Message from the Minister/ January 2018
A New Way to Peace
As the storm rages around me I find a certain calm, I fall into an active peace no human can dare describe, yet I am sure everyone has felt it at one time in their life. And as feeble as the words may be, we attempt to describe our mystical experience so others may catch a glimpse of the the eternal nature within their own being.
The Bible calls it the peace which passes all understanding, The Hindus use the Sanskirt term shanti, which speaks of tranquility, calm, bliss, eternal rest, and happiness, or the ultimate state of perfect enlightened experience called Samadhi. The Hebrews say Shalom or they may pray Selah. In Arabic it is Salam. The Buddhist call it Ahisma. A Taoist can experience the yin and the yang as being perfectly balanced, in a state called Heping for the Chinese, or Hewa if you are Japanese. The Native Americans have so many different words for peace one can hardly count them. Each tribe has a unique language and expression and many states of peace exist. We might call it bliss, comfort, care, calm, serenity, relaxation of body, mind and soul; but I prefer to think of it as our natural state, a feeling of heaven on earth, an absolute awareness of our unity with the whole universe.
Indeed there are as many varying expressions for the sublime experience of inner peace as there are people who have found it; but for many of us who desire this peace as a way of life, we know it to be something that finds us. When we are made ready by the miracle and guided by grace, the peace we seek knocks at the door of our consciousness and completely envelops our hearts, as we fall into the
realm of the unexplained mysteries of God.
In this new year, perhaps we, as students of Truth will recognize the way to this experience is not a way at all, but the total acceptance that everything we were seeking is actually here now. Perhaps a very thin veil of perception was the only thing blocking our vision from seeing the Truth of this peace as our one true reality and the only constant state available in all the universe.
We always sing, “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.” I believe the most important word here is “let.” To allow peace to be what it is, to refuse to throw the veil of my mistaken ideas across the face of peace any longer, to finally let go and let God be exactly what it is, to discover the beauty and the mystery and the majesty of my own being in oneness with everything there is.
Happy New Year my amazing friends !
Rev. Tony
