World Peace Begins Inside
May 25, 2017

Try to put the mind in the right mood to settle down.

Remind yourself that we want peace in this world. Where is it going to start? It has to start inside. It’s because human beings can’t live at peace with themselves that they go out and create trouble outside. And there’s no way you’re going to wait until everybody settles down before you can settle down and do your work. The work has to start here. It has to start with you.

Even though we’re living in the same world, each of us has our own world. We’re all sitting here in the same room but each of us is in a different world. So you want to make sure that your inner world is a peaceful one, because the inner worlds are what then go out and create the outer worlds.

If you can be peaceful inside, you begin to find that you connect with other people who are peaceful. Even though you may have some past bad karma from other worlds that you’ve been creating for yourself, at the very least you’re creating good ones right now. That’s what matters.

So get the mind to settle down with the breath, at peace with the breath. And listen to what the breath needs, listen to what the body needs, and provide that.

Also listen to what the mind needs in order to settle down. Sometimes it needs a heavier breath, sometimes it needs something else. So try to figure out where the mind is not peaceful and then give it the conditions to be more peaceful right there.

The Buddha calls this seeing fabrication and then calming fabrication. Because the mind is constantly creating things, you want to create them peacefully, things that will have a peaceful effect. Only then can the mind really calm down and not be jumping around all the time.

As long as we’re feeding well inside, that means it’s that much less that we have to feed on outside. That’s where a lot of the conflict comes from: the fact that we’re all trying to feed off the same things. The nature of feeding is that if it goes into your mouth it doesn’t go into anybody else’s—which means that the more that we try to stake our claims outside, the more we come into conflict.

But if you stake your claim inside—look for your treasures, as the Buddha says, inside—then we can be at peace, each of us cultivating our own inner treasures, sustaining ourselves on our inner treasures. We can live with a minimum of conflict, a minimum of trouble.

So learn how to find your satisfaction here inside.

And as for the mind that’s constantly looking to go out and jump outside, ask yourself, why is it constantly poking itself this way? What’s doing the poking that makes it unable to stay here? Look into that. In understanding that and unraveling those things that poke you: That’s how you find that the mind really can be at peace regardless of what the situation is outside. It’s your inner peace that will guarantee peace in the future.

Whether the results come right away or come over the long-term, the fact that you’re creating good causes is a good sign right there. Otherwise, if you’re not creating good causes, what are you creating? You’re creating bad ones and they’re sure to have their effect.

So at the very least, make sure that what you’re doing is peaceful, that what you’re doing leads to peace. Your determination to stick with this is what will see things through to the point where you actually do see the results.