CHAPTER 2
WHY DO WE LOSE
OUR PEACE OF
MIND?
We don't know Peace is within
Man is ignorant. He doesn't realize that though he desperately wants to be peaceful, he loses his Peace of Mind. Then he cries as stress, worry and anxiety overpower him. He doesn't even realize that he has a choice. He lives as though he is helpless, as his Mind steals his Peace.
Who robs our Peace? It is our own Mind. Peace is that state of stillness, of bliss, of tranquillity, where the waves or disturbances of the world don't splash within us again and again. The Monkey Mind is constantly jumping from thought to thought. It never stops. Even when we go to sleep and our body loses consciousness, the Mind doesn't. It continues its Monkey business as it jumps from dream to dream, creating chaos within. Sometimes, when we wake up, it seems we haven't slept at all because we were startled by that nightmare. Even in sleep, we lose our Peace.
Unfortunately, man has not realized who is stealing this much-desired Peace of Mind. It is the Mind itself! It is not that some unknown thief comes and steals our treasure of tranquillity.
Sheela used to love to sit in her garden, enjoying the butterflies and the birds. How she treasured those moments of each sunrise and sunset! She enjoyed the breeze and the swaying of the trees. But her bliss never lasted for long. As she blissfully experienced nature, the Monkey within her would start its chattering. It would jump into yesterday and this particular morning, she started to think about how Naresh, her husband, did not bother to call and inform her that he was not coming home for dinner the day before. She had been sitting at the dining table, with the food ready and cooked in the kitchen, waiting patiently, until she fell asleep. As the Mind jumped into that yesterday, she lost sight of the sunrise. The Monkey made tears roll down her cheeks as her thoughts made her wonder –'Why does he do this all the time? Why could he not just call me? Why does he make me suffer?' Little did Sheela realize that losing her Peace was a choice. As she woke up to a beautiful morning, it was a fresh new day and she was enjoying sipping her cup of tea in the dawn that was unfolding. But there entered the Monkey, only to steal her Peace! Her Peace belonged to her and it was not resting in the yesterday that had passed away. But the Monkey within her had the ability to swing from the present moment of bliss to a yesterday, and what did she miss? The beauty, the joy and the Peace that she had just started to enjoy that morning.
Don't we experience the Monkey like Sheela did? Don't we lose our Peace of Mind so often? Although we treasure those moments of silence and bliss, those moments don't extend last. The bliss that we enjoy, is not external. It is within us. Somehow, we begin to believe that our happiness and peace is controlled by others. We make our life such that our tranquillity depends on how other people behave with us. Then, our Mind tickles and teases us, as it analyzes and thinks, and as it does, it disturbs the much-treasured Peace that is within.
How often do you find yourself irritated? It may be because of what your colleagues said, or what your spouse did or what your friend asked. Small things trigger irritation in the Mind. While we enjoy the bliss of Peace, the Mind is so sensitive that the slightest of triggers can irritate the Mind and develop a reaction that can destroy our Peace. It may be a silly reason, but we get irritated because the Mind doesn't know how to respond peacefully. This is an art we must learn as we progress on this journey of Peace.
Shekhar was a victim of such irritations. It would start with something as trivial as how his brother would arrange books on his table. He had no control over his Mind and he lost his Peace because of some little irritation. The irritations grew, as his Mind went out of control and he would get irritated at everything. Because he became a slave of his Mind and did not realize what he was losing in the bargain, his irritation led him into a behavioural problem, OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Thereafter, the disorder took charge of his life and he struggled so much to regain his Peace. It is really sad to see some people lose their treasure of Peace because they don't take charge of their life, their thoughts and their Mind. If only we nip irritations in the bud, we can avoid the stress and turmoil that will displace our precious Peace of Mind.
We don't even know that this Peace of Mind that we seek so much, and we lose so easily, is not stolen and transported by someone outside of us. The Peace is within and the thief is within! When the thief creates ripples of thought, our Peace gets disturbed and in a fraction of a moment, it is gone. The rascal who stole our Peace, our very own Mind, replaces that Peace with stress, worry or anxiety. The Mind has many tools to destroy our Peace. It may be hate, fear, revenge, envy or jealousy. All the Mind has to do is to poke our inner being with one disturbing thought. Then the Peace within becomes a storm and we become so agitated that we lose our Peace.
Because man is ignorant about this treasure – Peace, that is actually more important than any wealth of the world, man continues to live without Peace of Mind. His ignorance makes him suffer the agitation and anxiety- attacks sweep through his life ever so often. Man has invented tranquilizers that can put him to sleep and pain killers that can cut off the signal of the pain in the brain. But man has not found the solution to this little problem – how he can live without losing his Peace of Mind. Man's ignorance stems from the fact that he doesn't know that this much-desired Peace is a treasure within and the terrorist that disturbs his Peace also resides inside of him. It is man's own Mind that terrorizes his tranquillity and even though he may make a lot of effort to regain his Peace, in a fraction of a moment, he loses it.
The world today has become so conscious about our mental well-being. Why has meditation become so popular and why have thousands of yoga centres appeared all over the world? Because they all promise Peace. Man flocks to these meditation classes. He pays hefty fees, he downloads apps and does fancy body postures as he learns breathing techniques. What man doesn't understand is that all these techniques and exercises do just one thing. They take man within and make him shut off from the outside world. They so beautifully touch the depth of man's heart and Soul, that man considers these to be magical and mystical, as he submits to them. Little does he realize that all he is doing is regaining the Peace that is within him. His ignorance makes him blind that his treasure of tranquillity is not something that is outside. Thus, the success of meditation and Yoga around the globe!
Unfortunately, because man doesn't realize peace within, he continues to lose his Peace of Mind the moment he is out of mediation, the asana or the pranayama, and the many fancy exercises that the world has created. Man jumps from one practice to another, from meditation to chanting and then to Mindfulness when all he has to do is to go within and discover what he so much seeks.
Essentially man is an island of Peace. Within this island, there is an unlimited, eternal, everlasting Peace. However, Man is surrounded by the waters of this world. The waves of desire lash at man incessantly. Like the ocean roars, man's desires create so much noise that he loses sight of Peace. The desires promise him sensual pleasures as man tries to eat the most exotic food to be happy. He yearns for music that is created with modern instruments and he becomes so addicted to fragrances produced by French cosmetic companies. As man searches and looks around to fulfil more and more of his cravings, he inadvertently loses his Peace. The waves around him destroy his island of Peace and take him into a prison of desires, lust, and cravings. Man's Mind fools him that all these material pleasures will give him happiness. He works very hard to achieve all this and he fills his life with all the pleasures of this world. In the end, he loses just one thing – Peace!
Can man be truly happy without Peace? Although man has all the pleasures in this world - money, name, fame, cars, clothes, jewellery, food, drink and everything that his body may desire? If man loses his Peace, all these pleasures of the world seem to be useless as man struggles within and faces the storm that surrounds his island of peace as waves of desires splash at him and the winds of his wants make him a prisoner on his own island of peace.
Man is gifted with the treasure of Peace. If man learns to be Peaceful, he can be the happiest person in the world. But instead of being content, man keeps on craving. He gives over the control of his life to his Mind. The Mind is wired to his body senses. Then, greed and desire take charge of his life. He forgets to discover the greatest of treasures that