Talks In Quebec 2004, Page 2
Peace is the paramount thing, the most important thing psychologically. It's not a vague thing, it's not an abstract thing, it's something that the consciousness strives for. It's something powerful enough that we can throw away the ego's; we can say, 'I'm going to get rid of these things' because there's something better, there's something more valuable than that. We're not doing this because it's a good idea, “we believe in it”, and so on. We're not doing it for those reasons. If we were, we'd be lost already; this whole thing would be dead. There's got to be something in the moment that's so valuable that we would exchange it, even sacrifice pleasure for it - and that is peace. Peace is not simply the absence of conflict. It's not just not having conflict. Peace is something else. Peace is an almighty power that exists within, which can override everything else, and become more important than everything else.
And hand in hand with it is love, which is not the good ego that many people mistake it for; it is not the sickly feeling that people confuse with love. Real peace and love exist within the moment. One comes from the other, but they require effort. It's not like pleasure, which comes free - it's not that easy. It takes a war to get to peace, which is something that is really misunderstood. Peace is not simply the absence of conflict.
The essence has the ability to have an incipient level of peace. Its level is quite small, but it's there. The more parts of the Being that one has, the greater the capacity for peace. This peace is the thing that gives strength; it gives the initiate that thing to hold onto, when life and the egos are raging all around. This is why on this whole weekend, we are going to really focus upon peace, upon finding it, seeing what it is, and maintaining it as much as possible. It can go in an instant; a thought can take it away, unless there are the parts of the Being within, which as a consequence of their being present, irradiate it.
When that happens, the whole psyche is changed, the whole consciousness is changed. Life becomes quite different - very, very different. But, we have to start with this incipient peace, which can be gained from the essence.
What we're going to do is to practice to find out what's needed to get it, then we'll come back here to see how it went and develop it from that, because we don't want this to become an intellectual discussion. We can have lots of intellectual discussions about spiritual things, and ultimately they stay as intellectual ideas, to be accepted, rejected, or added to the concepts of the mind. However, they don't really have a resounding effect in the consciousness, and that's what we want to get here. So, we're going to explore peace, to see what is required to do it and to experience it, so that we know what it's about.
We'll go for a walk now, probably for half an hour or something like that, so we'll work out the route. The practice begins from now, and we'll carry it on throughout the time that we walk. When you go for a walk, you've got to have that search and that discipline not to be caught up in distractions, thoughts, or anything like that. So, when we go for a walk, we'll go and we'll be as disciplined as possible, internally, so we really investigate and explore peace.