Viewing things as I do at the moment, it seems obvious to me to say that, as desires decrease, the sense of peacefulness increases.
Of all the products of the mind – the thoughts and feelings – the one that ruffles the still waters the most is our desires.
As I go into a deeply-peaceful state, what I notice right away is the absence of any of them. Of course I could say there are also no feelings, no memories, etc. There is no movement of any kind in the mind.
But the thing that will kickstart the mind and get the thoughts and feelings moving the quickest would be my desires. They create lack. They motivate me to action. That’s why they’re called “drives.”
I find myself increasingly rejecting one food after another that I used to commonly. Similarly with the things I drink: I’m drawing closer and closer to simple water.
The one post-Reval desire I had (a particular car) I no longer have. I have no particular desire to do anything special from one day to the next, except to research, write, and walk in the park. My desires and attachments are rapidly leaving me.
It’s probably the Porlana C and the Tsunami of Love, which the Mother talked about in the last Heavenly Blessings. (1)
Sometimes when I sit to meditate, I regain that wonderful sense of peace I had on two earlier occasions.
Peace arrives with the utter quietude of the mind. I cannot say whether peace banished thoughts or the quietness led to the peace.
I’ve said that we don’t go from one experience to a new experience, but rather deeper and deeper into a single experience. Or a few in my case (love, bliss, and peace).
In the case, of peace, I think I’m accurate on saying that there’s nothing qualitatively different between my experience of peace and the Buddha’s – except that his was undoubtedly countless times deeper. The degree of mental quietude would also have been countless times more refined. But the peace would probably have been the same.
There are not two peaces, so to speak. We don’t reach a crossroads at some point with the basic choice: Turn left for Peace No. 1 and turn right for Peace No. 2.
Peace is one. Our experiences of it may differ, according to our degree of development, evolution, unfoldment, or whatever you wish to call it.
Too much of a taste of peace for too long and I could end up abandoning everything. I appreciate the need for a gradual ascent, in line with our individual missions.
If we were discussing love, I’d say open your heart. Draw love up on the in-breath and send it out to the world on the out-breath.
If we were discussing bliss, I’d say just let go. Bliss is our very nature. We cannot go astray although we feel we may have. Fall back into bliss.
If we were discussing peace, I’d say let go of all desires and measure your success by the quietness of your mind. Peace hangs out with a quiet mind.
As far as I can see, at this moment in time, I feel no attachments and have no desires that could or would result in the arising of a vritti or wave in the mind. I feel peace. I abide as peace. Right now. I don’t expect this state to last.
When I enter into it, whole structures begin to crumble. Self-important acts or misery-loving acts, that call upon me to continually validate them to remain alive, crash to the ground, neglected.
Deeply-unconscious subterfuges I didn’t know I was maintaining endure only because I was skating fast over thin ice; as long as I’m not skating at all, they break free and make their unpleasant presence felt as dissonant feelings.
I’m now led to the position of the witness, the “last man standing” in the silence, as structures I once thought permanent fall around me.
***
After I wrote this article, I came across a passage from Michael in my personal readings that I’d forgotten. He discussed this very subject:
Steve: What is the relationship between love and peace, Lord?
Archangel Michael: Think of them as expressions. If you do not have the love, if you are not the love, then there can be no experience, no expression, no feeling of peace. When there is an absence of love, there is a constancy of yearning, of striving. Not only the quietude but the jubilation of peace, cannot be present.
Similarly, think of them as intertwined. When there is peace, when there is that knowing, not only of external peace, but of the deep knowing of your sense of self and your self-worth, that allows the love to arrive, to rise up within you, to swell, to be felt, to be experienced and shared.
“When there is an absence of love, there is a constancy of yearning, of striving.” In the absence of sacred love, we yield to our bodily sensations and the desires they give rise to. We’re constantly wanting something, constantly after something.
And, yes, deep peace and knowing the Natural Self seem to go hand-in-hand. (2)
Footnotes
(1) “Heavenly Blessings ~ Universal Mother Mary: Keep Dreaming!,” May 2, 2017, at https://inlightuniversal.com/heavenly-blessings-universal-mother-mary-keep-dreaming/
(2) The only part of what he described I haven’t experienced is “that allows the love to arrive, to rise up within you, to swell, to be felt, to be experienced and shared.”
I believe my experiences were truncated. I experienced deep peace but not sacred love. On one occasion, while in peace, I looked for love and could not find it, which is unusual. Usually I can easily find it in some nook or cranny of my experience.