Peace is Not the Ultimate Answer
It continually amazes me that the majority of spiritual seekers from the most affluent countries on our small planet seem to be looking for one thing above anything else: Peace. Peace? Why on earth would the luckiest people to have ever been born express their spiritual aspirations through questing for relief and release—for peace? Why are we looking for a way out of the challenge of human existence? I mean, has our lot in life really been that bad?
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So why, then, are we still looking for a way out when we look to spirit? I understand that just because many of us have been graced with a high standard of living, it doesn't mean we don't suffer at an existential level. But I wonder if we haven't fallen into the habit of giving undue significance to our existential angst.
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It just doesn't make sense that the experience of relief and release from the very process that produced us should be the goal of the luckiest people who have ever been born. Why not? Because the very energy and intelligence that gave us life, that produced us, needs us lucky ones to take responsibility, to wholeheartedly participate in the life process in a deeper and more authentic way than most of us ever imagined possible.
As long as the focus of our spiritual aspirations is relief and release rather than a much more profound relationship with life at the deepest level, we will never be of much use to the energy and intelligence that created us. To put it in theological terms, we will be letting God down, because we will always be seeking for a way out rather than wholeheartedly engaging with the life process, with other human beings, with our own highest potentials. As long as we are seeking peace above all else, we will never know what it means to live at the very edge of the possible. In order to be truly available to the energy and intelligence that created the universe, we do have to transcend our angst-ridden separate selves. But the motive for doing so is not so we can abide in a state of peace and freedom beyond the process. Our motive is to become passionate and egoless vehicles for its own ongoing evolution.
--Andrew Cohen, from WIE Magazine
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11 Past Reflections
On Jul 15, 2008 Glory Be wrote :
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On Apr 29, 2008 2trang wrote :
I'd re-phrase Cohen: "As long as we are seeking peace for our Self above all else, we will never know what it means to live at the very edge of the possible." For me, conscientiously working for peace is to live at the very edge of the possible, and again for me, that is world peace.
Hoa` bi`nh.
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On Apr 23, 2008 Richard Shotz wrote :
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On Apr 22, 2008 UR MOM wrote :
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On Apr 22, 2008 Conrad wrote :
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On Apr 22, 2008 Khrishna wrote :
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On Apr 22, 2008 Mary Ann wrote :
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On Apr 22, 2008 David wrote :
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On Apr 22, 2008 Venita wrote :
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On Apr 22, 2008 Dion wrote :
The peace i have now is the peace that surpasses all understanding. The peace that only Christ can grant.
the peace to endure the process.
the peace that allows me to smile when all things are wrong, the smile confounds others, the smile that never ever leaves.
The grin that supersedes all things. The grin that trusts God implicitly, and leaps abundantly. The peace that sustains me in times of trouble, and elates me in times of pain.
The PermaGrin.
Grin.
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