Mistaking Rest for Peace

It is very often that we first notice we are at peace while we are at rest.  And so, the mind often mistakes this for a one to one correlation when peace and rest have nothing to do with one another.

We are at peace when we are not in conflict with what is now. 

When we are not pushing and pulling against what is and our hearts are open and not protected we find Christ’s “peace… which passeth all understanding.”

Why do we mistake rest for peace?  Because we often seek rest when we are overtired or stressed and achieving what we “want” – in this case, rest – we often, for a moment, stop grasping or pushing against reality and have a moment of peace.

This is true not just of rest, but of all desires.  We perpetually chase what we “want” because we mistake getting what we “want” with the short term relief of no longer striving against what is happening now (which was the discomfort of wanting…)

In both cases, we have made the simple mistake of failing to ask “is the peace I hope to achieve not already present?” (a wonderful Adyashanti pointer.)

Because it was not the attaining of the goal that lead to peace, indeed in the case of rest it lead to only lead to… relaxation. 

And this peace in most unskilled egoic people doesn’t last very long as even at rest they very soon begin an inner conflict with what is by ruminating or running “what-if” scenarios.  Sure, they are “at rest” but they are not even close to “at peace.”

And this mistaking rest for peace is a constant selling point of the mind as it uses the desire for future “rest” to convince us of the need for present discomfort in the form of pushing or pulling against what is now.

But we don’t want future rest, (especially if we’re resting while ruminating!) what we think we will find in future rest is future peace.

Peace can only be found now.  Peace only comes when we let go of pushing and pulling against what is and open our hearts fully without protection.

And this can be done with or without action of the body/mind.

So, is peace already present?  If not… let go of pushing and pulling and surrender into the now with a sense of yes.

And see what happens.