Recently, a friend and I attended a talk by a Buddhist monk, Gen-la Kelsang Jampa. It was titled “Is Peace Possible?”
Of course, I was intrigued. I’m always thinking about how I can be more at peace in my life. So if I could learn more about peace, I would be in!
The talk started with a wonderful breathing meditation. I really do love to meditate. It was simple. He guided us to focus on – breathing in and breathing out – encouraging us to let go of any thoughts that may arise and to continue returning to our breath.
It helped the entire room slow down and find a moment of peace together.
Then he went into the topic of peace. I thought I would share some of the main points I heard:
- Every living being has the same basic wish – to be happy and avoid suffering.
- The cause of happiness and the solution to our problems don’t lie in knowledge of material things.
- Modern technology continues to increase each year, which has resulted in remarkable material progress, but it hasn’t increased human happiness. There’s no less suffering in the world.
- The real source of happiness is inner peace.
- Happiness and suffering are states of mind, and so their main causes are not to be found outside the mind.
- If we want to be truly happy and free from suffering, we must learn how to control our minds.
It sounds simple, doesn’t it? All you need to do is control your mind, and you will find peace.
It’s another one of those ‘simple, but not necessarily easy’ concepts to implement into everyday life.
What does controlling your mind look like? How do you do it? Especially when there is so much chaos, sadness, struggle, strife, or negativity all around. How do you ‘control your mind’ so that you do not think/feel all of it?
He was saying that to find peace, we must learn how to control our minds and not allow delusions such as uncontrolled desire, anger, and ignorance to crowd our minds.
This is a hot topic for me right now. I wrote about something similar in a recent post titled “No one can make you . . .” which you can read again here. I talked about how no one can make you feel anything.
The Buddhist monk talked about how you can choose to stay in a place of peace no matter what is going on around you or the delusions that arise.
Since the talk was only 1.5 hours long, he didn’t get too deep into the topic, but he did refer to a free e-book, How to Transform Your Life – A Blissful Journey.
It was perfect timing to attend this talk. I was going to be visiting family soon.
I received so many great reminders and AHAs that reminded me I can control my mind by not allowing what anyone else says or does – to stop me from finding my inner peace.
Finding inner peace is a process that will take patience, practice, and compassion. There will be times when you may find it and feel great, and then, just as quickly, you will lose it.
It is something I experience often. If this happens to you, it is normal. It is okay. I want to remind you (and myself) to have compassion for yourself. Know that you are doing your best – and try again.
“You either control your mind or your mind controls you.” Napoleon Hill