PEACE – can we grasp the meaning of true peace?
By Duane Hewitt
Peace is not simply the absence of conflict. True peace is much more. True peace is total; all-encompassing; it is perpetual. Peace is wholly lacking in conflict; no wars or rumors of wars. Peace is gentle, like warm spring water that nourishes and brings one to the most sublime feelings of joy and contentment, to the point that there is no stress: just bliss. All stress – any stress – ceases; it melts away. Strain and frowns give way to generous, compassionate smiles, and all-embracing warm thoughts of everlasting, gentle loving kindness.
We might ask: Has humankind ever known true peace? What would this world be like if all we knew was complete and total unending peace? It’s difficult to fathom. But somewhere within us we might understand that peace is how things are meant to be. If we don’t believe this, then we are doomed to continue walking in the same troubled footsteps because we can never expect to find peace. Fear of one another does not come into the definition of true peace. Legitimate love and caring, goodness and kindness are the hallmarks of true peace.
If we meditate on peace, our minds and bodies become free of the many stresses that assail us – we strive to experience a feeling of such superlative joy and compassion for living and loving that new levels of relaxation and pleasure are discovered; are awakened. In that moment, we forget warring mankind and the troubles of a disease-laden, troubled planet. And yet, such a meditative demeanor is fleeting; it merely touches on peace because true peace is unending. It is boundless; without measurement.
In our flawed human world, we apply words to define what we mean by peace, things like agreement, forgiveness, and reconciliation, to name a few. But these are just labels that help us arrive at a workable definition of peace. True peace isn’t an ideology, tenet, philosophy, or belief. True peace is not simply a condition; it surpasses any language that can be applied to it because such peace is total. The purity of true peace is beyond words, beyond human language.
The Bible has over 400 references to the word peace (429 in the King James Version). Each reference to peace was written for us – and yet, man’s peace is not like God’s peace. God’s peace does not require truces and treaties. One might even wonder if God’s definition of peace is beyond our comprehension.
Can we grasp the meaning of true peace? How remarkable it would be to discover a civilization that only ever knew true peace – and how magnificent, how glorious it would be, if we were that civilization.
Copyright 2016 Duane Hewitt. All rights reserved.
