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*Brian Wilcox. 'Mutuality & Harmony'
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Isaish 26.3 -
You keep in immaculate peace
all who trust in you,
who remain mindful of you!
The "you" indicates we cannot live in peace based on changing circumstances. We trust in something changeless amid the change. Circumstances are in constant flux; mindfulness brings us home to Life amid the flux, the Source of the fluctuations amid which we live. This reminds us there is that in us - that is us - which, also, can remain at ease, for it is changeless like the Source.
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A member of the contemplative community I am vowed to was on her knees, distraught and praying. She said the distress was due to problems in her marriage. While kneeling alone, she felt a light touch on her shoulder. No one was there - at least, no one of this world. With the touch came perfect peace. From whence came the touch? The peace?
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Catherine of Genoa (b. ca. 1447) -
When the self is made nothing and transformed, then it ceases from itself working, speaking, and willing; ... [And] in all things, God governs and guides it without the mediation of any created being. And it feels such fullness of peace, it seems to it that its heart, body, and all within and without is immersed in an ocean of utmost peace... . And it is so full of peace, that though it presses its flesh, nerves, and bones, only peace comes forth from them.
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The Sage announced the talk for the evening gathering would be "The Way of Inner Peace." That evening, everyone gathered, and to their surprise, the Sage spoke one sentence: "Don't seek peace, enjoy the One who gives peace."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
The Lord dwells in the hearts of all creatures and whirls them round upon the wheel of maya [the illusory world]. Run to him for refuge with all your strength, and peace profound will be yours through his grace.
*Eknath Easwaran. Bhagavad Gita: 18.61-62
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Cardinal Robert Sarah -
The monastic tradition calls "Great Silence" the nocturnal atmosphere of peace that is supposed to reign in the communal areas, as well as in each cell, ... so that each one is alone with God. But each person ought to create and build for himself an interior cloister, ... a private desert, so as to meet God there in solitude and silence.
*The Power of Silence
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The spiritual life entails constructing an interior cloister. While peace is a gift, we nurture receptivity to receive the peace given. Otherwise, peace is present, while we do not live in peace.
We cannot rightly ignore our inner life and complain or blame others for our lack of peace. When we are ready to receive peace, we know peace.
The inner sanctum is to be tended to daily and nightly. If we become lax in spiritual nurturing, a lack of calm will remind us to return to the inner cloister for communing with the Beloved Life.
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The longing for peace is what partly led to my taking contemplative vows in 1995. At this time, before being vowed, I sat in a meditation group. The leader, a spiritual director at the community site, informed us to follow a story from the Gospels. In it, John the Baptist instructed his disciples to follow Jesus, who was walking by. The disciples began following him. He turned around, saying, "What are you seeking?"
Our guide informed us to imagine this scene. Each of us was to see ourselves walking after Jesus. We were to see Jesus turn around and ask, "What are you seeking?" We were to be quiet and wait for the response to arise from within us. The answer would form the basis of our mantra, or prayer word, for Centering Prayer.
Envisioning the scene, I saw Jesus look back at me, asking, "What are you seeking?" "Peace" arose. For years after this, "Peace" was my prayer word for meditation. Shortly after, I took vows to a contemplative life to build the inner cloister and care for it for the rest of my earthly life.
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Many artists joined in a contest of paintings of peace. The judges looked at the paintings; they chose two pictures from which to select the best.
One picture was of a calm, serene lake. The lake reflected the peaceful mountains towering beside it and a pale blue sky dotted with soft, white clouds above. The audience surmised this to be the perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains, too. These were rugged and stark against a stormy dark sky from which rain fell. The storm clouds roiled. And rushing down the side of the mountain was a tumbling, frothing waterfall. The onlookers did not think the picture was peaceful at all.
The audience looked more closely, as did the judges. Behind the waterfall, one could see a tiny bush in a crack in the rock. In the bush, a mother bird had built her nest. There, amid the sound of the boisterous waterfall, sat the mother bird on her nest, safe and serene.
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2023
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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