• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Way to inner peace

SolitaryWalker

Tenured roisterer
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
3,504
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
'Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not seek to conjecture either of them as if they were veiled obscurities or extravagences beyond the horizon of my vision; I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence. The first starts at the place that I occupy in the external world of the senses, and extends the connection in which I stand into the limitless magnitude of worlds upon worlds, systems upon systems, as well as into the boundless times of their periodic motion, their beginning and continuation. The second begins with my invisible self, my personality, and displays to me a world that has true infinity, but which can only be detected through the understanding, and with which I know myself to be in not, as in the first case, merely contingent, but universal and necessary connection. The first perspective of a countless multitude of worlds as it were annihilates my importance as an animal creature, which must give the matter out of which it has grown back to the planet ( a mere speck in the cosmos) after it has been (one knows not how) furnished with life-force for a short time. The second, on the contrary, infinitely elevates my worth, as an intelligence, through my personality, in which the moral law reveals to me a life independent of animality and even of the entire world of the senses, at least so far as may be judged from the purposive determination of my existence through this law, which is not limited to the conditions and boundaries of this life but reaches into the infinite.'
-Immanuel Kant


Axiom: I understand for inner peace to be a state of mind where one is satisfied with the condition of their mind. E.G, the essence of thoughts, feelings, intuitions and so on, as well as the general atmosphere/background of one's sense of self.

Premise: Inner peace is desirable because it is highly conducive to one finding a satisfactory inner identity. The aforementioned is desirable because it will allow for one to maintain a consistent focus in life and allow to be proficient at long-term thought, both of these are highly conducive to happiness.

1)Understand yourself-In order to find inner peace, you must first understand what inner peace means to you. Think of it in terms of how this very idea of inner peace relates to you, not how you relate to some theory of such an entity. Your inner world is the focus, not the outer. Hence, my recommendation for now is learn to do honest and incisive introspection and be consistent at it.

2)Keep a long term perspective- After you have discovered what inner peace means to you, make extra sure that you stay focused on this goal of yours. This should not be just one thing you do in life, it will be the only. Spinoza once advised for us to think in terms of an eternal perspective, as he believed that God is all, and you are part of God, and when you look within yourself, you see God--which is timeless and infinite, you have no reason to worry about what is temporal. Not even death, in fact he advised for death to be the last thing that man should be worried about. This is very similar to what Jesus of Nazareth meant when he advised for others to live not for themselves but for the kingdom of God. To live for what is eternal(God), and not for what is temporary(self). Jesus, unlike Spinoza, was not a pantheist, he believed that the self(flesh) dies.

*Please take note. I referred to Jesus as 'Jesus of Nazareth' and not the Christ. I am not recommending a Christian perspective of inner peace, I am just using his idea as an illustration of an advice to promote the eternal over temporary.

3)Avoid complacency- Continue to practice quality introspection and maintaining focus on the goals that you've discovered and established afterwards.

4)Stay internally focused- This is a very reliable way to avoid complacency. External standards have a very high potential to distract you from your introspection and may force you to focus on concrete,externally founded objectives that can be achieved at one point. In the Myth of Sisyphus, the protagonist who once started off as a naive bliss seeking venturer, hoping to find meaning in his life ends up rolling the boulder up and down to the hill for eternity. For what? One may ask. What has he accomplished? Nothing. And only in external nothingness will one find meaning in life. We will never find a purpose that can satisfy us, this is not possible as that by definition implies becoming complacent. We must find a purpose that we will never be able to achieve, and find solace in striving for it. This will be the greatest joy man will ever find. Whatever goals can be achieved, can be superseded, yet your drive to strive for an unachievable purpose can not be--as it is not subjected to comparison.
 

Xander

Lex Parsimoniae
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
4,463
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
9w8
2 lines.
Don't worry.
Be happy.

Apply with wisdom and a little merriment when appropriate.
 

erm

Permabanned
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
1,652
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
5
I don't want inner peace, I just want to win the inner war!
 

Tayshaun

New member
Joined
May 13, 2007
Messages
172
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
Interesting ideas.

The main difficulty lies in understanding oneself. It seems to be a never ending challenge. When can you stop the process and accept your current understanding of yourself as genuine and as a solid enough foundation to serenely address points 2, 3 and 4? Does the introspection process truly lead to a single point, the discovery/acknowledgment of the true self?

The appropriate long-term perspective, the absence of complacency and the consistent inner-focus all seem to be requirements in order to achieve inner peace. However, if you want to adopt a long-term perspective associated with the understanding of yourself, don't you need to arbitrarily stop the process of self-understanding to use a solid foundation?
 

SolitaryWalker

Tenured roisterer
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
3,504
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
Yes, Introspection is an ongoing thing. You never stop it, and this is also part of the 'avoid complacency maxim'. You try to fulfill the remaining 3 with as best of knowledge of 1 as possible at the time.
 

RaptorWizard

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 19, 2012
Messages
5,895
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
RaptorWizard's responce to SolitaryWalker's Way to inner peace thread:

As a means for finding inner peace, which SolitaryWalker thinks helps to find our true-self, we must have an introspective focus on the world inside the mind. He and Spinoza also believe we are all parts of God, so when we look within ourselves, we can see the timeless and infinite essence of the divine. He says though that we should not live for ourselves, but rather we should live for God. Instead, I believe in self-mastery, and that our ultimate purpose is to attempt the great and impossible.

:wizfreak:
 
Top