The Stillness Beyond Understanding

When you release the mind from grasping at thoughts and judging what is 'good' or 'bad', what remains is a deep stillness. This is the peace of the One Mind. It cannot be captured by words or held by understanding. Let this peace, which arises from nowhere and fills everywhere, be the true guardian of your heart. This is the gate to the Inner Kingdom.

The Peace That Makes No Sense

(The speaker, 'Jesus the Zennist,' walks to the center, not to a podium, but just to a simple, open space. He waits for a moment, letting the silence settle, a gentle smile on his face.)

Good morning.

(He pauses, as if actually waiting to hear the 'good' in the 'morning,' letting the silence stretch just long enough to be felt.)

What a noisy week it has been. Hasn't it? (He chuckles softly.) The shouting in the world seems to have turned up its volume. This side is convinced it is right. That side is certain it holds the truth. Everyone is very, very busy... building their house on the sand of their own opinions, and they're angry that the other person's sand looks different.

We are all so busy understanding. We understand our position. We understand why they are wrong. We have facts, and figures, and very strong feelings to back them up.

And into this storm of "understanding," our text for today lands like a quiet stone in a roaring river:

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds...”

The peace... that passes understanding. It doesn't come from understanding. It doesn't wait for our understanding. It... passes it. It bypasses it. It laps it, like a runner lapping a man who is still at the starting line, arguing with the referee.

What is this peace? And why is our "understanding" the very thing it slips past?

Perhaps, just perhaps, our "understanding" is the problem.

Our understanding is a very busy, very self-important bouncer at the nightclub of our mind. It stands at the velvet rope with a clipboard, and it's got a very strict list. "You're 'good,' you can come in. You're 'bad,' stay out. You're 'like,' front of the line. You're 'dislike,' get lost."

The mind that does this is what the sage calls "diseased." "Like and dislike are the diseases of the mind." "Make the smallest distinction, however, and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth."

This is the source of our suffering. We are addicted to our preferences. We love them. We "like" the post, we "hate" the politician. We "love" the weather, we "hate" the traffic. We carve the entire, seamless, whole reality of God into a million little pieces. We grab the pieces we "like" and try to build a little fort. We spend all our energy trying to mortar them together, while desperately, violently, trying to throw the "dislike" pieces over the wall.

And we call this frantic, exhausting, miserable construction... "life." Is it any wonder we are not at peace? Is it any wonder we build our house on the sand? The tide of reality comes in, as it always does, and washes our precious little fort of "likes" away.

Then, we mourn. "Blessed are those who mourn..." Blessed are those whose sandcastles have been washed away... for they shall be comforted. Comforted by what? By the ocean. By the reality they were trying to hold back.

This is what my teaching, the Zennist gloss on our text, points to. "When you release the mind from grasping at thoughts and judging what is 'good' or 'bad', what remains is a deep stillness. This is the peace of the One Mind."

This peace isn't something you achieve. It’s not a reward for being good. It's not a trophy for being right. It is what is left over when you stop tearing the world apart. It is the nature of the sky, when you stop trying to bottle it.

This stillness, this "One Mind," is the "peace of God." And it "passes understanding" because your "understanding" is the very tool of the tearing-apart. The intellect is the bouncer. The intellect is the disease of like-and-dislike. You cannot think your way to this peace, any more than a wave can "think" its way into becoming the ocean. It already is the ocean. It just has to stop thinking it's a separate wave.

This... this is the "Inner Kingdom." "Blessed are the poor in spirit..." Blessed are those who are empty of preferences, who have no "understanding" to defend, who are not spiritually 'rich' with opinions. "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It's not a future reward. It's theirs. Now. When the mind is empty of grasping, the Kingdom is right here.

This peace, our text says, "shall keep your hearts and minds." It will guard you. This is the "house built on the rock." This peace is not a fragile feeling. It's the rock. It is the most powerful thing in the universe. It is the foundation of what is. When anger arises... the peace is the space in which the anger burns and fades. When fear arises... the peace is the stillness that holds the trembling. It doesn't fight the anger. It doesn't argue with the fear. It simply is. And by "being," it "keeps" your heart. It guards you from being swept away by the storm of your own reactions.

Now, this isn't just my little secret. This truth is so profound, it has been bubbling up in different pots all over the world.

