The Answer

He told me "...wait in silence and you will know the answer..."

Takaharu, Japan - 2014年3月26日

So I asked the wise old man, "what is this salvation, what is peace or love for that matter, how can we know these things?"

He laughed saying  "don't ask me! , ask God, in those words, ask from your heart and trust for  just a moment, wait in silence and you will know the answer."

Sounded all too simple and quite improbable, yet the light in his eyes spoke assuredly of a sagely conviction.

I sat, closed my eyes, focussed as best I could on the area in the center of my chest and asked "God, what is salvation?" As I sat waiting in expectation my mind threw up all kinds of answers and doubts - but no "knowing" came to me.

I resolved to sit more silently and asked again, thoughts came and went, I let go, I let go of 

of the underlying need for words, I let go of my desire to Know, and I glimpsed a moment of silence. There was no forth coming answer and my mind started up with all kinds of commentary, again I tried to come back to the space in my chest. I concentrated on its rise and and fall, expansion and contraction, I heard the sound of birds, I became aware of the slight breeze across my the bareness of my arms and face, the slight smell of the grass and foresty aromas, but behind all this was silence, no judgments as to the qualities of these perceived senses, no banter, just a silent openness, a plain sheet, blank of notations.

Beyond words and ideas I knew only the moment as it unravelled, simple and without extravagance.

I sat in silence and Knew the answer. Love is silent, peace is silent, salvation and freedom are beyond doctrine and dogma - God is without form, without commandments, just a infinite space with room for all creation.

An empty mind was filled with joy!

ཨོཾ

May all know inner peace 🙏

Is Peace something to be found outside our minds?
Where can we "feel" peace?
Is it not in the heart, beyond thoughts, comparisons, ideals or any external objects?
Is not that which we perceive, but that which is known when the mind is silent and without objection to any thing we may judge by our limited experience based only on second hand facts and information garnished from incomplete evidence in the past?
I believe we must find inner peace before we can hope to replicate it in form on the external, physical plane.
Mediation.
World peace through inner peace!