The word ‘wisdom’ gets thrown around quite often in spiritual discussions – often as the result of some profound insight. For many, wisdom is believed to be some special knowledge, reserved for a chosen few who has a deeper insight into life. Although this is true in many ways, wisdom has a much simpler and more far reaching meaning.

So what is wisdom really? For one, it is something that is valued in virtually all cultures throughout the world and throughout the ages wise people lead the way to a deeper understanding of life. Wisdom is not about having mere knowledge. It’s much beyond that and in many ways knowledge itself is not even necessary to have wisdom. Wisdom is an inner understanding that often contradicts intellectual knowledge.

Wisdom is almost always beyond the obvious and the conventional way of thinking. The majority of our thoughts are habitual – meaning that they have been thought before and the scary thing is that these are mostly someone else’s thoughts that we’ve become accustomed to. From this point of view wisdom is often a realization of our own erroneous thinking. When we recognize a great wisdom it is as if we see ‘a light’ inside our minds – a special feeling inside which leads us to a greater understanding.

Wisdom is not something you attain as much as it is something you grow into. For most of us wisdom is synonymous with an old man and a long flowing grey beard. Although it is true that wisdom comes with age, you don’t need to be old to be wise. Most of the profound insights that you will come to in your life won’t be about new ‘undiscovered things’ but rather a new way of seeing even the most mundane things. It’s almost as if you grow up and get born into a conditioned way of thinking and when you reach adulthood you have to grow out of it – shedding your skin to really live an inspired life.

For me all great wisdom is spiritual by nature. All great insights into life are insights that transcends the physical world and our mere observations. It’s metaphysical (beyond the physical)  and therefore it often contradicts conventional thinking. Wisdom is about seeing past the obvious appearances of things. When you do this you cannot help but to recognize something bigger and greater at work behind everything in life. This great invisible force that some call God is not confined to spiritual thinkers, but is the very force of life that flows through everything.

The true meaning of wisdom is having an intimate knowledge of God and the spiritual and metaphysical dimension that will help you see past the appearances of things to reveal a greater meaning behind it all. In Dr. Wayne Dyer’s 10 Secrets For Success And Inner Peace, he offers a great insight into wisdom. One of his secrets for success and inner peace is a definition for wisdom. He says that wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you.

Every thought you have will either strengthen or weaken you. On this deeper metaphysical level of life, your thoughts create your life. Having the ability to ‘see’ and to realize this is what wisdom is really about. Virtually every spiritual text refers to the power of thought and how we create our lives through our thoughts. This great law, the Law Of Attraction is a controlling law in the universe that dictates what we attract and create in our lives.

Learning to distinguish and then to avoid the thoughts that weaken you will give you a greater sense of power and authentic energy in your life. Weak thoughts like anger, hate and jealousy always weaken you because it requires a counter force. Thoughts of love, peace and joy will only strengthen you because it never takes anything from you – it only ‘adds’ to you. In this sense wisdom will allow you to enjoy a greater sense of inner peace and it will help you to move right past conflict and confrontation.

So often we focus on what’s wrong in our lives in an attempt to ‘fix’ it. What wisdom teaches us is to shift from what’s wrong, to what’s right. Carl Jung once said that “what you resist persists” – wise words from a wise man who understood that what you think about, will only recreate itself in your life experience.

The true meaning of wisdom is to have the insight that’s beyond the obvious. It’s learning to see that beyond the surface level of life experiences, there is something greater and bigger at work. This invisible (yet knowable) life force is intimately connected to you and your thoughts. What you think about expands in your life and learning to avoid that which weakens you will allow you to cultivate your own authentic power and ultimately create for yourself the kind of life you really want to live.

(continues from part 1)

In part 1 we looked at some key ideas about inner peace and we defined inner peace as an inner sense of harmony; a feeling of bliss that we feel deep down inside. In part 2 we will look some of the barriers that we all encounter towards living with a greater sense of inner peace.

1. The Ego
Your ego is that part of you that’s like a veil to your spirit. It’s the external façade that we all wear in order to operate in this world. Your ego constantly reminds you about your separateness and how you have to proof yourself by being better than, faster than or stronger than everybody else. Your ego is the source of most of the conflicts in your life. These can be conflicts with other people and even with yourself because the ego is fixated on being the most important person. Much of the anger, resentment and frustration in your life come from the ego’s demands on you

Having a sense of inner peace allows you to be in harmony with everyone and everything. The effect of inner peace is a sense of unity and you start to see both your environment and your fellow human beings as being connected to you in some invisible way.

