Peace

Whenever I am with a group of people, and we ask one another, what do we want in life, invariably the answer is happiness or peace. What is peace?

There was once a king who offered a prize to the artist who could paint the best picture of peace. Many artistes tried. The king looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them.

One was a picture of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror, for peaceful towering mountains were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw it thought it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the king looked carefully, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest--- perfect peace.

The king chose the second picture. Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in the heart.

So being peaceful means that we are in a state of clear mind, with no confusion, complaint, blame or worry, in spite of going through the daily rigors of every day life. It seems difficult to achieve, but if we become aware of our mind's working and pay attention to it, we have taken the first step.