Why is peace so rare, so fragile, so tenuous, and so easily disrupted? How can we become more like the yogi who lie on beds of nails or walk on white-hot coals and receive no bodily harm, but are able to remain peaceful and tranquil throughout? Peace is more than the opposite of war. Gandhi’s admonition, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way,” aligns to that of Buddha: “Do not seek the peace without, peace comes from within.” What then is this inner peace Gandhi and Buddha advocate? How do we achieve it and sustain it? What challenges calmness, serenity and tranquility? What annoying, distressing, irritating, antagonizing, or disruptive events spoil our peace? Irritants are everywhere and they beg us to react to them, to focus upon them, and to concentrate on their urgent cry. Instead we must eliminate these distractions from our consciousness.
What we are today teaches the next generation and beyond. How do you want to be remembered when you are gone? Whose voice will your children and grandchildren hear after your life is spent? If it is yours, pray it is heard in tones of compassion, kindness, and peace. If it is yours, you will have transcended time and space. It is my desire that the things of true importance to me now will be those recalled by loved ones after I am gone. I will start today to become a kind, gentle, peaceable man.
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