How Do We Cultivate Peace?

The following question is based on this quote, “Sai Baba: Bliss doesn’t arise anew; it’s always there. What comes and goes is the screen of “I” and “mine,” which covers the bliss. While trying to remove the screen of “I am the enjoyer” and “these things are mine,” the aspirant shouldn’t hasten frantically and worry too much if the expected bliss isn’t discovered. At such times, peace is an unfailing help. If peace is cultivated well at first, then one can succeed in any task, however difficult. (Prashanti Vahini, Ch. 8)
Question: What is meant by cultivating peace well at first? Is it staying in silence always? How do we cultivate the peace?
Sat: Bliss is Sat-Chit-Ananda, our true nature. Sat- Chit-Ananda is Existence, nothing can exist unless it has that Existence, in other words, the totality of Existence is Sat-Chit-Ananda. In order to experience the bliss of Sat-Chit-Ananda, you have to go beyond the mind. In other words, when I say beyond the mind, I mean that the identification with every thought, feeling and emotion has to decrease. To that extent, you feel the joy and the Ananda of the Self.
Peace is through the tranquility of the mind. Stop Meditation, Stay, Trust Meditation! Whatever way you feel at Home, you are beyond the mind, because in that state of tranquility, the thinker has not risen into the mind with identification. The mind is calm and the bliss is felt.
So [it is] through peace and the peace cannot be gotten unless the mind is calm because the peace and the un-peacefulness happen in the mind and the reaction of the thinker! So this is exactly what you are doing. Every time you do Trust Meditation, every time you go Home, every time you leave everything at the feet of your Guru, every time you Stay instead of mixing, you feel peace and, in that peace, there is a bliss. Peace and bliss go hand in hand, until the mind is quite empty in the mind of realized people, then they can say, “I and my Father are one … I and bliss are one.”
“Me” and “mine,” which is attachment and possessiveness, etc. is in the mind only. So, as long as there is a “me” and “mine,” you have to work on achieving peace, meaning going beyond “me” and “mine” and that’s where you will find bliss. So the gate to being who you are as Sat-Chit-Ananda is through the tranquility of the mind. And that is something that is achieved by being conscious, being present!
Stop Meditation, Stay and Trust meditation point you to Home and beyond the mind and all the other wisdom, every one of the things that are true should point you to Home and beyond the mind. Just have that as your biggest signpost; whatever takes you closer to yourself, to your bliss and to your peace is Godly; whatever takes you away is maya. The practice comes just to see it, to see it, and sometimes we fail and sometimes we don’t! The main thing is that we are interested, that it makes sense to us, that we see the taste in it, and we experience it!
Feb 01, 2022
US Chat