Note: "Mother Mary" is Paul McCartney's mother, Mary Patricia McCartney. She died when he was age 14, in 1956. He had a dream in which she gave him assurance during a difficult time. He arose from bed and began writing "Let It Be."
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Calm - late 1500s of the sea, "windless, without motion or agitation;" of wind, "light, gentle."
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An extended discussion on addiction arose in a spirituality group with inmates in jail. The inmates identified as addicts, and none were in recovery. I noticed the rationalizations coming toward me and knew not to get hooked. If I had expressed 'idiot compassion,' which is an illogical pity, or feeling sorry for, I would have forfeited the role of addressing the women from outside the addiction and calling them there. I could not join in their reasoning. My part was to invite them not to attach to the reasoning, reasoning that validated their continued use of illegal substances.
After a time, I could see the group getting uncomfortable with the back-and-forth. There seemed to be a subtle battle going on. I felt the tension. The class ended early. I think we were all exhausted from the stand-off. All left. No one left angry. Most of them returned the following group meeting.
The women proceeded to leave, the officer waiting at the door. One inmate, the last to leave, walked by me. I was sitting quietly in a chair. She stopped and said, "I wish I could be calm like you." I did not reply.
Afterward, I thought about her statement. Possibly, the most important teaching that day was simply that: calm.
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A story I have much enjoyed is from the Christian Scriptures. I have found inspiration from it over the years. I share it below, from the Gospel of Mark 4.35-41... a version of it is in each of the four Gospels -
As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's cross to the other side of the lake." So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.
Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, "Teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown?"
When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Silence! Be still!" Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
The disciples were absolutely terrified [or, in awe]. "Who is this man?" they asked each other. "Even the wind and waves obey him!"
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Jesus represents that within us capable of calm amid the storms. The capacity to remain centered, tranquil, and responsive, rather than reactive, is not found in the personality.
Rather than trying to become a calm person, you make yourself available to manifest a quiet presence. How? Cultivate the seed of peace within you. How? Through the practice of living a spiritual life, including how that applies in everyday life. If we wait until a storm to be a calm presence, it will not happen.
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When the inmate said, "I wish I could be calm like you," such calm arises not from Brian but from spirit - that that Jesus embodies is where the stillness arises from. In union with the seed of serenity, peace appears. It is not your tranquility... so, a personal possession. It is a radiance of transpersonal presence.
That of God in everyone is tranquility in, before, and after the storm. You can speak peace from that of God within you... us. When others are losing it, you can sit quietly, being in peace, for in union with peace. To live in union with peace, you become peace, for you are peace.
*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.
