Perfect Peace

Nondual awareness is the peace that surpasses human understanding. To quote the apostle Paul, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” 

In this episode I use the story of Jesus stilling the storm as an illustration of the peace that is always present in the eye of the storm.

Transcript

Nondual awareness is the peace that surpasses human understanding. To quote the apostle Paul, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” 

There is a scene in the gospels where the disciples are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee with Jesus. A “great windstorm” arises, and waves are swamping the boat. Jesus is sleeping through it all in the stern of the boat. The story adds the interesting detail that he is resting on a pillow, to emphasize how deep and restful the sleep is. 

The disciples of Jesus are scared and angry. They wake up Jesus and say, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” On a deeper level they are voicing the classic problem of suffering and evil: “Don’t you care that bad things are happening?’ Jesus arises and rebukes the wind, and says to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 

Then Jesus turns to the disciples and says, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” The story ends with the words: “And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

This is a wonderful story about how the peace of God - the peace of Divine Awareness, Kingdom Consciousness, nondual awareness - is always present. It is simply a matter of abiding in it. 

Jesus and the disciples were literally in the same boat. They were in the same situation. They were in the same physical danger, but their attitude toward the situation could not have been more different. The disciples were scared to death. Jesus – who is the embodiment of Christ Consciousness – is in perfect peace. It brings to my mind that wonderful saying of the prophet Isaiah: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on Thee.”

This is not just talking about fear of physical danger. Even after Jesus stills the storm, the gospel writer points out that the disciples are still afraid. No longer afraid of the storm but afraid of the one who can still the storm. Jesus says to them NOT “Why were you so fearful? but “Why are you so fearful?” Then come the words: “And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”  

This points to a deeper existential fear that is at the root of life and even the root of the spiritual life. We want salvation, liberation, enlightenment, spiritual awakening – whatever you want to call it – the solution to the existential problem of the human condition - but we are afraid of the solution also. Because we know that it means the death of the self. That is something that people are afraid of. We want peace but we do not want to pay the price for peace, which is the death of ego, the loss of self.

I am talking about this today because it has been in the forefront of my mind this last week or so. We recently returned from spending a week with our daughter and her family - her husband and twelve-year-old son – who live outside of Pittsburgh. Our grandson is having some psychological issues. His therapist suspects he has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder and will be tested for that soon. He is brilliant but has had a very difficult time socializing in school. He was bullied a lot, and he is now doing cyber school. He has a hard time relating to people. It has been emotionally taxing for our daughter. They were going to spend a week with us this summer in New Hampshire, but they canceled that, so instead we took the 700 mile trip out to see them. 

All the time I was there I noticed the emotional stress that they were under. And with good reason. It is a difficult situation. At the same time as I was observing that, I was aware of this calm space that I was dwelling in and that was all around us all the time. There was a constant sense of deep peace.

It was like the eye of a storm. Perhaps that metaphor came to mind because I also happened to be reading John Grisham’s novel Camino Winds, which is about a hurricane that hit an island off the coast of Florida. Peace is always present, but it was especially obvious to me when I was also aware of how much the people around me – my family which I love – was caught up in the storm and did not seem to notice the peace that is always present.

This doesn’t mean I did not have any emotional reactions during that time I was in Pennsylvania. I did. But the emotions all happened in the context of the omnipresent peace that surpasses human understanding. The ego cannot understand this peace. The self cannot experience it because the self is caught up in the storm. In the wind and the waves. The self IS the storm! But when we are not identifying with the storm of the personal self, then the peace at the eye of the self is the dominant reality of awareness. 

This is what the Buddha was talking about as the end of suffering. It is not an escape from suffering. Many people begin the spiritual search to escape psychological suffering. This perfect peace is no such escape. It is dwelling in the peace that is present amid suffering. 

That is the symbolism of the cross of Christ. At first glance it seems like the picture of the Buddha under the Bodhi tree and the picture of Christ on the Cross are very different approaches to suffering. But they are not. They are just focusing on different aspects of the same reality. One focusses on peace in the midst of suffering and the other focuses on suffering in the midst of peace. 

In the story of Jesus stilling the storm, the disciples were focusing on the storm, and Jesus was focusing on the peace. He is the embodiment of peace. The disciples focused on fear, especially fear of death, and Jesus focused on stillness, on peace in the midst of the storm. The same on the Cross. Both peace and suffering were happening on the Cross. Jesus was suffering and dying on the Cross, and he refused to escape from it. Instead he dwelt in peace even amid suffering and death.

Life is suffering and death. You cannot escape from it. Everything that lives suffers. That was Buddha’s first noble truth: Life is suffering. That is also the message of the Cross. “Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesu said.  Everything that is born dies. Every creature that experiences pleasure also experiences pain. That is the nature of duality. 

But nonduality includes all such dualities. That is the nondual peace that surpasses understanding because it surpasses dualism. It cannot be understood but it can be experienced. This is perfect peace. Holistic peace. The peace of wholeness, which is the peace of holiness. Holy peace. That is Shalom. Nondual peace. That is the peace of unitive awareness.