Seven Steps to Perfect Peace

Golden Thread

To experience the peace that passes all understanding you must identify and drop the self that sees itself as separate from the condition providing the disturbance. 

Quest for Peace

How many of you have ever felt like a three-legged stool with one leg that’s too short?  What happens to a stool like this?  It’s imbalanced, isn’t it?  And why is this? One part is no longer aligned with the whole.  As human beings, who possess varying degrees of consciousness, we are aware of our imbalance, but generally blame external conditions—people, places, or events—for our lack of balance.  If we look closely, we can readily see that to one degree or another, our entire lives become an uncomfortable balancing act. 

If we think about it, what we’re seeking is peace—a return to our natural state.  If we look to nature as our teacher—and we must, as it represents three-dimensional physical reality—we can see that all organism are continuously seeking a state of what biology refers to as “homeostasis.”  In other words, all living things are endowed with a natural internal regulator whose purpose is to allow the organism to function effectively in a broad range of environmental conditions.  If  hormones, temperature, glucose levels get out of whack, the autonomic  nervous system will kick in and rebalance the parts that are no longer functioning with the whole.  As we know, this system is unconscious and involuntary.  In other words, it requires no thought on the part of the organism.

Human beings are certainly governed by homeostatic regulation and are the only creatures on earth that have been proven to have the ability to self-regulate their emotional, intellectual, and physical centers through varying levels of consciousness or understanding.  What we’re interested in today is the continuous, even habitual, attempt to self-regulate the state of psychological peace.  And, our first task in this examination is to look at the cause of our imbalance, this perceived lack of peace. 

As spiritual aspirants, we know the problem isn’t outside of us.  We wouldn’t be here today, if we had not already exhausted all of the usual methods of rebalancing ourselves:  anger, withdrawal, alcohol, shopping, books, gurus, etc.  Most of us have tried it all with no lasting success.  Most of us are here today, because we know none of these comfort-seeking behaviors work, and we want to find another way.  The way I will present to you today is called The Inner Path, and we will discuss seven steps you can begin to follow right now—as we speak—to deliver you to a new level of consciousness, where you will discover the peace for which your heart longs.  Shall we take this journey together?

A New Mind

To begin I’ll ask you to take a deep breath and come wide awake, so you can hear an age-old, long-forgotten spiritual secret.  The reason we continuously struggle for more peace in our lives is because we’ve forgotten our true nature, which is peace itself.

Our current level of understanding—this comparative mind made up of all of its “wants” and “don’t wants”—has led us into a constant struggle with conditions within and outside of us that cause repetitive patterns of suffering.  What is required to break free from this suffering and to restore the peace which represents our true nature is a new mind or “metanoia.”

The term “metanoia” is derived from two Greek words “meta,” meaning “beyond” or “after,” and “noos,” meaning mind.  Some theologians use the word “metanoia” to refer to the process of repentance, but more contemporary scholars have replaced this negative connotation with a more positive definition involving the journey towards a superior level of understanding or consciousness. The “act of repentance” becomes “the act of turning around.”  It is this latter definition that we’ll be working with today.

This concept of the necessity of possessing a new mind can be traced throughout all of the world’s great religious teachings and scripture, but today we’re going to examine two verses from the Christian New Testament, which if understood properly, contain the secret to discovering this perfect peace for which we all long.

In this passage St. Paul is attempting to convey to the Romans the importance of holding on to their intention to be transformed by Love/Christ/Light/Awareness. 

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be confirmed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God— what is is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12: 1-2

Within these two short verses contain the key to eternal peace, and today you and I will look deeply into their hidden truth by uncovering the seven steps to perfect peace.

Step #1: Come Awake

In the first verse, we are told to “…present [our] bodies…”  What does this mean, to present our bodies?  It means we must be sufficiently present to ourselves in order to come into communion with the Divine as it invites us to a sacred marriage right here and now.  Most of us are completely unaware of the physical, emotional, and intellectual energies passing through us in any given moment.  We forget ourselves.  Evidence for this is found in the fact that we are continuously acting against ourselves in thought, word, and deed.  Can you see the truth of this?

Let’s examine this idea more deeply by returning to nature once again for an example of right and natural living.  In nature you never see an animal act against itself, do you?  Of course there are rare instances of animals sacrificing their safety and well-being for their offspring; but if seen properly, this same sacrifice is quite natural, as it leads to the preservation of the species.  What we’re talking about is the physical, emotional, and intellectual torture humans inflict on themselves in nearly every waking moment in the insane attempt to rebalance themselves and restore peace.  If we’re honest, we’ll agree that we do this to ourselves all the time.  Why?  There’s only one logical reason: we’re asleep!  We’re living in a dream world—a lower level of consciousness, where we are the unwitting prisoners of self-generated negative states like resentment, anger, worry, and fear.  It is our resistance to these negative states that leads to our quest for peace. 

