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Articles

by Rusty Stewart, Ph.D.

As a kid I used to get up at 6am in the morning to bake something from scratch. This used to drive my mother nuts because I would leave the kitchen a mess. I can remember times when I picked a recipe that appealed to me, but I didn't have all the ingredients required. Sometimes I could substitute and the end product was fine and sometimes it was a disaster. Like leaving yeast out of baking a cake. It would never rise. Well, I'm here to tell you that we must invite God (Love) in with an open and vulnerable heart as a mandatory ingredient in our recipe if we want our inner peace to grow and rise. There are no substitutes! Without the heart and Love, it will always lead to conflict inside ourselves and conflict outside ourselves. As above, so below. As with my brothers and sisters, so it is with me. They are mirrors of my inner state. Change my inner self and my perception of what is outside my self will change. The Sacred heart is the yeast of inner peace!

There is no shortcut to this recipe. Nothing that can be microwaved. In fact, microwaving will reduce the nutrients in the food. Metaphorically, microwaving our inner peace recipe will numb the feeling and richness that is necessary to really open up the Sacred heart to inner peace. Vulnerability and pain are important parts of opening the heart to compassion and inner peace. “The heart is not living until it has experienced pain. Man has not lived if he has lived and worked with his body and mind without heart. The soul is all light, but all darkness is caused by the death of the heart. Pain makes it alive” (Hazrat Inayat Khan, Bowl of Saki, June 21, 2006).

With an open and alive heart it is much easier to access the pieces necessary to attain inner peace. First of all, we can access all of our unresolved pain that we are still holding on to from our past. As we release these emotional attachments, we can go deeper to heal the mind and change our thoughts. A stillness practice is also necessary to sit with these thoughts and emotions. This will intensify and stretch the heart open even wider as we start to realize that we are the Christ (at one with God) and truly invulnerable as we access our soul and inner spirit. Then and only then can we experience true inner peace, forgiveness, and compassion and witness the world as an illusion. It opens us up to participate in the world in celebration of our eternal selves, by extending Love to everyone and everything that exists in physical form.

Now, world peace becomes a possibility because world peace is just a mirror of our inner peace. When there is inner peace there is no conflict within ourselves which means our perception of the outside world changes dramatically! “The one who has found his peace within himself may be in a cave of the mountain or among the crowd, yet in every place he will experience peace. What generally happens is that in order to get peace we blame the other person who jars upon our nerves. But in reality the true peace can come only by being so firm against all influences around us that nothing can disturb us” (Hazrat Inayat Khan, Bowl of Saki, July 2, 2006). One by one this is how true change and peace evolves. The influence we have on everything outside of us is mindboggling, but only by modeling from the inside out and joining with the heart and mind of God!

So remember to follow the recipe for inner peace closely. Ask for help from Spirit as you add and bake your ingredients together. And don't forget your open and vulnerable heart. It is a crucial ingredient and one that cannot be substituted. Then be still and heal the mind and your thoughts with your vulnerable heart. “All thoughts, words, and actions that disturb the peace are sin” (separation from Spirit), “and all thoughts words, and actions that create peace are virtue” (Hazrat Inayat Khan, Bowl of Saki, July 2, 2006). This leads us to remember our source and experience the Christ (one with God) within all of us as this inner peace expands and extends outward to everyone and everything. Welcome home to oneness and inner peace!

You can access Bowl of Saki by Hazrat Inayat Khan at www.wahiduddin.net.

Yoga Living, September/October 2006