Paul Brunton: On Peace

Paul Brunton (1898-1981)

Paul Brunton

On Peace

Edited by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Outwardly we live and have to live in the very midst of cruel struggle and grievous conflict, for we share the planet's karma; but inwardly we can live by striking contrast in an intense stillness, a consecrated peace, a sublime security. The central stillness is always there, whether we are absorbed in bustling activity or not. Hence a part of this training consists in becoming conscious of its presence. Indeed only by bringing the mystical realization into the active life of the wakeful world can it attain its own fullness. The peaceful state must not only be attained during meditation, but also sustained during action.

Paul Brunton, The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (1988)
Volume 15: Advanced Contemplation / The Peace within You, Prefatory

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From Chapter 4: SEEK THE DEEPER STILLNESS

1
When the personal ego's thoughts and desires are stripped off,
we behold ourselves as we were in the first state and as we
shall be in the final one. We are then the Overself alone,
in its Godlike solitude and stillness.

2
One feels gathered into the depths of the silence, enfolded by it
and then, hidden within it, intuits the mysterious inexplicable
invisible and higher power which must remain forever nameless.

3
A life with this infinite stillness as its background and centre seems
as remote from the common clay of everyday human beings, and especially
from their urban infatuation with noise and movement, as the asteroids.

4
This stillness is the godlike part of every human being.
In failing to look for it, he fails to make the most of
his possibilities. If, looking, he misses it on the way,
this happens because it is a vacuity: there is simply
nothing there! That means no things, not even mental
things, that is, thoughts.

5
The spirit (Brahman) is NOT the stillness, but is found by humans
who are in the precondition of stillness. The latter is their human
reaction to Brahman's presence coming into their field of awareness.

6
That beautiful state wherein the mind recognizes itself for what it is,
wherein all activity is stilled except that of awareness alone, and even
then it is an awareness without an object— this is the heart of
the experience.

Paul Brunton (1898-1981)
The Notebooks of Paul Brunton,
Volume 15, Larson Publications,
Burdett, New York, 1988

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From Paul Brunton's Notebooks: A Prayer For The World