Peace in Stillness

I said in another discourse that there is peace in stillness. I know firsthand how little people actually understand this. First, I would like to elaborate on perfect peace. Then, I will further explain what "peace in stillness" really means.

Perfect peace, it is said, is unattainable. If one were at perfect peace, they would first have to completely deny their physical beings. Therefore, to be in a state of perfect peace, one would have to be a spirit. Thus, so long as one is alive, they will never reach a state of perfect peace.

The physical body produces chemicals that affect the psyche. In other words, so long as you body still functions, it will make you feel certain ways. It is understood that one can accept and release these emotions, but that the emotions occur at all reveal the truth that you are not at perfect peace.

Furthermore, perfect peace means that you must not allow, even for one moment, anything beyond your control to enter you mentally or spiritually. Since one has no true control over anything, to be at perfect peace, one must banish everything. Perfect peace has no companion and needs none. It is not a lonely existence. It is merely accepting that you are.

Now that we have a bare inkling of what peace is, or could be, I will continue by elaborating on where it can be found. I said there is peace in stillness, and I firmly believe that it does not exist elsewhere. I do not, however, mean external stillness, but internal.

Once, Christ was in a boat with his disciples in the middle of a storm. He was sleeping, so his followers woke Him up and asked Him to save them from the tempest. He rose and faced the storm. Then He said some of the most commonly misinterpreted words in the Bible. He said, "Peace. Be still."

Here, Christ is saying two things. First, He is speaking literally and, second, He is revealing a fundamental truth. The literal part of what Jesus said was, first, "peace" to the disciples, reassuring them. Second, He told the storm to be still and the tempest abated.

The truth that Jesus was revealing was that there is peace in stillness. When we search for peace, we search amiss. We would be much more profitable if we would search for stillness and simply locate peace in its midst. We can never achieve perfect peace because we can never achieve perfect stillness. However, if we work to be in a state of perfect peace we will find unimaginable peace in an almost perfect state of stillness of both mind and spirit.