The Peace that Surpasses Understanding

So when you think about yourself and those you know best, what is it that each of us wants above all else? When you peel back all the thoughts and desires, the wants and needs, the layers of anxiety and suffering, what lurks at the center of all that human restlessness?

Most of us will suggest something like love, acceptance, joy, respect.

But look closely enough and you’ll recognize that these are temporary representations of a far deeper, more permanent desire. After all, love, acceptance, respect come and go, are as fleeting and subjective as every other human experience.

What we humans most want is peace.

Not peace between nations and men. Not financial, emotional, or physical peace, or peace with one’s mate, children, or neighbors. All of these would be nice, mind you, but again, they’re merely hinting at what lies in the hearts of all humans.

Which is? Inner peace. A lasting, permanent, all-encompassing peace in simply being. A peace predicated on nothing more than I Am. The peace that surpasses all understanding. The peace that says: “Everything is perfect just the way it is and will always be perfect, regardless of my mind’s interpretation of it.”

Impossible, right?

Not if the mystics are to be believed. And there have been enough of them across the ages to remind us that such a peace not only is possible, it’s our very nature. From Jesus of Nazareth to the Buddha to Meister Eckhart and scores of others, we are told again and again that our true nature is absolute love, bliss, peace. Not the fleeting love of the human mind, the bliss of a passing experience, or the peace of a snapshot in time. Absolute peace.

Robert Adams repeatedly told his followers: “It is never too late to completely transform your life. To live the illuminated life. Within you is the light of a thousand suns. Peace. Love. Transcendence. Compassion. I am calling you to a higher vision. I am calling you to a new reality.”

But we grasp at those words with the only tool we have: the mind. And the mind makes a mess of it the same way the mind has made a mess of the world.

The human world – we gaze across its landscape and see problems, challenges, fear. The deeper you look, the more fearful it becomes. Global warming, terrorism, disease, shortage and want, loneliness, death.

Each of us is a live wire of fears and anxieties, some more obvious than others, but make no mistake, human life is, at its core, fueled by suffering.

Have you ever stopped and forced yourself through a relaxation exercise? Where you start at the toes and consciously relax the muscles? Chances are good that by the time you get to the sphincter and certainly the chest, shoulders, and face, you realize just how much tension you are carrying in the body.

Listen to the breathing of those around you, notice how often a huge, heavy sigh can be heard – somewhere a body attempting to release its tension. This goes on all day, every day, billions of human bodies endlessly spooling up and releasing, spooling up and releasing, the ebb and flow of human suffering.

We seek release through alcohol and sex, drugs and money, thrill-seeking and meditation. We work for the weekend and save for retirement, donate to save this and volunteer to fix that, and every few years we vote for change and spend the rest of the time grousing that the change didn’t occur to our liking. We grind through 365 days a year with the occasional ‘celebration’ of birth, marriage, anniversary.

In our language and behavior, suffering is the norm, relief its exception.

So is this it? Is the entirety of the human experience destined to be one defined by fear, anxiety, and suffering, interspersed with occasional breaks we call vacations, happy hours, highs, orgasms?

Is a lasting peace the province of mystics alone and an impossibility for the likes of you and I? Must we wait, hope, and pray for concepts like ‘heaven’ or the ‘afterlife’ to pan out? And if every other human concept is fleeting, unreliable, and outright false, why do we assume something like heaven or the afterlife will be any different?

All of which begs the question: If human nature is suffering, but our true nature is of a peace that surpasses all understanding, maybe we’ve got it all backward – that by trying to find or add peace to our human experience, we’re dooming it to the same futile tail-chasing as every other desire.

Maybe.