If inner peace is always present why do we not feel peaceful all the time? The short answer is because our busy mind is veiling the peace that is our true nature. The mind is a circular activity that consciously and unconsciously lives in the past and worries about the future. The mind is in a constant state of flux, striving and never arriving: it’s always searching for a moment in time that is better than the present moment. The mind is like a hamster on a wheel … lots or motion, yet going nowhere. The difference is the hamster enjoys the ride. We suffer.
The futile search for inner peace
The greatest addiction is the addiction to thinking. For the constantly striving mind – except for fleeting moments of satisfaction – peace is a hoped-for and yet an illusive future event.
So, what do we do? We go on vacation or go camping hoping to find relief. But the mind comes with us. Addiction to drugs, food, sex, TV, cellphones, internet, etc., is a deep desire to find relief and get off the hamster wheel. Ironically, these peace-seeking activities only accelerate the mind’s motion and commotion. Yet, we grab on to many distractions because they bring temporary relief, while deep inside, we know that all these activities never bring lasting peace.
This is the cause of addiction: we want to make the temporary permanent. What we are really seeking is a vacation from the mind. Peace cannot be found by placating the relentless mind. Why? Because the hamster wheel mind is the problem
The nature of true peace
Let us take a look at inner peace. No matter how many clouds nor what types of clouds pass by, the sky is never disturbed. Our true nature is like the sky: it is never disturbed by the passing clouds of thoughts and emotions.
What then is distracting us from living as our true nature? Our true nature has been obscured by human conditioning and unprocessed traumas. These fuel the mind’s perpetual relief-seeking activities. It is the very seeking that keeps us from finding the peace that is already here.
There is no way out of the mind by going through the mind. To live from the presence of inner peace is to unveil the unresolved past. We do not create peace. Instead, the peace that is our true nature, is unveiled and revealed. The body holds layers of conditioning and emotional imprints. Releasing emotions dissolves stress-inducing thoughts. A peaceful heart replaces mental anguish and stressful feelings begin to disappear. By surrendering to the unlayering process, the futile search for inner peace comes to an end.
Before conditioning there was inner peace, a Divine Heart expressing only love and compassion. As the clouds dissolve, we experience ourselves as the sky that we were all along. We return home to the peace that we are. It’s a return to the home we never left, except in our mistaken mind.
