Cultivating our wisdom is one of our most important tasks. If we don't spend enough time alone listening to the counsel of our hearts, then we will never become wise. If we don't spend enough time in the presence of others who try to walk a path of heart, we will never become wise. If we do not cultivate, through prayer or meditation or spiritual practice, a stronger heart that can fly and endure, then we'll never become wise.
The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
"Peace is not the absence of war." Spinoza said it, but it is mindlessly quoted out of context, for he added, "It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."
~ from A LITTLE COMPENDIUM ON THAT WHICH MATTERS by Frederick Franck
Enlightenment, peace, and joy will not be granted by someone else. The well is within us, and if we dig deeply enough in the present moment, the water will spring forth. We must go back to the present moment in order to be really alive... You will be able to make a breakthrough and discover joy and peace right in the present moment, inside of yourself and all around you.
We need a deep mystical awakening the likes of which the planet has never witnessed before -- a mystical awakening that is truly planetary, that draws out the wisdom and the mystic, the player and the justice maker from the wisdom traditions of all religions and cultures. Such a mystical awakening would surely birth that "peace on earth" for which creation longs. ... Peace ON earth cannot happen without peace WITH the earth and peace among all earth creatures.
Peace is all around us -- in the world, in nature and within us -- in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.
Every loving thought we think is a powerful key to the kingdom. Through prayer, meditation, and the silence of a profound holiness, we focus our dispersed and irresponsible thought forms. We thus take up the challenge to redirect world history. We must relinquish our passive observation of the world outside; we can open the door to the world we really want. In understanding ourselves, we come to understand the world. In allowing ourselves to heal, we become the healers of the world. In praying for peace, we become bringers of peace. Thus we actualize the power within us to remedy the soul wounds of humanity.
A legend: In the beginning of the world the divine light was held in primeval vessels. But somehow no one knows how the vessels were shattered, and discord and confusion spread everywhere. The great task for human beings is to repair the ancient vessels, to gather together the sacred light, to call home all those who have been lost or in exile, to heal the separation and bring peace to the world.
~ from THE FEMININE FACE OF GOD by Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins
If you give your life as a prayer, you intensify the prayer beyond all measure. To attain inner peace you must actually give your life, not just your possessions. When you at last give your life bringing into alignment your beliefs and the way you live, then, and only then, can you begin to find inner peace.
Drop They still dews of quietness
Til all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of Thy peace.