Think about it. Animals are at peace.  They aren’t conflicted over their weight, relationships, finances, or jobs.  Naturally, they operate according to a lower level of consciousness, but they are essentially at peace, because they live in the moment.  They are present to themselves, because if they are not, they die.  So, our first step on the road to lasting peace is to come awake here and now and experience our own existence without thought.  Let’s take a moment now to do this.  Take a deep breath and really come awake and aware of yourself.  See and hear the speaker in front of you and at the same time be completely in your body.

Step #2: Come Back & Stay Present

The second step is to notice when we have forgotten ourselves and fallen back asleep and come back and stay present.  In the first verse of the scripture we just read, Paul demands that we present our bodies as a “living sacrifice” as a means of “spiritual worship.”  What he is saying is that this presentation (or being present) isn’t a one-time event; it’s a practice—a meditation, if you will.  We are meant to live in a state of continuous “presentment.”  In other words, we must consciously show up in every moment.  And, as we all know, this is much easier said than done.  The act of being here now requires tremendous energy and attention, which has been greatly lost in humans today. 

Guy Finley, an inspired author on the inner life, says we should strive at all times to direct ¾ of our attention inwardly, so we are aware of all of the energies that represent our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.  And, at the same time, we must direct ¼ of our attention to the necessary practical tasks required to live in the exterior world. Can you try to practice this now, even while listening?  What is required is that you become an active listener.  You are allowing the words to flow from the lips of the speaker to your ears, while remaining actively present to anything you may be feeling in your body, emotions, or any thoughts that come and go.  You’re familiar with the observer and the observed.  Being in Presence means we are the observer and the observed.  It’s one intelligence—one movement.  Experiment with this here now.

This brings us to the second verse, where Paul says: “Do not be confirmed to this world…” or said differently, “Don’t get stuck in the habitual pattern of thinking that the only world that exists is the one you experience with your five senses.  Remember your inner world and the eternal world of your Father or Mother in Heaven.”  If the religious terminology doesn’t feel right to you, you can remember your immortal self—that which is true and unchanging within you.  This is what the great theologian Paul Tillich referred to as “the ground of my being.”

Step #3: See the Disturbance

At the beginning of the talk, we said that the cause of our suffering and our need to find peace is our continuous struggle with the conditions we meet within and outside us in any given moment.  When we meet these conditions, our current divided nature—this old mind—immediately accepts or rejects the person, place or thing it sees and either confirms or denies by comparing it against its idea of itself in that moment.  If a person makes us feel good and confirms our beliefs about ourselves, we want them.  If not, we don’t want them.

If we are awake and have our attention firmly rooted in the present moment, we will be aware of this movement, representing the disturbance within us.  We will observe this passive nature being acted upon by an outside active force and be able to see it, rather than become identified with or attached to it.  So, step three is to “see” rather than “be” be the disturbance. I’d like to offer you a visual picture with this glass of water and this stone.  [Illustration]  As you can see, this glass of water is in a state of complete stillness and equilibrium.  The reason is that it is in its natural, passive state.  When the stone is dropped into the water, an active force has been introduced to a passive force, and the water responds or reacts.  And, in scale, the active force of gravity is simultaneously acting on the stone as passive force, which causes the stone to immediately fall to the bottom of the glass, where it is acted on by the active force of the bottom of the glass, preventing it from falling through to the floor. And, what happens to the water?  It eventually returns to its natural, passive state. 

We are like the water and the stone.  Our natural state is peaceful passivity, and we are continuously in a state of flux as we are acted upon by the forces of nature outside of ourselves such as the laws of nature like gravity, weather conditions like rain and snow, people coming in and out of our lives, and a thousand other internal energies.  It’s important to see this interaction of active and passive forces, so we can better understand our true nature as it interacts with the world around us.  The reason we experience a disturbance is we expect and demand permanence.  We like to maintain the status quo and have distinct images and ideas and opinions on what that looks like.  We have very little flexibility, especially as we get older. To summarize, we want to learn to “see” the disturbance (the stone) as it enters the moment of our life, rather than become identified with the disturbance we see the condition making.

