The Still, Quiet Meditation of Peace
Posted by admin on Sep 12, 2009
We would probably all agree that the sound of the world, today, has reached higher decibels than ever in history. War, bombs, and explosions have multiplied around the world. The intense and angry shouts of conflicting political and religious fanatics merge into indecipherable racket. Everything is faster, noisier, and more “extreme.” What doesn’t assault our ears, offends our eyes. Billboards, once just unsightly, now electronically light up the night with consumerism. Uninvited ads float across our computer monitors like phantoms, and then stop, concealing our ability to read more relevant words beneath them. In addition, what is seen, is obscene. Acts of violence and disastrous events that have resulted in pain and suffering are played over and over again, in full color, on the news. Where can we go to find peace? And, is it possible to get there from here? Peace can be found where it has always been, within the still, quiet center of our very being. And we can find it through meditation.
By closing our eyes and turning away from the world, we find what seemed impossible and elusive, but was there all the time…peace. Through the slowing of our breathing, we give our body the experience of refuse…and we find peace. As we slow the crazy pace of our thoughts, until they seem to gently drift, like falling leaves, and then settle into stillness…we find peace.
This type of meditation enlivens every cell, fiber, and tissue of our being. In this way, this type of meditation can be healing. The chatter of our mind ceases with the type of meditation. In this way, this type of meditation can be revealing.
The distresses of body and mind vanish when we meditate in this way, and they often do not return when we open our eyes and look at the world again. The peace that we have embodied within assumes the form of our actions in the world.
It is, perhaps, more crucial than ever for every one of us to meditate — to heal ourselves and, in that way, to heal the world.