Prem Rawat
Hello, everyone; I hope you’re all doing well. Very quickly approaching towards getting the Peace Education Program prepared, so we can go through it—and there are ten different chapters in the Peace Education Program and, of course, the first one is “Peace.”
I think I’ve talked a lot about peace, but still, the understanding—because we live in a world that has defined so many things for us. And we take those definitions and we apply it to everything.
So, what does it mean when you see somebody on the street that is not from a certain place or a certain country? So, again, there are definitions that come in; there are ideas that come in; there are concepts that kick in. And you, when you look at that person, all those things are afoot; they are playing.
So, the same thing happens when it comes to “what is peace,” what is “infinite,” what is “clarity.” Any one of these things actually triggers a whole plethora of ideas of what one is talking about.
But the peace that I’m talking about is not the peace that is created—or that is a consequence of something. (So, if two people have been fighting and all of a sudden they call it quits, you could say, “Well, they’re in peace now; they’re, ‘cease-fire.’”) That’s not the peace I’m talking about.
So then, you know, you go to a nice place; it’s wonderful, and a nice lake and the forest—and people go, and people go camping and so on and so forth, to these wonderful places.
And I know a lot of people step out and the first thing they say is, “Oh, how peaceful it is.” But that’s just absence of noise, the absence of all the noise that you heard when you were in the city. So, that’s not the peace, what I’m talking about. So, what is that peace that I’m talking about?
Well, in you, you know, obviously, you know what your turmoil looks like—it’s not fun. And you have been rattled by that turmoil at times. It has been severe.
I see it when things don’t go your way—and you are tired, or you’re, you know, something is already amiss—and then on top of that comes some kind of a bad news. And the feeling is, “Oh my God, this is too much to take, too much to handle, too much to have”—and off you go. Fair enough.
But then there is an opposite of that inside of you, something that is capable of looking at this whole world and its workings and everything else from a very disconnected way—and being able to observe it for what it is—not how it should be, but what it is.
Things happen—neither good nor bad. It’s not a detached judgment. But it is just simply far enough away to see your existence, you being in this life, you being in this world, just the way it is—neither good nor bad.
Somebody actually wrote this to me; it’s like, you know, “How come nature is so cruel? Today I saved, you know, some kind of a bug from the clutches of a spider—because of, you know, they were caught in a spider’s nest.” And I started thinking about that.
“And is it?” It is. It is. And I don’t have to sit there and pass a judgment on it. It is what it is.
Bugs eat bugs; fish eat fish; animals eat animals. It happens. Is that good? Well, why do I have to bring my hat of “good” and “bad” to every party that I go to? Why is everything divided into that “good and bad”?
Because this is how I’ve been trained: “Either the things are good—or bad”—but I have lost the ability to admire something for what it is worth—for what it is. To look at the moon and admire it for what it is. Not what it isn’t. Not what it could be. Not how it could have been—but just as it is. This is—not everybody has this ability.
To look at rain.... And we don’t like rain; most of us don’t like rain. We think that’s, you know, a real bummer; “It’s ruined your day,” and da-da-da-da, da. But just to look at the rain for what it is.
It’s a natural process; it has been happening on this planet Earth for a really long time. And thank God that it happens—and otherwise the distribution of that freshwater would not happen the way it should happen. To admire something the way it is.
Well, okay, so we have talked about, you know, fish and we’ve talked about animals and we’ve talked about spiderwebs.
But what happens when that “to just see something the way it is” comes to you? And you start to see, without judgment, a reality, a very simple reality? A reality that is about you, that, something that touches your heart, something that makes you feel fulfilled—makes you feel like, “Yes,” that gratitude is touched, the thankfulness is touched.
That no more do you flounder between the answers and the questions—but you understand the answer, even if there isn’t a question. That peace becomes, for you, a journey inside to that beautiful place where you are in that presence of the complete, of the whole, of the infinite.
That from thereon, it isn’t “more” or “less”—but all that goes away. “Right and wrong,” all that goes away—and it’s not about time and it’s not about your agendas and it’s not about your definitions and it’s not about that printer you carry here—but it is that you witness what is the true, beautiful reality.
Peace, then, is that one feeling which is not objective; it is subjective for every single person. It is what they feel. And when there is no need to want to describe it, when there is no need to say, “Hey, come here and look at this....” It is beyond that threshold—that it is. And you accept.
You accept because it’s so beautiful. You accept because it’s within you. You accept because it is you. You accept because it is a gift that you have received. And no more dualities.
So, peace is that place, not full of definitions, but full of feeling. And that’s what you have to understand about peace.
And of course, you know, this is discussed more in the Peace Education Program, but this time, it’s not about words but you’re going to have to pay attention. And that, that’s the big difference. That’s really the big difference. And all of this for appreciation, to be able to appreciate what it means that you’re alive, that you have this life.
You know, we don’t even understand what to appreciate. We think we should appreciate our dog; we should appreciate our cat; we should appreciate our donkey; we should appreciate.... (I’m not saying you shouldn’t; of course you should.)
