me. Not easy at all. It takes a lot of practise to exclude thoughts from your mind of the things you do not want, for most of us worry about the things we don’t want! We can’t help it, but we have to overcome that tendency. We have to, if we are to get anywhere as an individual, a nation or as a race.

So the first task is to look for peace and I mean see if you can see it, but also see if you can hear it, and here’s a good one: See if you can feel it! Feel it inside yourself, feel it on the wind in a river, in the patter and touch of rain and clouds.

Finally take it with you wherever you go and send it to all you know, and in particular to all who think they have a bone to pick with you. Take it with you when you visit a hospital ward or hospice, or a police or fire station. Take it as a gift and silently give it to all whom you meet. How?
With a smile! See it and feel it reflected back to you. Expand peace within you and to all around you.
With Love, David

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