"Intervening at such situations would cost your inner peace"
That's a strange quote, it's even stranger that I do agree with it. If our peace is consumable and disappears when you do something, how can it be called inner peace?
Inner peace isn't consumable nor does it run out. It's not a water that flows outside once the container is broken. On the contrary, the definition of inner peace is to remain composed and relaxed despite the container being destroyed in countless ways.
Meditating, doing nothing, relaxing oneself, may help us increase our inner peace, but none of those are inner peace. If we have to do something or think of something just to maintain our peace, how can it be called "inner peace"? What's peaceful in that?
I don't believe that inner peace is simply a mental stress ball that you must always hold just to remain calm, because if you ever let go of that ball, then what happens to your calm? A peace that depends on thought and action — can never be called inner peace.
Inner peace doesn't disappear just because you stop breathing deeply or stop thinking about it. It doesn't go away just because you intervened in a conflict, but it is within conflicts and intense situations that inner peace can shine even more.
Who is to say that inner peace only lies in doing nothing, doing only safe and peaceful things? There is no such thing as inner peace within our comfort zone, but only outer peace — the kind of peace that only depends on external situations.
Can inner peace only be found in the isolated mountains where no one can disturb you? Does inner peace only exist in peaceful times, without any conflicts or war? No, there is no such thing as inner peace within those things.
There is no inner peace without an outer conflict. It is like the eye of the storm — an extremely calm and still center despite the catastrophe raging outside.
Disasters and humans are all outside our control, what happens around us are always changing outside of our control. Inner peace is here for us to remain still and secure with our existence, despite everything that is happening outside. It is to become the eye of the storm when surrounded by heavy winds and thunder.
I used to believe that embracing myself in solitude without interfering in anything is inner peace. That living like an ascetic, or a monk, would help me find the peace I wanted. Turns out, I was wrong and it's actually the opposite.
HAHAHAHAHAHA that was so stupid of me. I used to avoid all conflicts thinking that it would cost me my inner peace, but my actions of avoidance, are actually the ones that disrupts my inner peace and gives rise to inner conflicts.
What a terrible mistake! From now on, I shall do everything I can not to repeat that same mistake I made before. I'll make myself more aware of my avoidance habits, not by reminding myself often, but through unconscious knowing — understanding the essence of something instead of memorizing it.
"Humans are innately good. Everyone is a human being despite how they look and what they do. They don't judge as much as I do." All such truths like that I know, but unable to understand. They're similar to when I memorize the chapter just to pass the quiz, but not understand it.
When we memorize something, we have to remind ourselves of what we memorized to recall it, but when we understand something, there's no need to remind ourselves — not only we "know" it's true, but we also "feel" it's true. Thus its "truthfulness" becomes not a part of our memory but a part of us.
If you get yourself into outside conflict with others, but decide to continue it and defend yourself through the very end, then you'll get both inner and outer conflict, without any peace at all.
If you avoid all conflicts and withdraw interactions from all humans, then you'll get lots of inner conflict and get stuck trying to solve it with your outer peace.
However, if we don't avoid conflicts nor do we feel the need to defend ourselves, if we try to interfere with the conflicts without letting ourselves get swept in the storm, then that's when we can feel and realize — the inner peace within us.
Indeed, conflicts are always everywhere. The key is to let all those conflicts stay outside while our peace stays inside, not the other way round. What's the point of having outer peace, when deep inside, we're very full of inner conflicts?
Bring the conflicts outside, let the peace come inside, that's the only way we can experience inner peace, not the consumable outer peace that simply passes by.
We have to stand up for ourselves, but not at the cost of pulling down anyone else. We don't have to defend ourselves, there's nothing to defend it from.
The body decays and the mind slows down as we approach death, but our consciousness never fades. To experience and feel the reality of this truth, will help us find the eternal inner peace within our souls.
Only the eternal within us can see the temporary in everything. The animals do not know that they will die someday, they simply die. The fact that we humans know of our life and death proves that even death is temporary — that there is something beyond.
Indeed, there is no need to defend ourselves because not even death is allowed to harm us. We simply need to stand up for ourselves not to defend from others, but because we also have a life to live, just like everyone else.
Perhaps I should tell you the actual methods of "standing up for yourself without dragging anyone down", but to directly tell you the methods without understanding the theory, will only make you stuck.
Using mathematical formulas without understanding the theory behind them, will make one inflexible. Teachers can only give the directions, but the students must take it upon themselves to walk the path.
They can't transport them there either, for it would rob them the experience, "the process", which is more important than any result or answer.
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime. Likewise, giving someone the answer will make them satisfied for a day, but teaching someone to find the answer can help them for a lifetime.
Prayers are essential not because a genie will grant our wishes, but because we pray to ourselves for ourselves. It gathers the silence of the consciousness and the space of the soul towards One purpose.
Who are you praying to? God? Universe? Or Yourself? In the eternal dimension of the infinite, there is no such distinctions. You are God, you are the Universe, you are One. Keep that in mind.
Thank you for helping us understand the true meaning of inner peace, for allowing us to know what we can know and withholding that which we cannot yet comprehend. Give us not Courage, but the sublime Awareness and Understanding to leave our comfort zones for the sake of Inner Peace.
Help us realize the peace and joy of being that's already within us. Allow us to feel our place in the universe, be secure in our own existence. For you have given us air, water, food, shelter, and pleasure despite doing nothing, help us learn to give without expecting anything in return.
Kindly remind us of our eternal origin and infinite nature, so that we may let go of all our worries and problems and enjoy the transient beauty of the present moment.
Help us lay our desires, attachments, and obsessions to rest, so that we may truly lay our heart down onto the sea of stars.
Truly it is.
"Sailing so free, sailing in peace. Lay your heart down into the sea of the stars."
~LotGH OP 3
"The kind of peace that doesn't avoid, but transcends all conflicts — inner peace."
"I never planned or thought about suddenly writing a weird closing prayer, it just happened."