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“Leave thinking to the one who gave intelligence. In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving, and watch how the pattern improves.”
The meditative state of mind is the closest thing to a ‘magic wand’ that I’ve come across in 25 years of exploring the human potential. It heals the body. It’s the gateway to deeper wisdom. It opens up a world of deeper feelings. It gives us glimpses into the nature of the universe.
Most people who understand its power have learned to access it through discipline and practice over time. In fact, people put an extraordinary amount of effort into attaining and maintaining a peaceful state of mind. They try to protect their mind from disturbance by not watching the news, not reading the papers, and not allowing negative people into their life. They employ meditative techniques designed to still the mind through inquiry, mantras, and visualizations. Or they shift their attention away from their mind and onto their body, using intense exercise, gentle movement, or focusing on the breath to change their state.
Each one of these practices can be an effective way of experiencing greater peace of mind and the insights that come with it. But there’s a difference between having a meditation practice and living in a meditative state of mind.
Here’s how I wrote about it in The Space Within:
1. The absence of conflict
‘As long as no one’s upset with me, I will have peace of mind.’
At a very basic level, peace of mind looks like the absence of conflict. So if we want to experience more of it, we need to either get better at conflict management or simply avoid conflict altogether.
People who equate peace of mind with an absence of conflict often think of themselves as ‘peacemakers,’ but as often as not they’re really just ‘avoiders of conflict.’ (Think Neville Chamberlain before World War II or a long-suffering spouse who puts up with all sorts of abusive behavior from their partner in hopes of a quiet life.)
Not only does this overly conciliatory head-in-the-sand attitude tend to create more conflict than it avoids, it also keeps our head filled with boatloads of thought about what we mustn’t do or say, which in turn eliminates any chance we might have of actually experiencing peace of mind in the first place.
Which is why at some point most people start to realize that absence of conflict is less important than…
2. The constancy of circumstance
‘As long as my job/marriage/health/finances are secure, I will have peace of mind.’
While people who equate peace of mind with absence of conflict move away from what they don’t want, people who equate it with ‘constancy of circumstance’ move toward creating and maintaining the life circumstances they think they need in order to feel relaxed and content.
Though they may think of themselves as ‘go-getters’ or ‘high-achievers,’ people chasing constancy of
Not only is it virtually impossible to sustain peace of mind in every area of our life when we’re chasing it from the outside in, but the stress of needing circumstances to conform to our will in a world where life seems to have a mind of its own often takes us further away from peace of mind than we were when we started.
Which is why at some point it’s quite common for people to begin to realize that constancy of circumstance is less important than…
3. The absence of Thought
‘As long as I don’t have too much thinking going on, I’ll have peace of mind.’
When people make the shift from trying to create peace of mind through external strategies to creating it through quieting thought, life starts to get easier. Because as long as we don’t have too much on our mind, we can handle conflict and changes in circumstance much better than your average bear.
People who seek peace of mind by banishing thought are the meditators of the
But absence of thought can also lead to dullness of wits, and the difficulty for many people of maintaining their peace of mind in the 23 hours a day when they’re not meditating can turn the practice into a chore.
The people who continue to meditate as a ‘love to’ rather than a ‘should’ are often those who’ve experienced…
4. The peace of Mind
‘Peace is the nature of Mind.’
Mind is the formless energy and intelligence behind life – the life-force that animates our world. It is everywhere and ever-present, and it brings with it a feeling of being alive and a knowing that regardless of what’s going on in our head or in our world, all is well.
People who recognize that the peace of Mind
When we see that we live in a mind-made world and that we ourselves are of that same formless energy, the idea of having to do anything to experience peace of Mind is as bizarre as the idea that a fish would have to do something to experience water. When you start to notice that the peace of Mind is always present, it begins to fill your consciousness more and more of the time.
Perhaps the best thing about experiencing the peace of Mind is that it’s always available, regardless of who’s mad at you, what they’re mad about, and what you happen to be thinking about it at the time. And when you recognize meditation as your natural state, there’s nothing you need to do to attain it. It’s not only right where you are sitting now; it’s the one who’s doing the sitting.