But in life, there are some deeper things that are inside of you that you should also appreciate. So, appreciate this breath that comes into you. Appreciate this existence that you have. Appreciate every day that you’re alive.
Now, these may sound really, really simple things to you—but I tell you one thing; it’s a real challenge to do so. It is a real challenge because our training is not for that. Our training is to appreciate, “Look outside.”
From the very young age that we were babies, when the mother wanted to distract us because we were crying or something like that, a toy, something that made noise, or something—and it’s like, “Lookey-lookey, look at this! Look at this! (Forget about what you’re feeling; look at this.) Look at this. This is more important.”
Has it stopped since then? Now we’re not babies anymore, perhaps. We are adults; we do things—but, has that stopped? No, again—now it’s not the mother bringing these things to us. But now we bring these things to us: distractions—from? Appreciation of what is.
This life is. And it is the most magnificent gift that you will ever have. Every breath is priceless. Every moment, every day, every today that you receive is priceless—and its value and its importance to you, now....
And as I explained, what is that “now”—now is where your actions are going to take place, which will then have consequences for you, either good consequences or bad consequences. This is what’s going on. And if you have no appreciation for that, then you’re missing out on a whole part of your existence—that you’re just not even paying attention to it, because there is no appreciation of that.
So, appreciation, as simple as it sounds, it’s not quite like drinking a milkshake—because you have to see those things. And those things are so hidden from us—not because they are—but we have hidden them from us because we have brought in other things that we are so used to looking at.
And now it’s a question of refocusing and finding those things that we can truly appreciate in our lives, that mean something to us from within—not from a trained idea, not from a trained definition, not from a trained, you know, (again and again and again), “This is how you should be; this is how you should be....”
Not appreciation of that—but appreciation of those things that are simple, that are profound, and that are so yours that they’re amazing.
So, anyways—and then, of course, we’ll be talking about “inner strength”—and the inner strength, you know, the thing is, well, the only kind of strength we know is either the strength of thought—or muscles. And so it’s like, “Yeah, that’s, that’s what I”—and people want to be powerful. And how do they want to be powerful? Power. “Power, power, power,” and the world’s gone crazy over power.
And so people think, “If you have money, you have power. If you have big muscles, you have power. If you have a big brain, you have power.”
But what is your inner strength? Inner strength cannot be measured by muscles; it cannot be measured by thought. It cannot be measured by these things—but the inner strength is your strength of your clarity, of your understanding, of your feeling, of your joy, of you! Your strength, your true, true, true, true strength.
The strength that can take you forward, the strength and the courage that you need in your life to move forward when everything tells you, “No. No, it’s over.” You know, because the world will—will, and yeah, the world’s very well defined when it comes to that: “You have done this—it’s over.”
But it takes an incredible amount of inner strength to say, “No, I’m going forward. I’m going to move forward regardless of all this that is coming my way to stop me.”
So, these are the things that are going to be talked about. “Self-awareness,” knowing who you are, becoming aware that you are not just this bubbling pot of ideas and thoughts in your head. But there is a lot more going on; you have a heart; you have feelings; you have understandings; you have thirsts; you have your needs that need to be fulfilled. And it really comes down to knowing yourself.
Other things that are going to be talked about are “clarity, understanding, dignity, choice, hope and contentment.” And, you know, and briefly about hope—yeah, and but I’m not talking about the hope of “keep your fingers crossed,” you know, “let’s hope everything goes our way.”
That’s not hope. That’s just “wishful thinking.” That’s like, you know, you buy a lottery ticket and then you sit there and you go, “I hope that lottery ticket comes; I hope that lottery ticket comes; I hope that lottery ticket comes.” That’s not the hope that I am talking about.
The hope that I am talking about is that those basic things that you need in your life, (which, of course, you need the recognition of), to have those things fulfilled. To have the hope to go forward. When everything isn’t clear, when everything is a little bit foggy, when everything isn’t there, something to come along and say, “Continue, continue—and you will feel your way to that reality.”
So, I mean, anyways, I could talk about this more, but let’s wait for the Peace Education Program. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. And that’s coming closer and closer.
And I hope you continue to enjoy. And then, you know, of course, I’ve got to get ready for the PEP—so I just want to remind you again. And we have prepared some nice clips that’ll be shown every day, so something will be shown every day up to the point that PEP comes back and I will return with PEP.
So, it’s really a wonderful.... I, I don’t know; for me, it’s like, it’s a little bit tiring, (actually, quite a bit tiring), but it’s exciting; it’s fun to be able to talk about this, to be able to just talk to you about these beautiful things that I always go and talk about.
But in these circumstances, we can go beyond these circumstances; we can go beyond the ugliness of coronavirus; we can go beyond the ugliness of these things and come to a beautiful place, which is really within us. You know, so, your journey goes all the way and then it comes back to you. And how beautiful it is that it comes back, comes back to you.
So, take care; be well; be safe—and most importantly, be. Thank you.
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