What is Peace, Really?

Bart ten Berge draws into a depth exploration of the life force of the Nondual Quality of peace that is here beyond the duality of War & Surrender.
How can we find peace and how will it set us free? 
Is there a space where we are the peace which is sensing the whole?

Transcript

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Peace. There is a lot to say about peace. What is peace? And so often when we look at peace and you ask the person, you know, what is peace? And then the answer will be no war. So it is a no thing. No war is peace. And then of course you could ask yourself, is peace possible in war? And if peace is possible in war, what is peace then? And then we connect with the sense of peace, the feeling of peace, the experience of peace. And the experience of peace is something we find inside ourselves. But we also find it, you know, in nature, in the universe, in the earth, in each other. And when we move deeply into the sense of peace, we come to an understanding that peace is something which is always there on the background. And when we get a deeper connection with this peace which is always there on the background, then something is happening in the first place to our mind. We kind of are moving more to the backdrop of the mind. The mind becomes more silent. And almost automatically there is this movement from a much more silent mind towards the heart from the mind. Peace brings us in the here and now. And of course when peace deepens itself, then we can come to a sense of inner peace. And when we come to the sense of inner peace, it becomes very interesting. Because this is where peace and whatever is coming forward as an experience are there together. We can be at peace with our anger, with our fear. We can be at peace with the rage of another person. And being at peace with doesn't mean that we agree. It doesn't mean that there is no conflict. But when we are at peace with ourselves or when we are at peace or in a state of peace maybe, then even when there is a conflict we don't get so deeply entangled in it. It's something, an experience which is coming forward and which leaves us again. It's not describing us. It's not in no way discerning us. It's not what we are. So, when we look to the duality which comes with peace. And of course, then we say, okay, you know, the opposite of peace is war, which we kind of talked about already, not really true. But we can lose ourselves in conflict. We can lose ourselves in war in the moment that we lose connection with peace. And then when we look more deeply into war, why do we go to war? Why do we move into conflict? Because we want to get rid of something. We want to get rid of the pain, we want to get rid of unsafety. We want to have. And so often we project this experience outside ourselves. It's because of. It's because of them. Or it's because of whatever. So if we get rid of what it is because of, then maybe we will come to peace. Because you know when there is no war, there is peace. But when you really kind of listen what I kind of bring forward, it is totally clear that if we want to get rid of something, we are not at peace with We lost the connection with our own inner sense of peace. So we get stuck in the conflict. And whatever we fight against, it will be with no end. As long as we try to get rid of an experience, there will be no end in the conflict. We cannot let go of the conflict either. So in this peace is playing a main role. To be at peace with the conflict. This is where we start to be able to release the conflict, to move beyond the conflict. And beyond the conflict often is something we feel or we experience as unbearable. Maybe unsafety, maybe rejection, maybe guilt. And then maybe we can come to a position where we are at peace with the guilt. And this is where healing starts. Because only when we are at peace with something inside ourselves, we are able to release, to let go. To let go of the entanglement which is there when we are in conflict with something, when we are at war with something. So when we look to the whole movement of inner growth, the whole movement of evolution, peace is an extremely important factor. It brings us to connect to the depth. It helps us not to deeply entangle in the difficulties we meet in daily life. So if war is not the duality of peace, so what is the duality of war then? And that's surrender. Surrender. If we surrender, we end the war. And we're surrendering a movement of peace. As war is often a movement in which we crave peace, we're longing for peace. So we go to war because if we win the war, there will be peace? Is surrendering the way to kind of move into a more peaceful state? And again, this is quite precise. If surrendering is the same as giving up, it will not lead to peace. If we give up, we let go even of the longing for peace. We say, okay, you know, when we are in a conflict with our brother and our brother gets very angry, okay, okay, okay, you're right, we stop the discussion. We surrender, but we're not really surrendering, we're giving up. And we do this out name on the name of peace, then there is peace, there is no conflict. But then when we look inside, when we kind of give up, it doesn't feel right. There is not an openness, we are not at peace with it. Maybe we kind of move a little bit in structures of superiority, I don't need to win this discussion. This stupid brother of mine, you know, he has to win all discussions. So I'm much more peaceful as he is. But again, this is a corruption Peace is not the deep inner peace which can be there. So to surrender is not giving up if it needs to lead us back into the peace. To surrender could also mean, if you look at it in a different way, is to accept that things are as they