The Profound Simplicity of Peace
It Comes with Practice
This week I listened to and watched the Buddhist monk speak in the National Cathedral in Washington DC. He spoke after he and his fellow monks had walked in peace, radiating peace, spreading peace while walking all the way from Ft. Worth to DC. Here is a man who has let go of whatever it takes in order to have peace in his heart.
He explained how to practice having peace. It’s deceptively simple: When you first wake up in the morning, place your left hand over your heart. Then place you right hand over your left hand. Take a few deep breaths. Say to yourself and to your world, “Today is going to be my peaceful day.”
A couple of years ago, I learned some resilience techniques from HeartMath.org and have been practicing them daily for nearly two years. Those techniques also have to do with focusing on your heart, breathing, and radiating a certain quality. I know, because of that practice, that I have a reservoir of resilience built up within my heart. When I heard this Buddhist monk say such a simple thing about peace, I started doing what he said.
Let me tell you what is happening to me because of doing that. I interiorly hear that phrase “Today is going to be my peaceful day” at odd times throughout each day. And the peace that comes and is my companion is teaching me things. For example, my ordinary way of wending through a day might include a sensation of a tight stomach, tense or anxious because of a conversation happening in my midst, or because of a task I need to do but would really rather be doing something else. That kind of inner tension fades away because I hear “Today is going to be my peaceful day.” And I simply do the task with peace in my heart. The simplicity of it is profound.
In order for that deep peace to live in my heart, I find myself letting go of inner angst that, not so long ago, I wasn’t even aware of. And the peace is there instead. I wonder, is that what mindfulness is? The way the Buddhists define it? Whatever it is, I want it to teach me more.
Letting go of my inner angst allows me to hear creativity more easily, to hear the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit more clearly, and to enter His next adventure for me and with me with less trepidation and deeper trust. Something wonderful is happening here, and I love it!
It is from within that space, that I began to reflect again on spiritual abuse in churches.
Recently I was reading the fifth chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Verse 15 jumped out at me. It says, “If you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another.” I hadn’t ever thought of that verse before in the light of spiritual abuse. The behavior it describes is a far cry from the peace I’m talking about in the above paragraphs. The behavior it describes inflicts wounds upon people, not only on the one the behavior is pointed at, it also inflicts wounds on the one doing the behavior. The wound hurts badly enough for us to want to lash back. And so we “eat each other up.” Later on, in verses 25-26, Paul writes, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.”
And of course, Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself...Love one another as I have loved you.
And one more Scripture from the pen of St. Paul: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any particpation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Phil 2:1-2
To truly find that inner space where peace abides, where holy love abides, there is a way to get there. Practice it. Relinquish outward behaviors that crowd out love and the secret ones hidden in your heart that crowd out peace. Focus on your heart. Breathe. Set the intention for the day to be peace and to bring love. And you just might find your path to healing.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I invite you to consider taking something from this post with you into this holy season of reflecting on our nature in the Presence of the One Who Loves Us So, the Prince of Peace.