About four decades ago, the countries of the United Nations announced the annual International Day of Peace to commemorate and strengthen the ideals of peace. Here’s a note to commemorate the occasion, connecting meditation with peace.
Despite the awareness that peace must first be conceived within the individual for it to endure everywhere, deep-rooted passions still provoke heady disputes within and around us, plaguing us, our relationships, and even nations in their affairs.
How do we acknowledge and resolve our differences in mutual respect and humility when beliefs, especially those we cherish, are contested by trying circumstances and people? There is a way.
Often people ask out of curiosity, “Why do you meditate?”
I may answer, “To regulate the mind.”
“Why do you need to regulate the mind?”
“To attain a state of peace.”
“But what will you do with a regulated mind, with the stillness and calmness that exists
within you when you meditate?”
This is a wise and stimulating line of inquiry.
What can we do with a meditative experience that helps us to rise above fickle tempers and ascend the pedestal of a steady and unruffled peace?
A lot is possible.
When peace prevails within us and our hearts are serene and content, can we fight with one another?
When we are in a calm state and interact with family and community members, co-workers, and strangers, are we not more considerate of their worries, their troubles, and kinder in our response?
When we read a book in a tranquil state, will we not understand its message better?
Meditation and Harmony in the World
Meditation, understood correctly, is a process to create a meditative state where there is serenity, calmness, and peace. Through this state, we can manifest the intrinsic goodness of our hearts.
That’s what makes peace more dynamic and life-affirming, bringing unity and harmony to this world.
A peaceful and meditative heart easily distinguishes what is good for all, detects the cause behind an action and its effect, and screens our future actions by adjusting our erratic tendencies.
But when we don’t attempt to manifest our heart’s intrinsic goodness, even meditation itself can become bondage and weigh down the expansion of our consciousness.
I believe this happens because when we experience a profound contact with the quiet inner life during meditation, we want that experience repeated, intensified, and to last longer the next time we meditate.
Caught up in liking and disliking experiences, we form bondage that limits our consciousness. To expand our consciousness, what we do with our experience in meditation matters as much as observing and learning from our experience.
If we meditate, feel peaceful, and simply stop at that, it is, to say the least, a self-centered pastime. The aim is to go beyond a day of peace for ourselves—and others! All the same, how can we step beyond the everyday, every-minute fears, prejudices, and ego outbursts that numb our heart’s goodness?
The Heartfulness approach towards peace
Heartfulness free meditation program is fully geared towards the evolution of consciousness to the highest level, within the demands of daily life. And this is achieved with a short heart-based meditation in the morning, aided by transmission; a shorter unwinding in the evening to remove everyday stress (known as cleaning), and a prayerful entreaty before bedtime that allows you to heed the heart’s wise and unceasing guidance.
In the end, here is something to think about more deeply: Will I be at peace when I know my family is not at ease? Will I be at peace when my city is safe but my neighboring town is afflicted with some deadly disease?
World peace is possible only when all are at peace. Individual peace precedes group dynamics.
World peace is achievable once individual peace is at hand. The simple methodologies of the Heartfulness Way open the door for much-needed peace at an individual level.
When many of us meditate together with hearts filled with love, unity and peace will come automatically. So, on this International Day of Peace, 21 September 2021, let’s harvest that love and, together, pause for peace. Join us in Heartfulness Meditation to bring about a peaceful world.
Curated with permission from Daaji
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