Where can Peace be Found?

[Nakosis]

What is peace?

The absence of conflict. Life however seems full of conflicts. Social, political, arguments on a forum.

The only time I really feel at peace is when I meditate. Interacting with the world seems a constant source of conflict. Choosing to get up to go to work. Choosing what to wear. Dealing with folks, spouse, kids, boss, police etc...

Some conflicts seem necessary, like making choices. Some I seem to desire, like winning an argument. or some challenge were you have to triumph over others.

In the material world, peace is an illusion. Spiritually, everything other than peace is an illusion.

I think it'd be great to be at peace with the material world. To be in a constant state of peace. Just too easy to get pulled into paying bills, meeting deadlines, working to make a living. It seems impossible to both be involved in the world and also be constantly at peace.

Is it possible to achieve eternal peace? (Sounds like what happens when you die "He's gone to his eternal rest") Is eternal peace even desirable?

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

 

[YmirGF]

What is peace?

The absence of conflict. Life however seems full of conflicts. Social, political, arguments on a forum.

The only time I really feel at peace is when I meditate. Interacting with the world seems a constant source of conflict. Choosing to get up to go to work. Choosing what to wear. Dealing with folks, spouse, kids, boss, police etc...

Some conflicts seem necessary, like making choices. Some I seem to desire, like winning an argument. or some challenge were you have to triumph over others.

In the material world, peace is an illusion. Spiritually, everything other than peace is an illusion.

I think it'd be great to be at peace with the material world. To be in a constant state of peace. Just too easy to get pulled into paying bills, meeting deadlines, working to make a living. It seems impossible to both be involved in the world and also be constantly at peace.

Is it possible to achieve eternal peace? (Sounds like what happens when you die "He's gone to his eternal rest") Is eternal peace even desirable?

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

Interesting questions. As someone who has enough inner peace to fuel a small village I might be able to give some answers.
Peace isn't just the absence of conflict; it is your rock to hang onto within conflict. What I mean is you don't leave peace on your meditation mat. You carry it with you and it arrives at places before you do, preparing the way. In some ways there are no conflicts there are only decisions to be made. I would hope most decisions are made with a clear and peaceful state of mind.

Peace in the material world is not an illusion. You just are not projecting it enough. Again, peace should act as an emissary not as a bound and gagged innocent bystander. What good is peace if you cannot share it? What has it done for you? I'm not advanced enough to comment on the spiritual aspects of peace as I've only been at this for a few billion lifetimes.

To be at peace with yourself is to be at peace with your world. The twain are never divided. You are your world and your world is you. Your experience is the result of your own actions, lack thereof and perhaps misdirected actions. I am at blissful peace paying the bills, mowing the lawn, chatting to neighbors, arguing with folks who seem to need someone to argue with. I'm still at peace. I'm still confident. I'm still happy.

That said, it does take a bit of training to live a peace-filled life. It takes awhile to let go of the worry and concerns.

In closing, being at peace should never be confused with being a perennial doormat. The inner peace gives you the calm focus to tackle adversity when it hits and it will hit. There is no getting around that as none of us is an expert in the game of life just yet. That does not mean you cannot be clear headed, thoughtful and mindful. There's always time for that.

 

[Aiviu]

I am not connected with the world through my body but through love i am connected with my body to the world. There is a separation between all negative things, and positives. Its the point of view that only changes your understanding but not on what you look at. But eternally, noone will see a difference when nothing changes from time to time. Aim is to sense the slightest changes, the lessest impact, on all that changes your point of view for what you cant change.

 

[joe1776]

Some conflicts seem necessary, like making choices. Some I seem to desire, like winning an argument. or some challenge were you have to triumph over others.

Defeating the arrogant-competitive desire to prove myself superior to others has been a long, hard road. I'm not done yet. However, I'm far more contented now than I was when I began.

 

[wizanda]

Is it possible to achieve eternal peace?

In the middle of a storm we find peace, and as an oyster is buffeted around, it forms a pearl in its center.

Peace is something that always existed in our soul, we just have to find the ultimate Oneness, and regardless of situation, we maintain a more peaceful disposition than most.

