Finding Inner Peace

It's becoming one of the biggest trends of the 21st century to seek out Enlightenment and inner peace. People are buying up books everywhere and running from teacher to teacher to try and find the inner peace they so desperately crave. Who really has inner peace and how did they find it? We all can get to feeling a bit lost when it comes to uncovering the Truth.

One surefire method for determining if you are on the right path is to simply ask yourself 'Am I more at peace than I was a year ago or six months ago?' If you feel that you are finding more peacefulness as you progress on your path, then you know it must be working. If you aren't sure or you think that maybe it isn't working then maybe you need to sit still a little more each day. Sitting still each day and closing your eyes as you sit can be a great way to calm your mind and emotions so that peacefulness eventually becomes more normal for you. Inner peace only comes from one place and that's the inner part of you! If you find that you aren't feeling peaceful, it's time to look deeper within yourself.

Most of the time, when people decide to start a daily meditation, they discover that their thoughts and emotions are running wild inside of them and they feel almost instantly discouraged. Common statements from beginners are 'Am I doing it right?', 'How should I sit?' and 'Should I concentrate on my breathing?' These are all justifiable questions to have and yet beginners will still be surprised to hear that those questions don't really matter. There is no 'right' way to sit still or 'correct' thing to concentrate on when you meditate. You're goal is to simply sit still with your eyes closed and relax. Don't fall asleep but don't worry so much about whether it is 'right' or 'wrong'. If you are sitting there with your eyes closed then it is Right! That's all there is to it.

The hard part comes in when we start judging everything and analyzing it and get ourselves all frustrated with what we are trying to do. What are we trying to do? Nothing! So how did we get so frustrated about nothing? The problem that beginners have is they think there is a special 'formula' for meditation and a way of doing it that will make them an 'expert'. There is no correct way of doing it and there is no formula. Everything you do will be correct. Just sit there and, by doing it each day for a certain amount of time, this will eventually result in more calmness of your mental processes and an equilibrium of your emotions. The beginning, however, can sometimes be the toughest time.

Did you ever try to teach a dog to sit still? You can usually teach him to sit but getting him to 'stay' is a bit tougher. This is the same problem for people. People know how to sit but they never learn how to stay. If you can teach yourself to both sit and stay you will be among the very few people in the world who have learned a very valuable trick. For dogs, it takes some extra 'Scooby snacks' to get them to do it. For human beings it sometimes requires a calendar and the fun game of checking off the days of the week as they complete their task of 'staying' for 30 minutes or more. Some humans get to be experts at this trick and can sit still for over an hour and for several different times a day. These humans are sort of like the dogs you have seen on television who can perform in front of a panel of judges and can sit and stay for long periods of time. Their masters always love them a lot and they always win the contests they enter. As funny as this comparison may seem, it actually applies quite well. If you learn to sit for longer periods of time without having to move around in your chair and without your mind doing cartwheels every moment, you will eventually start to win more things in life. The 'Master' behind your thoughts and emotions will eventually come forward and reward you with a lot of great 'Scooby snacks. Finding inner peace can be as easy as training a dog but you have to be a good dog who really wants to please his master. Now get out there and 'sit' and, next time you do it, make sure and 'stay' too!