Although you cannot rid yourself of your ego, you can go along way in subduing the ego’s demands on you and focusing on living from your higher self instead – making a conscious effort not fall prey to your ego and all the millions of demands it places on you every day.

2. Living In The Future
It’s important to realize that wherever your mind is – there you are. If your attention is in the past or the future, then that is what your experience of life will be. So many people waste away their precious time living their lives in a time other than now. Wallowing in the past serves no purpose and no matter what you do you cannot change that which is over. Worrying about what might happen in the future will only cause you to feel an inner sense of turmoil. Worry tends to consume your entire mind, removing you from feeling at peace.

One of the key spiritual realizations is to understand that the only ‘time’ you really have is now. Where your thoughts are now is where you are. If you think that one day when you have enough money or when the right person comes along or when you are fit and healthy THEN you will be happy – think again! Divert your thoughts and your energy to the present moment instead and give up everything that’s over and done with and let go of everything that might be.
 

3. Spiritual Ignorance
There is an aspect to each and everyone of us that is invisible, yet very real. This higher self, your spirit is who you really are. You will continue to feel unfulfilled in life until you recognize and nurture the seeds of divinity deep within you.

It is this spiritual part of you that seeks to be at peace. When you recognize and nurture your own divinity you can start to listen more to your Self and less to the demands and expectations of the world. Knowing what brings you a sense of inner peace is the essence of living a more peaceful life.

By becoming more aware of these three ‘enemies’ of inner peace you can start to make a more conscious effort to stay connected with your own spirituality and live a more blissful life. An inner sense of quiet and tranquility is a very important part of being happy in your Self. Make it your goal in life not to achieve or have more, but instead to be at peace and reorganize your priorities to create an environment within yourself where your spirit can thrive.

Without inner peace no person can survive. Almost daily we see headlines of super ‘successful’ people having to turn to drugs or alcohol just to cope with the inner turmoil they are experiencing. It’s a challenge that we are all faced with and with every experience of life you have the choice: Do you choose peace or do you choose turmoil? Do you choose to win, to be better, to have more, to proof someone else wrong…OR do you choose that which will bring you inner peace?

“People are born for different tasks, but in
order to survive every one requires the same
nourishment; inner peace.” – SRI SAI BABA

What exactly is inner peace? What does it mean to be at peace? People go around using the word peace very loosely and in our current world circumstances for many the word peace simply means to be free from war and conflict. However, peace has a much more profound and much more significant meaning than mere freedom from war. As Sai Baba pointed out to us – inner peace is the very thing that nourishes our spirit.

Although it’s quite hard to define what inner peace really is, we all know what it feels like because we’ve all had times in our life when we experienced it. For many inner peace shows up in their lives as fleeting moments of bliss and more often than not it is something that they cannot really hold on to. One of the greatest blessings that comes from living a more spiritually conscious life is to cultivate a greater sense of inner peace.

Any form of conflict that you experience removes you from that sense of inner peace. Inner peace is a deep inner sense of ease – a sense of inner comfort and stillness that is both joyful and calming. Inner peace will free you from many of the demands and expectations that drive most people over the edge. By living your life with a greater sense of self awareness you can start to cultivate a sense of inner peace and live life with a greater sense of clarity and perspective. A life of turmoil is characterized by immediate demands and shortsighted gains and like a wildfire you can never quite get the best of it.

Living your life with a sense of inner peace is not so much a conscious pursuit as it is the result of living your life in a certain way. It’s not so much in what you do as it is what you don’t do. Your nature – your own spiritual essence (your soul) comes from a place of peace and it’s ultimate pursuit is to be at peace. The challenge that we are all faced with is that our everyday lives tend to distract us from a sense of inner peace.

In part 2 we will look at 3 of the biggest barriers to inner peace. These are some of the biggest things that cause most people to disconnect themselves from this sense of inner peace. (read more in part 2)

“There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing are right for you. The criterion is: Have they brought you inner peace? If they have not, there is something wrong with them / so keep seeking! If what you do has brought you inner peace, stay with what you believe is right.” - Peace Pilgrim

“To attain inner peace you must actually give your life, not just your possessions. When you at last give your life - bringing into alignment your beliefs and the way you live then, and only then, can you begin to find inner peace.” - Peace Pilgrim

“The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one’s life.”  - Peace Pilgrim