What does Peace Mean to You?

Interesting question.

One of the strangest things about the search for peace is just how difficult it can be even to define the word, let alone try to define ourselves with it.

When I first started on my own journey, I thought finding peace meant isolating myself from the stresses of the world and practising introspection. This is certainly a type of 'peace' but one which leads one to sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop under a vow of silence for a decade or two. Indeed, some people end up doing exactly that; but for most of us, this is not what we are searching for. We have our desires and ambitions. We want to live sociable, active, meaningful lives, but we want these things in a context in which we know who we are. We want to advance and must therefore accept the inevitable stress that life brings, but at the same time we know that peace is an important part of our lives.


So if Peace isn't about isolating ourselves, does that mean we have to find it through others? Out there, in the world? Prem Rawat says 'No'. Absolutely not. And although he is courted by world leaders and is an ambassador of peace for the European Union, he laughs hollowly at any suggestion that we should look to our politicians and leaders to bring us peace. Indeed, many of the people who are causing all the wars and conflict in the world would claim to be 'fighting for peace'. But peace is not the absence of war. When we look outside, even if we don't find conflict and war on our doorstep, we definitely don't find peace in our leaders, or even in our brothers and sisters, our communities, friends or colleagues. They may bring us pleasure, but they don’t bring us peace. When we search for peace, we do not find it in other people.

As you can hear in the video below, when Prem Rawat was asked to define peace, he refused to do so. He said that Peace is a feeling and no words are adequate to explain it. Peace is inside you, and that feeling of peace is unique to you. You will know peace when you feel it, because it is about fulfillment... and what that word 'fulfillment' means is unique and personal to you too. Your peace is inside you. Nobody else can tell you what your peace feels like. It's your personal gift to yourself to find and enjoy your own personal peace. 

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So the search for peace doesn't mean removing all your ambitions or subjugating your desires. A degree of stress is inevitable and necessary in a normal life, so it's not about removing these things. It's about recognizing that, as we get involved in everyday life, those stresses inveigle their way into us and begin to define us and slowly take us over. By taking time - every day - to connect with the peace within, you can push it all back out there. You can re-centre yourself, put all that 'life' stuff into context; reconnect with who you are and what you want to be. And that will help you to love Your Life.

Of course, finding peace inside yourself isn't easy, but the good news is that the power to do so is yours. Because peace is a feeling, you own your own peace. Your peace is inside you. If you can turn inside and connect with that peace. If you can appreciate the miracle that is you and value what each breath brings you, then you will find what peace is for you. As Prem Rawat says: 'Peace is being able to admire your one beautiful lifetime... every single day.'  

Do you agree? What does peace mean to you? Let me know by leaving a comment below. 

David Baboulene