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

Heaven isn't peaceful, we still have to work answering prayers, dealing with prank callers; peace is only found within, when we allow ourselves to be content with everything in the present moment.

In my opinion.

 

[Brickjectivity]

The only time I really feel at peace is when I meditate. Interacting with the world seems a constant source of conflict. Choosing to get up to go to work. Choosing what to wear. Dealing with folks, spouse, kids, boss, police etc...

The only time I really feel at peace is when I meditate. Interacting with the world seems a constant source of conflict. Choosing to get up to go to work. Choosing what to wear. Dealing with folks, spouse, kids, boss, police etc...

Some conflicts seem necessary, like making choices. Some I seem to desire, like winning an argument. or some challenge were you have to triumph over others.

In the material world, peace is an illusion. Spiritually, everything other than peace is an illusion.

I though Ymirgf's reply was interesting and hope it answered this for you.

Is it possible to achieve eternal peace? (Sounds like what happens when you die "He's gone to his eternal rest") Is eternal peace even desirable?

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

War is a speedy rodent that strives to reproduce frequently. It takes a clever exterminator to keep it suppressed.

 

[Jumi]

In homeostasis.

 

[wizanda]

peace

Was just looking something else up, and came across this line:

Isaiah 57:20-21 But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest, and its waters cast up mire and mud. (21) “There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.”

That is in contrast to my previous post; where if we connect (yoga) to the Source, there is an inherent peace within the harmony it produces.

In my opinion.

 

[Quintessence]

What happens if instead of defining peace in the negative (aka, as the absence/lack of something), we define it in the positive? Might one end up with a much different perspective?

 

[sun rise]

What is peace?

The absence of conflict. Life however seems full of conflicts. Social, political, arguments on a forum.

The only time I really feel at peace is when I meditate. Interacting with the world seems a constant source of conflict. Choosing to get up to go to work. Choosing what to wear. Dealing with folks, spouse, kids, boss, police etc...

Some conflicts seem necessary, like making choices. Some I seem to desire, like winning an argument. or some challenge were you have to triumph over others.

In the material world, peace is an illusion. Spiritually, everything other than peace is an illusion.

I think it'd be great to be at peace with the material world. To be in a constant state of peace. Just too easy to get pulled into paying bills, meeting deadlines, working to make a living. It seems impossible to both be involved in the world and also be constantly at peace.

Is it possible to achieve eternal peace? (Sounds like what happens when you die "He's gone to his eternal rest") Is eternal peace even desirable?

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

The level of the separative ego is the level of winning and losing, give and take, up and down. Those who have finally gotten bone tired of that game start looking for alternatives.

In the past, people fled to monasteries, mountain caves and deep forests to try to get away from the world. In this era, the world can't be avoided.

As has been said already in this thread, if you have deep inner peace, you bring it to every situation. You "approach life lightly".

Very very few have utterly overcome the worldly parts inside themselves and I'm very much not one of those. But figures such as St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Kabir, Ramakrishna and others have and help inspire and point the way.

 

[George-ananda]

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

I believe the goal of religion/spirituality is the attainment of unconditional peace, meaning beyond the control of any material events. Ultimately our mind is under our control.

If not perfect yet, I feel I have gained this from my spiritual path.

 

[ajay0]

I think it'd be great to be at peace with the material world. To be in a constant state of peace. Just too easy to get pulled into paying bills, meeting deadlines, working to make a living. It seems impossible to both be involved in the world and also be constantly at peace.

There is a saying in the Bhagavad Gita thus, 'He who sees in the midst of intense activity, intense calm, and in the midst of intense peace is intensely active , is wise among men.' (4.18.)

If the mind's operation and working is properly understood, I think it is possible to be peaceful, equipoised and calm even in the midst of intense chaos and action. This is also the challenge presented in the Gita.

Is it possible to achieve eternal peace? (Sounds like what happens when you die "He's gone to his eternal rest") Is eternal peace even desirable?

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

There are enlightened ones like Nisargadatta Maharaj, Metta Zetty, Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, Byron Katie, Rupert Spira, Sailor Bob Adamson, Mooji in the present who have attained it. It is the innate potential within each human being.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

What is peace?

The absence of conflict. Life however seems full of conflicts. Social, political, arguments on a forum.

