My Peace

posted in: Dada's posts | 9

Try this exercise:

Write a list of all your possessions — of all the things you call yours. “My family… my partner… my children… my house… my car… my reputation… my health… my wealth… etc.”

That list is how far you are from peace. If it’s a long list you are a long way away. If it’s a short list you are closer. The shorter it is the closer you are.

Once you have nothing on your list, you will always be in peace.

Alternatively, the same thing could be expressed paradoxically: if you feel that everything — the whole universe — is yours, that’s the same as having a list of nothing. Everything is nothing. Or rather everything is one thing: Universal Peace/Love/God. I had this feeling once when I was walking through the streets of Hong Kong, which is practically made of money. Although I did not “own” anything, I felt that the whole place was mine.
 

 
Incidentally, I first saw Arlo Guthrie performing his father’s song 10 years ago at the Lincoln Center, NYC. I loved it so much that I learnt to sing it on guitar. My version (and lyrics) came out a bit different, so I like to say the song is by Woody Guthrie and me!

 

9 Responses

  1. Matt

    How do you get rid of all those things and experience peace? I have like 20 things on my list.

  2. gunamuktananda

    It’s not a matter of getting rid of anything. We need people and things in our lives to maintain our physical and mental wellbeing. The trick is to not be attached to them; to not feel like you own them, or they are yours. You can do this through mediation, which gives you an ever-increasing feeling of the pervasive Oneness of all things. If you would like to learn meditation you can sign up for a free online course here:

    https://www.anandamarga.org/learn-meditation/

  3. Ian Walker

    I tried an exercise of throwing out a lot of stuff that I’d been clinging to for one reason or another. I felt the lightening of my material world had the same effect in my internal world, as if I’d literally thrown those bits out of my mind. However, despite the success of that exercise, the junk has reemerged (in different forms) adding weight to my cluttered mind.
    I have known for some time that meditation is the only hope I have of balancing my out of kilter life but one or several of my internal masters will not allow me the time to practice. One day I’ll take control and experience a new level of consciousness but until then I’ll have to put up with the clutter.
    Thank you for your wise words Dada.

  4. gunamuktananda

    An exercise like that gives some kind of an idea what it might be like to feel like the weight of the world has been taken off your shoulders on an ongoing basis. But to really establish and sustain that feeling the continued and ongoing practice of meditation is a must. This is a process of systematically working through our issues (in yoga terminology, karma or samskara) and coming to a place of clarity and purity unassailed by any external factor. You know it and now you have to practice it. Don’t be a slave to your internal masters! Become a spiritual warrior and fight for your own liberation of mind and justice in the world!

    You might like to start by signing up for this free online introductory course:

    https://www.anandamarga.org/learn-meditation/

  5. Ian Walker

    Those internal masters have had their way for fifty years, making them seemingly hard to shift. I have very little faith in myself which is probably a factor in my inability to organize time to practice.
    I have tried meditation on numerous occasions in the past but my vices and my lack of preparation/organization have meant that I cannot sustain the effort. That said, I did have one experience that blew my mind. During meditation I felt I entered a shrine of some sort. I felt the cold of the tile on my feet. It was over in a split second and I came quickly out of meditation. I don’t know how much my vivid imagination played in that experience but it felt very real. Why have I not attempted to reach that state again? Maybe fear. Fear of change. But that change must come if I’m to become that warrior.

    Thank you for you reply Dada.
    Love and light.

  6. Savrion

    Hello, I like to give you an reply but will I receive an email when you reply back, so I can give you an other reply ?

    My name is Savrion “he who has everything, but owns nothing” I am a business controller and received a wake-up call when I was 32, from a student who told me, that he search a long time and finally found me. I was suprised that all of sudden we didn’t talk but communicated with thoughts to each other, which was all of sudden also normal for me.

    I saw his real face from the past (he was in a body of a woman) and told me that I teach him for millions of years in the past and the first thing which I thought was “Than you didn’t learned anything” (due the fact that he did search for me, when I was a sleep)

    I sleep each time 4 trillion Earth-years and come back to controll how things are going, not only here but also on the other side, there where your soul can find peace or is in peace. Course what’s mine is also yours 🙂

    The God-sensation like the universe is yours, is correct and I controll that it stays clean and peacefull.

    Sometimes ………….. (most of the time) souls (the gods) get bored and consider eternity too long … so they all, already reach the God-sensation, feeling and power, like my student who woked me up after all these years (4 trillion human-years) and asked me ………….. “Give me your power, there must be more ……” Which was strange, course I have nothing, but will give you my reply 🙂

    (I live in Holland so my English is bad)

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