Braybrooke - 365 ways to find peace: meditations and inspirations

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION However storm-tossed our lifes voyage might seem to us, there is always, in the depths of our inner being, a source of calm if we only know how to find it. But amidst all the turbulence of our emotions and anxieties, and amidst the pressures of our worldly responsibilities, where do we even start to look? Through the centuries many writers, astonishingly different in their personal circumstances and their beliefs, as well as in their social and historical settings, have succeeded somehow in putting into words profound thoughts that persuade us of certain universal truths and values. These ideas cut across distinctions of race, class, gender, age and religion. Some of the most inspiring of these writings are those that concentrate on peace, love and the spirit for these are the things that really matter in life, whatever our faith and whatever our politics. These are the essentials that provide a foundation for living more at ease with ourselves, with each other, with whatever life brings us, and with the certainty of our mortality. All the inspirations quoted in this book are reminders of the deep stillness and tranquillity we can find in a life of acceptance, simplicity, compassion, thankfulness, love and faith.

In making contact with this stillness at the core of ourselves, we are touched by a power greater than our own. We can all draw strength, hope and renewal from this inexhaustible well of blessings. If we detach ourselves from the distractions that oppress the spirit, all the energy previously absorbed in inner turmoil is set free to flow in love, for ourselves, our friends and our loved ones, all the people around us, all those who are suffering, even those who wish us harm indeed the whole of humanity with whom we share a precious spiritual kinship. Love and compassion can help us counter the conflict and violence within and between nations. Each of us can become a beacon of peace, radiating healing light into the world. Love for ourselves may seem at first rather self-centred, but self-love or selfrespect is a vital foundation for love extended to others, and so sets the theme of the first section of this book, The Centre of Being.

From here the focus gradually spirals outward, through The Inner Circle of Love (covering such vital topics as compassion, karma, friendship, family) to The Outer Circle of Spirit our relationship with the world at large and with the One within and beyond. Read, reflect, and be inspired if you find wisdom here, carry it with you, and enjoy its gifts to the full. Marcus Braybrooke

TRUE SELF 001...008 SELF-ESTEEM 009...012 INNER STRENGTH 013...024 STILLNESS 025...034 INNER WISDOM 035...046 GIVING 047...054 THANKFULNESS 055...058 WONDER 059...069 BEING IN TIME 070...086 ATTENTIVENESS 087...089 NATURE 090...092 ACCEPTANCE 093...100 SIMPLICITY 101...106 HAPPINESS 107...112 TRUTH 113...118 WORDLESSNESS 119...123 HUMILITY 124...129 FAITH 130...143 TRUE SELF OPENING THE SELF The door to the human heart can be opened only from the inside. Spanish proverb ME MYSELF Trippers and askers surround me, People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation, The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new These come to me days and nights and go from me again, But they are not the Me myself. Walt Whitman (181992), from Song of Myself, USA TEA AT THE PALAZ OF HOON Not less because in purple I descended The western day through what you called The loneliest air, not less was I myself. What was the ointment sprinkled on my beard? What were the hymns that buzzed beside my ears? What was the sea whose tide swept through me there? Out of my mind the golden ointment rained, And my ears made the blowing hymns they heard.
I was myself the compass of that sea: I was the world in which I walked, and what
I saw Or heard or felt came not but from myself; And there I found myself more truly and more strange.

Wallace Stevens (18791955), USA LUTE MUSIC My soul gave me good counsel, teaching me that the lamp which I carry does not belong to me, and the song that I sing was not generated from within me. Even if I walk with light, I am not the light; and if I am a taut-stringed lute, I am not the lute-player. Jalal al-Din Rumi (120773), Persia A FREE MIND A free mind is one which is untroubled and unfettered by anything, which has not bound its best part to any particular manner of being or worship and which does not seek its own interest in anything but is always immersed in Gods most precious will There is no work which men and women can perform, however small, which does not draw from this its power and strength. Meister Eckhart (12601328), Germany SELF-KNOWLEDGE This is the miracle of life: that each person who heeds himself knows what no scientist can ever know: who he is. Sren Kierkegaard (181355), Denmark WITHIN THE CIRCLE OF SELF Two exercises at lifes beginning: to narrow the circle round about you more and more, and to check, again and again, that you are not hiding somewhere outside that circle. Franz Kafka (18831924), Austria MIRROR IMAGE The Self exists both inside and outside the physical body, just as an image exists inside and outside the mirror.

From the Ashtavakra Gita (c.200BCEc.200CE), India SELF-ESTEEM A DROP IN THE OCEAN We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. Mother Teresa of Calcutta (191097), India THE GOLDEN ETERNITY Remember the golden eternity is yourself. Jack Kerouac (192269), USA COMPASSION If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. The Buddha (c.563c.483BCE), India LOOK WITHIN If the eye were not sun-like, it could not see the sun; if we did not carry within us the very power of God, how could anything God-like delight us? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832), Germany INNER STRENGTH RIDE ON SINGING If you have a fearful thought, do not share it with someone who is weak: whisper it to your saddlebow, and ride on singing. King Alfred of Wessex (c.849c.899), England INTIMACY I can be alone, I know how to be alone.

There is a tacit understanding between my pencils and the trees outside; between the rain and my luminous hair. The tea is boiling: my golden zone, my pure burning amber. I can be alone, I know how to be alone. By tea-light I write. Nina Cassian (19242014), Romania THE BREAKTHROUGH And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anas Nin (190377), France DESTINY If you will not fight your battle of life because in selfishness you are afraid of the battle, your resolution is in vain: nature will compel you.

From the Bhagavad Gita (1st-2nd century BCE), India THE GIFT OF FORTITUDE Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear. Marcus Aurelius (12180), Rome COMRADES IN CREATION I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house. Henry David Thoreau (181762), USA