The only time I really feel at peace is when I meditate. Interacting with the world seems a constant source of conflict. Choosing to get up to go to work. Choosing what to wear. Dealing with folks, spouse, kids, boss, police etc...

Some conflicts seem necessary, like making choices. Some I seem to desire, like winning an argument. or some challenge were you have to triumph over others.

In the material world, peace is an illusion. Spiritually, everything other than peace is an illusion.

I think it'd be great to be at peace with the material world. To be in a constant state of peace. Just too easy to get pulled into paying bills, meeting deadlines, working to make a living. It seems impossible to both be involved in the world and also be constantly at peace.

Is it possible to achieve eternal peace? (Sounds like what happens when you die "He's gone to his eternal rest") Is eternal peace even desirable?

Isn't the goal of many religions eternal peace? Nirvana? Heaven? Do any actually achieve it?

Yeah. The Buddha kept going through many rebirth and no peace. When he acheived enlightement in his present day, he no long was reborn.

He died.

If youre not comfortable with death, there will always be suffering. There is always a balance. Reaching understanding of that balance is enligthenment. Peace from understanding is nibanna. Once we reach that, peace/liberation: we die.

 

[MonkeyFire]

Peace comes from within so its no surprise you feel it when meditating.

 

[Nakosis]

Yeah. The Buddha kept going through many rebirth and no peace. When he acheived enlightement in his present day, he no long was reborn.

He died.

If youre not comfortable with death, there will always be suffering. There is always a balance. Reaching understanding of that balance is enligthenment. Peace from understanding is nibanna. Once we reach that, peace/liberation: we die.

Nibanna, a new term for me.

Thus the image underlying nibbana is one of freedom. The Pali commentaries support this point by tracing the word nibbana to its verbal root, which means "unbinding." What kind of unbinding? The texts describe two levels. One is the unbinding in this lifetime, symbolized by a fire that has gone out but whose embers are still warm. This stands for the enlightened arahant, who is conscious of sights and sounds, sensitive to pleasure and pain, but freed from passion, aversion, and delusion. The second level of unbinding, symbolized by a fire so totally out that its embers have grown cold, is what the arahant experiences after this life. All input from the senses cools away and he/she is totally freed from even the subtlest stresses and limitations of existence in space and time.

The Buddha insists that this level is indescribable, even in terms of existence or nonexistence, because words work only for things that have limits. All he really says about it — apart from images and metaphors — is that one can have foretastes of the experience in this lifetime, and that it's the ultimate happiness, something truly worth knowing.

So the next time you watch a fire going out, see it not as a case of annihilation, but as a lesson in how freedom is to be found in letting go.

Nibbana

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Nibanna, a new term for me.

Thus the image underlying nibbana is one of freedom. The Pali commentaries support this point by tracing the word nibbana to its verbal root, which means "unbinding." What kind of unbinding? The texts describe two levels. One is the unbinding in this lifetime, symbolized by a fire that has gone out but whose embers are still warm. This stands for the enlightened arahant, who is conscious of sights and sounds, sensitive to pleasure and pain, but freed from passion, aversion, and delusion. The second level of unbinding, symbolized by a fire so totally out that its embers have grown cold, is what the arahant experiences after this life. All input from the senses cools away and he/she is totally freed from even the subtlest stresses and limitations of existence in space and time.

The Buddha insists that this level is indescribable, even in terms of existence or nonexistence, because words work only for things that have limits. All he really says about it — apart from images and metaphors — is that one can have foretastes of the experience in this lifetime, and that it's the ultimate happiness, something truly worth knowing.

So the next time you watch a fire going out, see it not as a case of annihilation, but as a lesson in how freedom is to be found in letting go.

Nibbana

Pretty much. Annihilation does have a negative connotation to it. I see death just like before we were born. When we are reborn, we don't die we-our mind/awareness-continues from one bod' to the next until we are not attached to this world anymore and once we aren't attached to self, others, environment, and life, that "emptiness" is present. Once that happens, we no longer are reborn. It took I don't know how many eons before The Buddha died.
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These are long so you don't need to comment. It will take forever.

-The Last Days of The Buddha
-Buddhist Reflection on Death