The Silence of the Lambs

Peace is within you (?), or so they say. Some accompany this statement with a smile and a twinkle in their eyes. It's as if closing your eyes were enough to find it “within.” Of course, one might wonder what kind of “within” that is: abdominal, cerebral, visceral?

But it is also true that, deep inside, in the optical darkness of the soul, we question the deepest spiritual essences, wondering, for example, about the even greater PEACE (the most distorted word) that awaits us in Nirvana, Samadhi, or any other of those states conceived as if they were a kind of useless imbecility.

That is the peace that is in vogue, mindfulness, relaxation, samsara yoga, the peace that lulls us to sleep, the peace of inaction, the peace that is sought only for one's own happiness, ignoring that happiness is a dangerous mental labyrinth.

It is also the peace of the deaf, who close the door so as not to hear the annoying pains of others, and the peace of the blind who close their eyes so as not to see, and since we are at it, we might as well keep quiet, so that perhaps we may attain the wisdom and peace of the Three Wise Monkeys (?).

A true sage once said that peace is only a moment of rest and preparation for the next battle, and the sooner we apply this to ourselves, the better it will be for us. Because that false calm and stillness, which is based on distancing oneself from pain and reality, is deeply selfish and egocentric. And therein lies the error, because egocentricity causes your consciousness to cling to something that does not really exist, something that is illusory and perishable, and worst of all, in that dark cave of the “ego” lie snakes and shadows, doubts, fear, and a long list of other things.

And when the “wise” monkeys get tired, because in the end they do get tired... they open their eyes and unplug their ears and begin to talk among themselves, or rather whisper and criticize, forming a closed clique that knows nothing of the pain of others.

The problem lies in the fact that they did not understand that peace is not found in silence but in the “silent struggle,” because the one who must be silent is oneself, ceasing to criticize and vomit our discomfort onto others. Peace is not obtained within, but by fighting in the world for Truth, Justice, and Goodness, and it is not peace, the word that always confuses us, but rather the Serenity of the Soul.

Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.

Let not the fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it from the sufferer's eye.

But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is removed.

These tears, O thou of compassionate heart, are the streams that water the fields of immortal charity. It is on this soil that the midnight flower, the flower of Buddha, grows, more difficult to find and rarer to see than the flower of the Vogay tree. (The Voice of the Silence, HPB)

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