are. To let go of the fight, because of a deep acceptance that things are as they are. To surrender to our own helplessness. Maybe to surrender to the pain, which is there. The pain we couldn't bear and we needed to go to war from, to surrender to the unsafety, to surrender to the deeper unbearable feelings or trauma which is there. And not in a way in giving up, but in a way to see it is what it is. And in this way surrendering is moving to peace. To come in peace with whatever is there. So peace in a way is a very, very beautiful, important non-dual quality. It's one of the main ones. It's love, it's freedom. But again, you know, every time when we talk about the non-dual quality, we say this is such an important quality because it's connected to this and that and that and that and that's true. All the qualities are hanging together. But at least for me, peace has a special place. And it has this special place because, you know, when we come to a position where we are at peace, at peace with ourselves, at peace with the other, then the other is not the other anymore. The other becomes a life, becomes a person, an essence, a soul, a whole universe. The separation which is between us and the world around us is disappearing in the moment that we kind of move into this sense of peace. And we all know that in a way, we all experience that. When we are in a forest and we have a walk and we connect with the trees and we we can feel the peacefulness of the forest. We are touched by it. We open up. We open up and we are able to connect with the forest. And the forest is not a stranger to us anymore. And when we kind of move deeply into this sense of peace, we are part of the forest and the forest is part of us. It's such a beautiful bridge to connect to the depth. When we are at peace with another person exactly the same thing is happening. There is no judgment, there is no struggle, there are no conditions. It means that all the other unconditional qualities can kind of move, can connect. Unity is not possible without peace and at the same time we can have a quarrel with somebody else. But if it's possible to have this fight and to have this quarrel and to be at peace with that quarrel and that fight and the sense of peace is not lost it doesn't break the connection. It doesn't mean that we lose the connection with the other person. It's just a movement through war, through quarrel and maybe to surrender as well back into peace. So when do we have a quarrel or a discussion? Sometimes because the harmony is disturbed. Sometimes because we feel we need to put a border. Sometimes because our beliefs differ from the beliefs of another person. But if we are still connected with the sense of peace, we don't need to dominate the other person. Conflict will lead to deeper insight, to a deeper understanding. We are still able to listen to the other person, to receive the other person. We can maybe also be at peace with the differences which are there. So in this, peace is also a process, a process of opening up, of understanding, of moving to the depth. And again, when we move to the depth with peace, peace becomes something which is different from the peace what we normally experience in the forest or the peace we feel in the universe, the peace we feel in the earth, in the ocean, it becomes almost an inner strength, an alignment, a deep, deep, deep connection in the first place with yourself, with all the different layers, with all the different things which are there. To move to inner peace, that means that there is peace with whatever is living a life inside you. is moving very close to the source of peace moving through us and that brings forward the feeling of wholeness, it brings forward the feeling of bliss, ecstasy, the sense of of freedom is activated. It helps us to move beyond inner conflict. And even when there is a conflict, it is a conflict on the surface. It doesn't need to disturb our inner peace. It's interesting. And the moment that there is a conflict coming forward, it's not something which is the end of the world. It's not that we kind of, you know, lose ourselves in the conflict. It's interesting. We're able to use our consciousness in a free way, to look at it, to examine it, to understand it, to see where the conflict is coming from. And so often when there is a conflict, there is a deeper layer underneath the conflict, something which is difficult for us to contain. And this movement of inner peace helps us to contain it. To contain it almost with a joy. A part of us is coming home, is also allowed to be there. We can be at peace also with this part, with this experience. To be at peace with our own life. And how our life is moving. And not because we say, okay, our life is good. Because sometimes our life is not good. But with the realization that the life is exactly how it is. It is what it is. There's nothing which needs to be changed. But everything can evolve, move forward as it needs to evolve, as it needs to move forward. And so often when people think about peace, being in peace with something or inner peace, it's like there is this thought that if you are at peace with something, nothing will change, everything will stay the same. And that's a very deep misunderstanding. When we are in conflict with something, when we are at war with something, nothing will change. When we give up on something, what we call surrender, nothing will change. Change is only possible in its natural way, without force, when we are at peace with it. This is where we can contain. This is where we build resilience. This is where things get transformed. This is where we grow, where we develop, where we evolve. This is where we grow, where we develop, where we evolve. where we develop, where we evolve.