Two Ways to Achieve Peace in Life

By Jayaram V

There are two well-known ways in which you can experience peace. One is by getting what you want and other is to live with what you have. In the first, you try to fulfill your desires and needs by controlling your actions and circumstances. In the second, you learn to live with your failures and disappointments by controlling your thoughts, desires and expectations.

The first is about Creating or expressing the life you want. The second one is about adjusting and adapting to the life that is presented to you by circumstances and forces beyond your control. In both cases you control and exercise your will, but in different ways and for different purposes.

The first one is the way of the worldly people, who cannot be at peace unless they are in control. Ask them to sit by the side of a driver in a car and they will remain restless until they reach the destination. They are driven by passions and emotions and the desire to secure things to make themselves happy. The second one is practiced by those who want to lead a spiritual or ascetic life. They are driven by an aspiration to be themselves and live by the highest ideals and values that represent the best of the humanity and divinity.

In life both the approaches are important. You can use them wisely to experience peace and balance in your life. However, you must have the discretion to know when to use them. The Ideal is you should always try to control your destiny through your actions and never give up until you are certain that your efforts are not yielding results. Before you abandon your goals or methods, you should try alternatives to make sure that the fault does not lie with your or your effort. When your efforts do not produce the desired result, you must have the wisdom to acknowledge your failure and move on.

If you are serious about peace, you should always look into yourself. With some effort you can detach yourself from external things and learn to be stable and peaceful. In other words, you should not only try to control your destiny through your actions, but also control your emotions and learn to remain peaceful.

In conclusion, we may say that although both the approaches are seemingly different, in essence they use control only to achieve the desired ends. In both cases you use your will power and your intention. In the first, you try to control your destiny through your thoughts and actions and in the other you control your thoughts and actions to reach your desired destiny.