Mental Peace

I do not know how this can happen! As long there is a mind, there can be no peace. Mind finds its existence itself in its very activity. But people refer to a confusion, and when they want it to ‘settle’ down, they want the ‘confusion’ itself to settle down. Maybe, that is how the word got coined. No problem. As long as we are able to understand it the way the other person does, it is communication indeed. (And there is another word “mental”. Some people are referred to as “He/she is …….. ‘a mental’….”).

The question comes up very often. I did not face this question from my within, when I confronted it for the first time. But it was posed to me as my problem. Or rather, through this question, I had become THE problem! “Will you allow me SOME mental peace at least FOR A WHILE” was what they asked of me, when I was a kid! And, I, in all innocence, set about wondering how I could do it. Already I had posed several embarrassing questions that could not have evaporated all at once from the mind of the other person, and how was I going to ‘undo’ my misdeed all of a sudden and that too ‘for a while’!

(May be, that is how, I even got ‘initiated’, as a kid, into the process of ‘experiencing’ that subtle level of ‘empathy’ into the ‘mental’ pain of others!). Quite funnily enough, there was yet more baffling declaration from womenfolk who were my elders around me, during the kid days. They used to say “You are taking away my life!”. Now, I was pushed into taking into account the two things together…. “Giving” some mental peace, and “not taking” away the other’s life! At that innocent age, the solution was too simple. Just avoid getting into their way. Still better, ‘oblige’ them doing things ONLY their way. Well, it was only for a while. I was back into my own agenda, taking more care this time, to avoid being ‘conspicuous’. That is how I could formulate the idea of ‘mystic’ way of doing things! (The initiation into it took place much later only, of course!).

These kind of instances happen to almost all people during their kid days. Nothing very special(about it). Only the memories are very special, simply because it was an intense experience, bereft of any ‘attachments’ then! It is fortunate, if also, the concepts stay back within us. My experience is that it does help to evolve into deeper spiritual concepts.

For some reason, I was tempted to take up an ‘ordinary looking question’ about ‘mental peace’. There was a nice ‘catch’ when the asker posed a condition about forgetting love, affection and relations.

Psn(29^th May, 2011)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110527211339AAUcXth

How to attain mental peace?

How one can attain mental peace ? A state of mind when one did not feel sad and remain always pleased. Is it necessary to forget about all love affection and relations to achieve this state?

My answer:

A child is already at mental peace.
An animal is already at mental peace.
Both these worry only when basic wants become urgent.
We seldom lose that mental peace for basic wants. The bulk of quarrel all over the world is not for basic necessities.
But, the child and the animal do not have that deep level of self awareness. That is the difference. So their peace also is not retained at will.
Love, affection and relations do not cause disturbance to mental peace if we do not put conditions. Please see, "unconditional" love, affection or relationship does not "expect" anything in return. When there is no expectation (or very little of it), the inner peace is free from outside situation. Outside situation is never at the control of any individual. We know this. But we do not "maintain" the awareness when there is a mismatch between what we 'like' and what the outside situation happens to be at a given point of time. That alone disturbs the mental peace. Nothing else. Everyone knows, becoming angry reduces intelligence during that period. But when already angry, this 'knowing' is not really maintained.