Day 117
20. WHAT IS THE PEACE OF GOD?
1 It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this world. How is it recognized? How is it found? And being found, how can it be retained? Let us consider each of these questions separately, for each reflects a different step along the way.
2 First, how can the peace of God be recognized? God’s peace is recognized at first by just one thing; in every way it is totally unlike all previous experiences. It calls to mind nothing that went before. It brings with it no past associations. It is a new thing entirely. There is a contrast, yes, between this thing and all the past. But strangely, it is not a contrast of true differences. The past just slips away, and in its place is everlasting quiet. Only that. The contrast first perceived has merely gone. Quiet has reached to cover everything.
I don’t know what to say about this. I am so much more peaceful than I used to be and I am grateful for that. I know what I did to get to this place in my life, the practices I used, the true Heart’s desire that keeps me on that path. But I am not peaceful in the way that Jesus describes it here. There is not unending peace, not everlasting quiet. So I can’t really talk about what it is like to have the peace of God. I will leave that to someone who has reached that place.
When I was ready the Holy Spirit sent me to The Teachings of Inner Ramana. This little book that was received by Regina Dawn Akers helped me to begin the process of letting go of thinking. I have had less than stellar results, but what small success I have experienced has made a world of difference. My mind is not quiet, but it is quieter and more peaceful than before I began.
Right at the beginning of the book it says that stepping away from the mind is as simple as losing interest in it and that the mind chatters because I am listening to it. As soon as I read that I knew it was true. Now when I notice that my mind is busy I remember that it will slow down if I quit paying attention to the chatter. It will stop if I have no interest in what it has to say.
This is not easy for me to do. I do stop listening, then before you know it I am back to allowing myself to be entertained by the chatter of the mind. Its not even stuff that’s interesting, and often it is thoughts that are upsetting and almost never are the thoughts useful in any way. And yet, I listen. The encouraging thing is that I eventually notice, and I ask the Holy Spirit for His Words instead and this leads to quiet and to peace.
I can and will experience the peace of God. This is a given, so no worries there. It is just a matter of deciding that this is what I want, this and only this, and it will happen. Evidently I have not made that decision. I forgive myself for that.
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