We Are Already What We Seek

Note: The main focus of this writing is peace. However, you can substitute any quality or other capacity that might support you with your work, organization, relationships, health and so on. I write more about this, focusing on leadership, toward the end.

As I speak about nonduality and the essence of who we are, I am occasionally asked about the practical implications and applications. They are many: experiencing the contentment – a word that is used to describe Awareness – “in the background” at all times no matter whether I’m also experiencing fear, frustration or anxiety is one.?

And as with any new perspective, possibilities are available that weren’t before. Frankly, once I knew nonduality,?everything?was different; I don’t see or experience the world as I did before. For example, as I let it “sink in” that we are OneBeing, I’m bothered less and less by the behavior of others, which frees me up to be fully present and more available. I have ideas I could never have imagined before, on and on.?

“Life has everything in it. But you only see what your perception allows you to see.”

-???????Bruce Lipton, PhD

I’ll leave it at that, because today I want to focus on one of the?most?practical, especially in this time of seeming upheaval in the world.

I’m returning to the possibility of peace. I think most people would prefer to live – and work – in peace.?

I add “work” because peace is possible in every activity and relationship, not just the area of war vs. peace.

There are many conversations and activities around “how-to-live-in peace.”?

That is where a new understanding of who we are and the OneBeing we are can make a profound difference.

I read insights and suggestions from many brilliant thought leaders who work in various institutions with reputations for being state-of-the-art and engaging leading-edge thinkers. These extraordinary people bring all of their research, education, relationships, and tremendously open hearts to this “project.”?

They are designing incredible programs, events and activities to convene students, activists, educators, on-the-ground leaders. They are offering tools and practices in what has been defined as a “difficult process.”?

The question to which they are applying all of this knowledge and creativity is some version of: how do we cultivate peace in our communities and in our world?

The idea, based on our culture and conditioning, is that we must develop ourselves to being and living peacefully. It is a paradigm of development, i.e., by developing ourselves and designing systems we will someday be able to live the way our hearts desire.

How long do you think that might take? I don’t mean that sarcastically.?

I offer an alternative: we already are peace. We’ve just forgotten it. We can remember and live as peace. That is the Direct Path – and the flow of peace that already exists. Peace is moving in and around and through everything; we just don’t realize it.

I’m going to pause here and invite you to explore.?

Have you ever experienced peace in your life? Maybe you were sitting outside watching the sun set. Or holding a baby and you were so present with the little one that peace permeated your being? Maybe while relaxing or meditating or walking.?

Have you experienced peace?

I’m going to guess that the answer is yes. So, you may be right there with me: we don’t have to develop ourselves to know peace. We just proved that to ourselves.?

Caveat: When I asked you to reflect on whether you had experienced peace, I invited you to bring to mind an event. That was to help you focus and remember. However, it actually wasn’t the event or circumstance that caused the experience. Your true nature is peace, love, fulfillment, happiness. We have been?conditioned to believe?that the circumstance or object is what caused us to experience peace, but in reality, the peace is always there.

“Ok, so I experienced peace, I know how to be peaceful, so I don’t need books, seminars, techniques, to learn this nor systems to experience it or express it. And the question remains, ‘How do we live this way?’”?

As with anything, the first step is to decide: I am living peace. I am bringing peace to all that I do.?

The Coronavirus traveled the world pretty quickly. Why can’t peace? We can rest our being in peace, and at the same time build systems and structures, but let the peace inform them instead of the other way around. If we let our minds based on separation lead the way … well, … I don’t think I need to spell it out. In fact, when I posed the possibility that peace could travel as quickly as the virus, you might have had many ideas, beliefs and feelings why it can’t. But we don’t have to “listen” to those.??

Aside: Living as peace doesn’t mean that one lives in a world where everything is acceptable. I can experience peace – and probably more skillfully and effectively – address a situation where behavior and results and performance are below standards or perfectly unacceptable. Peace doesn’t mean abdication of responsibilities.?

We will have peace in the world when we live as peace.?Systems don’t create peace; organizations don’t create peace; they can support it and sometimes get in the way of it, especially if we think the system or organization will do something to bring something about. We can use these to support us in more fully being and expressing peace, not creating. Peace comes from within each and every one of us.?

Let’s apply all of this to a work situation. Maybe you are a leader and want to be the leader you know in your heart is possible for you and those with whom you work. It has been found that happiness creates leadership success.?

You might decide then to ensure that you are happy. Yet, you experience happiness occasionally; it seems to be temporary.?

A useful analogy is the sky and clouds. Clouds represent our thoughts, feelings, activities and relationships. The sky represents our essential nature of peace, happiness, love and fulfillment.

Traditionally, most of us generally focus our attention on these clouds. If the sky is covered by many clouds, then we only occasionally see the patch of blue. Happiness can seem the same to us: an occasional temporary experience. Yet, when we investigate our experience, we find that the blue sky is always there in the background, just as our happiness is, in the background of our experience. We find that happiness is not temporary or occasional. The clouds veil the sky, just as our attention on unhappiness and other experiences veils happiness.?

As a leader then we focus our attention on happiness and let that inform our conversations, activities and relationships.

Our hearts know peace – and great leadership – are possible, or we wouldn’t talk about it. But, instead of talking, let’s?be?peace. It may not be easy at the beginning. We have plenty of beliefs, habits, relationships, activities that don’t align. That’s ok. We begin.?

You can go to your inner experience of peace as you did earlier and bring that experience to all that you do.

Where to Go from Here

1.?????Return over and over to the peace you are. Or, if there is another quality you want to bring to your life, keep returning to it.

2.?????You will notice beliefs and emotions that take you away from that feeling. In my experience, it takes ongoing focus to return to the peace and calm that we are. You can invite yourself to remove your attention from what is taking you away from peace or fulfillment and return to those experiences. You can still participate in activities and conversations while doing this.?

3.?????Be patient with yourself. It can be quite challenging in the beginning.

We are in the midst of a paradigm shift that is fundamentally changing our knowing of and relationship with reality. We are being asked to know who we truly are and to express that knowing in our relationships, activities, conversations and being. My dream is that millions of us live aligned with our essential nature, beginning now.

With love,

Peggy