I don’t know about you but I feel so lit up when my version of ‘reality’ is affirmed. Well, I had this experience recently as I listened to this week’s sermon from my Pastor about peace. I was literally hanging on every word, nodding in agreement and wonder at his ability to express what I have often felt but couldn’t always put into words. As a yoga teacher and wisdom seeker, peace feels like home. But this got me musing about peace, is it something we create or is it something we receive? Father Dan discussed just this and he was speaking my language while adding some beautiful nuances that I had not considered.

Right off the bat, my ears perked up when he said that peace is not simple the absence of conflict but the presence of wholeness. Being the week after Easter the sermon focused on how the resurrected Jesus changed everything. By Jesus’s sacrifice the breach between God and his people was restored. We are redeemed and secure in God’s love. We now have a relational kind of God in Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This was a new thing! Because of Jesus, the prince of peace, we are given peace as our birthright. If we have eyes to see and hearts open enough to experience this, peace is our ultimate reality. I have often said that when we do not make peace with reality, we suffer. This is true in a sense but ultimately, we suffer when we forget who we are and that peace is the very fabric of our core. Peace is the backdrop to all of life, there is a wholeness/holiness in everything, the messy, the mundane and the magical.

Another way Father Dan described peace is that peace precedes us. Just pause for a second to consider this. Peace walking in the door before us. Peace not just the absence of conflict but wholeness, walking before us. If we paused to remember this, couldn’t this change everything? Peace is already in the room. It is already in the situation, the problem, the pain, the beauty and grace.

This peace is freely given by Jesus but we do have to be willing to receive it. For me, this can look like a few deep breaths to remember who I am and who goes before me. I have often talked about putting on a layer of protection to protect me from the harshness of the world or simple from being overstimulated. While this worked for a while for me, I believe this may be a bit selfish. I am reminded of the famous scripture in Matthew 5:15: “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.”. This verse emphasizes the importance of sharing our positive qualities and light, rather than keeping them hidden. So instead of putting on my coat of protection, I choose to put on the coat of Christ before I leave the house. Maybe it is the coat of compassion, humility or strength. Maybe it is the coat of patience and quietude. In the quite of compassionate listening I am more likely to feel and embody the gift of peace.

Reflecting on peace, I remembered the insightful and masterful work of Jack Kornfied’s book the Wise Heart, A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology. I appreciated how the author blends Buddhist teaching with psychology. I have often thought of Buddhism as more of a philosophy than a religion akin to the wisdom teachings and philosophy of yoga, whose main aim is to bring a sense of wholeness to the practitioner. This sense of wholeness is cultivated on the mat through movement, breath awareness and introspection, however; the real yoga happens off the mat. This idea of taking our yoga with us everywhere we go is developed through increased awareness and ethical precepts such as contentment (making peace with our reality) moderation and non-harming to name a few. When we see that yoga is expanding ones sense of spirituality and moral or ethical footprint we can entertain that yoga can be a tool to stoke the Christian heart and lifestyle as a peacemaker. Jesus often joins me on my yoga mat, in a way that is beyond understanding but deeply comforting.

There are so many wisdom teachings out there, my heart and mind have room for many. I feel like they are speaking the same basic truths almost like they are from a similar tribe, the tribe of the open heart with the common threads of peace running through time and space. Jack speaks of the idea of four radiant abodes. I love this, radiant qualities living within, I know one is peace! The others are loving kindness, joy, compassion and equanimity aka peace. Jack describes the interplay between the qualities like this;

The natural flow of these awakened qualities comes from inner peace. When consciousness is peaceful and open we rest in equanimity. As our peaceful heart meets other beings, it fills with love. When this love meets pain, in naturally transforms to compassion. And when this openhearted love meets happiness, it becomes joy. In this way, the radiant abodes naturally reflect and connect the whole of the world. – The Wise Heart pg. 386

When I consider the radiant abodes I can’t help but come back to the idea of our bodies as temples housing our spiritual nature or God within us. I visualize us, humanity as individual lights fully lit after receiving and acknowledging the gift of peace “reflecting and connecting the whole of the world. “ As we shine brighter with the transformative power of the peace of Christ, this flows freely from our hearts to others, extending loving kindness and compassion. We are free and aware enough to experience true joy.

I close with a breath prayer practice that arose for me organically when I was feeling anxious and disconnected from peace. On inhalation with awareness up ward towards the brain internally say “ Lord, clear my mind”. On exhalation with awareness downward into the heart and body say “ Reveal your peace in me”. Take several deep breaths like this and pause to feel the shift and truly experience peace that is beyond understanding but always abundantly available to us. You see, we forget this reality but we are given the ability to co- create with God and to usher in the power of the spirit into our lives and the world. I do believe we receive the gift of peace from Jesus but we also do the work to create it through prayer, practice and remembering. Take a moment to now feel deep gratitude for this gift and your current reality, which just like the waves of breath and the circumstances of your life are always shifting but held together by the truly spacious expansiveness of peace and God’s grace.