Unwrapping the Gift of Peace

"What a different Christmas season might there be if we entered our inner sanctuary seeking fulfillment before we entered the mall seeking gratification."

This is the Christmas season in which there is such glaring contrast between the peaceful message of its celebrant, Jesus, and the frantic, anxious energy that emanates from the commercial message of this season. The world's Christmas message is buy, buy, buy, while the esoteric message which is barely palpable in the chaos, implores us to sell, sell, sell. It is easy to see why many people call for the return of Christ to Christmas.

To our surface mind, our peace lies on the other side of some preferred reality that is sometime in the future, when we have something or someone that we believe constitutes the missing peace for us. With such a scarcity view of life, it is easy to see why acquiring more in the outer is our preferred approach to having a merry Christmas (or any other day for that matter)

However when we drill down into this well of desire, we find that it has no bottom, and thus can never, no matter how much we pour into it, be filled. At first this is horrifying news. However, if we continue down this rabbit hole with rigorous, honest self inquiry into the motivation behind our desire we find it is also the way to fulfillment. This is so, because in the depth of us, beyond human hunger and thirst, is the empty and vast state of our being. This is a place of peace that Jesus aptly described as beyond human understanding. It is becoming familiar with this part of ourselves that can best inform our choices, so that we know when it is time take hold, and when it is time to let go, when it's time to pray and when it's time to fast. What a different Christmas season might there be if we entered our inner sanctuary seeking fulfillment before we entered the mall seeking gratification.

Peace alludes us quite simply because we believe it comes on the heels of good outcomes. To our egos way of thinking, peace is conditional. Yet, if we allow the conditions of life to determine our level of welcome or resistance, what hope is there for our peace? You and I face this choice each moment. We do not know what the next moment will bring. The continuum of misfortune and fortune is vast and imminently unpredictable in this life. Can well being ever be achieved if the winds of change must always favor our preference? The answer of course is no. Yet, the ego dies hard and thrives on a continuous stream of dissatisfaction, ignorance or resistance of the present moment. Even when things are going extremely well, there is only a fleeting embrace of the pleasurable moment, before a past or future thought edges out a hospitable embrace of the present moment.

The importance of this message is in knowing that we have a choice when life shows up. The way to peace is one choice at a time. How we cast our vote in any given moment will determine the world we live in. We may not be able to control what shows up at our door, but we can greet whatever it is with equanimity, maybe even befriend it. Such an approach to life can transform our hearts and that is the surest way to peace without condition. As Jesus said, there will be trials and tribulations in the world, but I have overcome the world.

There is an overcoming power in you and me, and one powerful demonstration of that power is making peace with the present moment. No matter what this moment looks like in the outer, it is the only temporal gateway to divine presence, which of course is the only way to deep abiding peace.