This is a ‘today I have been thinking about…’ post. Much of the thinking around the Ecology of the Soul comes from deconstructing words, really digging into language, figuring out why we say the things we do and how they reflect the things we are thinking, feeling and experiencing, without really knowing it. I started on how peace and power can be two sides of the same coin, because surely at one level they are inimical. Then I moved to ‘peace of mind’ and began to ask myself what that really means. Then I got sort of sidetracked into the way people sometimes say as a threat: ‘I’ll give him a piece of my mind’. Sounds kind of uncomfortable, and is always used to indicate a desire to chide, castigate, criticise, condemn. Negative negative. Then it moved to my father the Church of England priest, saying at the end of his church services: ‘Peace of Mind, which passeth all understanding…’ no, hang on a minute, that’s not right. It’s the Peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Or so Christians would have it.
Either way, we’re looking at a transcendental peace, the peace we seek. Somehow that is also part and parcel of power. Looking at Mahatma Ghandi helps with this bit; non-violent, unshakeably compassionate, unbeatably powerful – but he never accepted political power, the ‘real world’ kind. Pretty safe to say his power to change the world came from his peace, not the other way round. So power comes from peace, so peace is underneath power, a sine qua non. So go inside to make acquaintance with your peaceful Self and you’ll meet your powerful Self on the way back.
Just to clear one other small thing up: spiritual practice, thinking, teaching and activity assumes that peace is a state we all seek. But self evidently, this is far from true, given that most political and commercial institutions either directly seek conflict or cast themselves in a role where conflict is the normal modus operandi. It’s another word for competition, after all, which brings with it words like ‘battle’ and ‘domination’, and it feeds down to people at large. Our daily lives are encumbered with, defined by, struggle. It’s the norm. But there’s no short way to alter that circumstance for others. If they don’t seek peace, they don’t. They are responsible for their own state of mind, and you are responsible for yours. Either you’re here because you recognise that the way we live isn’t working, that there is a better way, and that peace is very much a basic building block of that better way (to mix my construction industry metaphors), or you’re not. If you are here (or anywhere else – book, blog, meditation class – that deals with spiritual awareness, self change, self improvement) then you can be certain that the more you practice tapping into your untold reservoir of peace, the more it will affect your own behaviour and the lives of those around you – and, ultimately, the state of the world. Which is the whole point of studying, balancing and nurturing the Ecology of the Soul. It’s not just the meditating, folks. It’s the meditation in action which makes the difference. Let’s do another post about that one.
For now, use your Magic Minute to plant the peaceful Power Seed that suits you. We deal with Soul Consciousness elsewhere on the site, and we’ll always come back to it. Here is where you focus your consciousness of your Self as a Soul, whose nature is peace. A very different peace from when you’ve finally got the kids to bed, or even from the moment when you’re alone at the top of a mountain. This is the peace which passeth all understanding, in other words, you can’t get at it by thinking about it. It’s your very being. That infinitesimal pinpoint node of light that is You burns eternally, silently, steadily, in stillness. Ultimate stillness. It is not ‘your peace’. It is ‘You, Peace.’