Look at the window of the great Hindu sages. In the Bhagavad Gita, the warrior Arjuna is having a total meltdown on the battlefield. He is the ultimate picture of a mind lost in duality. "Should I fight? Should I not? This is 'good.' That is 'bad.' These are 'family.' Those are 'enemies.'" His "understanding" is tearing him apart. And what is Krishna's advice? He doesn't just say "fight." He says, "Act... but abandon all desires... live without longing, free from the sense of 'I' and 'mine.'" The one who does this, Krishna says, "attains to shanti." Attains to peace. The instruction is the same: Let go of the "I" and "mine." Let go of the grasping.

Now, let's look through the Buddhist window. The great sage Siddhartha pointed to the "fires" that burn us: the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion. Wanting this. Hating that. Being confused about it all. The ultimate peace, Nirvana, is the "extinguishing" of those fires. How do you extinguish them? By seeing that the "I" who is doing all the wanting and hating is an illusion. Again—peace is not something added. It is the result of taking away the grasping, illusory self.

Do you see the thread? The Hindu sage says peace comes when you let go of 'I' and 'mine.' The Buddhist sage says peace is the extinguishing of the fires of 'I' and 'mine.' They are both pointing to the same culprit: the grasping, separating, judging mind. The "bouncer" at the door.

My teaching, as Jesus the Zennist, is simply this: The peace they speak of is the "peace of God." The "Inner Kingdom" is that state of Nirvana. The Christ-consciousness is the realization of Atman—the true Self, the One Mind. It is "Beyond Words," so we use all these different words to point at it. But the practice is where it gets real. This is "Wisdom in Action."

"You have heard it said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy,'" But I say, "Love your enemies..." Why? Not because it's a harder rule. Not because you get extra credit. It's because... "enemy" is a label. It's a preference. It's a "dislike." And as long as you hold to that label, you cannot be at peace. You are still in the "disease of the mind." Loving your enemy is not for their sake. It's for yours. It is the only way to liberate your own heart from the prison of duality. It is the only way to let the "peace of God" be your guardian.

"Judge not..." Why? Because judgment is the grasping. Judgment is the bouncer. The moment you judge, you have created a "this" and a "that," and you are "as far from it as heaven is from earth." The moment you judge, you have lost the peace. This is not a moral law. It is a physical one. It's like a law of gravity. If you "judge," you will fall out of the Kingdom.

This is the Higher Ethic. It's not about avoiding the act of murder. It's about seeing that anger is the root... and anger is just what it feels like to "dislike" something. It's not about avoiding adultery. It's about seeing that lust is the root... and lust is just what it feels like to "like" something so much you must grasp it. Both are the same disease. "Like and dislike are the diseases of the mind."

So... (He smiles.) What about that big, noisy news event from this past week? What about all that shouting? The world is going to shout. That is its nature. You cannot find peace by winning the argument. You cannot find peace by proving you are right. You will just find more... "understanding."

Here is the "Wisdom in Action." Here is the "narrow gate." The next time... today, tomorrow... you see that article, that post, that person that makes your blood boil... The next time you feel that hot, delicious, terrible certainty of "I am right and they are wrong"... ...just... stop. For one... ...long... ...second.

Don't "like" it. Don't "dislike" it. Don't "share" it. Don't do anything. Just watch. Watch the "bouncer" of your mind run to the door. "Oh, this is a 'bad' one! This is 'wrong'!" Watch the feelings rise in your chest. Feel the heat. And then... do the most radical, rebellious, spiritual act in the world. Don't grasp it.

Let the feeling of "I am right" just... be... a cloud in the sky of your awareness. Let the feeling of "they are wrong" just... be... a wave in the ocean of your heart. Just watch it. And see what is underneath it. See what is holding it.

You will feel it. A stillness. A quiet. A peace. It won't make any sense to your intellect. Your intellect will be screaming at you to "Get 'em!" But this peace... it will just... be. It "passeth all understanding." And in that moment, that peace will be guarding your heart. That is the rock. That is the Kingdom. That is the "Christ Jesus" way—the unified mind.

It is, as the masters say, "Beyond Words." So... I will stop using them.

(He smiles, bows his head gently.)

Go in that peace.