The Peace Practice Game 

I do not want the peace which passes understanding; I want the understanding which brings peace. — Helen Keller.

Few things are more desirable, indeed more longed for, by our ever-longing souls, than peace. Peace of mind or, better yet, peace of heart! We have this innate longing right from the get-go, it’s part of our spiritual DNA. 

Peace is no less than a fully fledged Spirit given virtue, that needs to be kindled and pursued above all else. Like all other God given virtues, the tricky thing about peace is that once you receive it you have to pass it on in full through other-centered action. To keep receiving the countless blessings of peace, what you get needs to be given away entirely to the other, every other! That’s just how it works in the God game, the peace in practice game. You’ve got to give it away to keep it.   

The great Cambodian monk and peace activist Maha Ghosananda said: 

When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world.

This is a mighty maxim. It is a deep truth, writ-large. But it took this old misfit mystic many decades of struggle, and more than a few rock-bottom surrenders, to come to this conclusion. I come from the fighting Irish, born a rebel, mostly of lost causes. My warring ways were largely internal! However, like most suffering people devoid of even a glimmer of peace, I had a nasty habit of creating chaos and destruction all round me.  

War, whether internal or external, is closely linked to the all-encompassing ego driven push for more of this or that. It is really just a primary symptom of spiritual illness. And yes, this applies just as much to our war-ridden world as it does to the destructive, self-centered ego that is rampaging away within each one of us.  

Unsurprisingly, therefore, given that the underlying symptom of external and internal war is spiritual disease, the solution which is peace must likewise be spiritual. In the final analysis, no other possibility is on offer. We, and this conflict plagued world, will find no lasting peace other than from—the great shalom peace-giver—the living God of love. Only God can give peace because God is peace personified. (More about that in my next in my next post). 

Albert Einstein said: 

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

How wise he was, peace is a priceless gift from the Spirit realm, whereas force is without doubt well and truly in the realm of the human ego, and never ends well. Einstein also said: 

I am not only a pacifist, but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

I’ve written previously about pacifists. They are the walking, taking, peace doers of this world, folks who having received the peace gift get militant about passing it on. For when we become the recipients of inner peace, passing it on becomes a must do! So let me give the last word on this post to a non-violent pacifist man supreme, who said: 

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. — Mahatma Gandhi.