Step #4: Watch the Disturbance

What do we usually do when we meet an unwanted moment—some person, place, or thing we don’t like?  Psychology tells us we react in one of two ways when we feel threatened: fight or flight.  These are natural, innate responses to physical danger but become problematic when they become unnatural forms of resistance in everyday life. 

Let’s go back to the glass of water.  If we personified the water, and gave it the will to escape the confines of the glass as a means of rejecting the appearance of the stone, it would spill out onto the floor, thereby losing its form and usefulness as a natural resource for drinking.  In one sense you could say its “life” had been wasted.  Alternately, if the water had the will to struggle with the stone in an attempt to eject it from the glass, it would only perpetuate the disturbance and, perhaps, break the container.  Can you see this?  Running and fighting—passive and aggressive reactions to external conditions—are self-destructive.

But, what happens if the water just remains water?  Instead of running or fighting, it just remains in its natural state.  If it had a will, you could say the water would just see the stone as it made its appearance, respond naturally with the splash, and then simply watch the stone, as it settled to the bottom of the glass.  In doing so, the water and the stone become one, and both are returned to their natural peaceful state.

So the fourth step for us, as humans, is to watch the disturbance without responding.  In this way, we maintain our equanimity in the face of any disturbance.

Step 5: Recall Your Intention

The fourth and fifth steps actually happen simultaneously and could be interchanged as steps on the path to perfect peace.  As we see the disturbance and are watching it, we must use this moment that represents a sort of shock to our system to recall our intention to possess a new mind or metanoia.  Wisdom born of experience helps us remember that our old, habitual ways of responding to disturbances with anger, revenge, resentment, or fear have never served us.  We know from experience that running away only ensures we will be followed in one form or another by a similar person, place, or thing which will provide us with the lessons we have been given to learn.  And, fighting will only serve to prolong the disturbance and rob of us of our longed-for serenity, because it is a well-known spiritual truth that what we resist persists.

Paul is very clear in the second verse of Romans 12, when he exhorts the Christians to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.” In the beginning of this talk, we said that the reason for all of our struggling is that we have forgotten our true nature, which is peace itself.  If we believe we were created by a higher force called God/Christ/Light/Truth, then isn’t it logical to accept the belief that the struggle will not end until we have aligned ourselves with that force which created us?  The only way to align ourselves with the will of God is to find a way to discern or recognize it.  Paul says clearly what is required is a new mind.  We can’t expect to keep thinking and behaving in the same old ways, controlled by whatever passing thought comes our way, and experience genuine transformation and lasting peace.  Something new must be born within us!

Step #6: Surrender False Desire

Let’s return now to the entire verse as we take our final steps together down this road to perfect peace.  Let us attempt also to listen with new understanding.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be confirmed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God— what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12: 1-2

We have already learned that we must come awake and actively make a presentation of our bodies—intellectual, emotional, and physical—as a living sacrifice as a means of worship and continuous meditation.  This sacrificial act cannot be confined to the world we have perceived with our senses.  It must also include a new world which can only be entered with a new level of understanding, belonging to the higher world from whence it comes, through the act of metanoia—turning around.  Paul is unwavering.  Sacrifice—a death, if you will—is what is required, if we are to know this perfect peace that passes all understanding.  This “death” is not a one-time event in time.  It is ongoing like the Christ’s death and resurrection, symbolic of an eternal dying to all that is false within us.  It is a death to what the myriad conflicting energies we refer to as “I” or “me” either want or don’t want in any given moment. 

The new mind neither desires nor resists; it simply observes.  It is like the water in the glass—a passive force being acted upon by that which is active in the moment.  Practically speaking, this means we see every person, place or thing we meet as a compassionate gift from God/Light/Truth/Divine Intelligence as a means for our own revelation and transformation into a new, higher life.

Step #7:  Begin Again

The good news and the bad news is these steps take persistent work and tremendous stores of energy.  Just when we think we’ve found the perfect peace for which our heart longs, something or someone will come into our lives and show us we have further to go and more to see…and we must humbly begin again.  Peace is your true nature and you can find it within.  What is required is a strong willingness formed of a resolute intention to be in accord with all that is light and bright and true.  You and I, as aspirants to a higher life, must refuse to be confirmed only to this world of sensation.  We must be willing to become a living sacrifice in mind, body, and spirit. And, we must hold this intention to possess a new mind every moment of every passing day.

Exercise: Practice Peace Through Presence

Over the next week and beyond, practice the peace which passes all understanding by employing these seven steps, whenever you meet a disturbance.