Peace

Peace is what we - during our mortal lives - try to achieve in our minds and also in our hearts through contacting our spirit. What is peace? Peace is the detraction of all that is negative, of those things, which conflict. Often peace is impossible because in our lives on evolutionary worlds our learning is derived from conflict and how we deal with those conflicts. But always aim for peace that only The Father can give you, because that is the way you will resolve those conflicts.

Peace is attendant upon satisfaction, on fulfillment of your goals. Peace is within you and also outside of you. Believe in The Father and even in the midst of turmoil peace will come to you. Have faith. Faith will surely bring you peace. 
Question: Are conflicts inevitable? Would you comment more on that and our relationship?

Answer: Imagine a world without conflict. Without conflict you would not have these evolutionary worlds. A world without conflict would be paradise. For you to learn, for you to get anywhere, for you to progress toward your goals, you must have something to push off against. Even your daily act of walking requires conflict between gravity and the earth you tread upon. That enables you to move. Rejoice in your conflicts.

Question: On this journey of spiritual growth and development, it seems to me that we've become increasingly sensitive to the feelings of others, so that sometimes negative feelings, especially like rage and hurt, are felt much more deeply than they were previous to entering this experience. It seems that we've become more intuitive, more aware of other people's feelings, therefore more vulnerable to the feelings of other people. Is that true? And if it's true, is there anything we can do to protect ourselves? Or is there any better way of handling it?

Answer: To be more vulnerable is not a negative aspect. It is positive. It is good for you to be more vulnerable. What you require as a protection against the attacks of others upon your vulnerability is a change in your whole attitude. You see God, Universal Father is very vulnerable, but His love - it's very difficult to say - His love makes do. When you are vulnerable and people attack - unless it is on the physical level - love them back. It is part of your learning process. Return love when others hate. When people push at you, smile. If this becomes a problem, then do not associate with those people, but deal with them - with this problem from the aspect of the love which springs from the Thought Adjuster.

To the mind peace implies quiet and contentment, perhaps even solitude, lack of hectic clatter and incessant needs, each asking to be addressed and soothed.

Jesus said that to follow him would not be an easy path but would surely bring difficulty. Yet he spoke of a peace that he leaves with his children, peace that is not of this world. He said that to become first in the kingdom you must become least of all. He spoke of losing oneself to advance. To the individualistic mind,
to the ego center, this is not the road to peace, for it is a threat to identity and to status. Peace that Jesus
spoke of is the peace of assurance and the peace of fellowship.

To the spiritually hungry soul peace is found in the realization that one is always cared for and that one is in a community, that help and guidance are amply available, whether it is from instructors above and beyond
one's own range of experience or whether it is one's near-at-hand friend.

The peace that Jesus spoke of is, in reality, the presence of the Spirit of Truth. He said that he goes before you as you go into the world to proclaim the gospel. He does so with this spiritual presence.

It is a challenging exercise to recognize when you are in turmoil, agitated, frustrated, feeling tugged and pulled one way and another, spread thin, scattered all about to just for a moment ask yourself, "Where is
this peace? Do I have it?" Reflect upon the fact that the peace that Jesus brings is not a peace of lounging
in ease; it is a peace of knowing, assurance, stability, and guidance.

Bring that peace into the turmoil and you will find yourself a little better able to grapple with the conflicts. It
is the eye of the hurricane, this peace of Jesus. It travels with the storm.

Tomas: Enduring Peace is a fruit of the spirit we are still aspiring to see, even though each of you as individuals and in Stillness are able to, by varying degrees, tap into the peace which passes all understanding, thereby whetting your appetite for the living water which is deep in the Well.  

When you mean to, when you set out to carry your state of grace into your arena and take with you the fruit of the spirit, Enduring Peace, it is somehow short-lived more than enduring as it is experienced in the social arena. It is because, in part because you are still combative and competitive, but this bellicose nature is being bridled by your awareness of your impact on others, and this is qualified by how the Spirit of Truth is being interpreted in your life as a result of your perceptions due to your mindal mechanics.  

Enduring peace is the kind of peace that is with you even in a social state of chaos, a confused environment, under confusing circumstances, circumstances which are in a constant state of vacillation as a result of its 
having no anchor, and so the fact that you have been born of the spirit is a guarantee that in some measure it will hold true that you are enduring in your reflection of peace. This is a reasonable facsimile of Comforting Presence.  

But what this says is that while you may know peace within and while you may walk with it into your arena, and abide therein with poise, sooner or later in your involvement, in your experiential aspects, your pacific predilections will run aground and you will find yourself bumping your head against the wall, bucking horns with your adversaries, convincing another of the rightness of your opinion or whatever variable allows for the irritant to muzzle your expressions of fraternal harmony.

You therefore want to develop some skills in your attitudes and associations with other, so that your stance of peace is not taken for disinterest and your lack of confrontational tendencies misconstrued as vulnerable. Jesus was called the Prince of Peace, but there was nothing wimpy about him. He was a man among men; he was rugged. Having the fruit of the spirit Enduring Peace affords you the opportunity to see your own destiny unfold before you, for it is not subject to the countenance of others, and it does not put off or alienate, but rather harbors affection for ones fellows.  

"Enduring" is the qualifyer, and enduring is so far removed from your culture of today which is so inundated with fast food, quick print, easy on, easy off and disposable representations of reality. You have no frame of reference for what is enduring. Enduring a five minute line at the bank is often more than you can bear; how can you in good faith respect the quality of enduring peace as a way of life? And yet, if it is not undertaken as a way of life, by you first, and soon by many others, until most have complied by the new 
standard, how else will we develop such an appreciation for world wide and all pervasive enduring peace as a quality of reality throughout the universe?  

The challenge for you then is to realize that you can retain the thrill of existence even as you reside within the boundaries of peace, for then you have all that quality time and space within which to develop meaningful investigations into righteousness and reality levels heretofore unavailable to you because you were perforce following the flirtations with your more primitive nature and the lesser natures of your beloved brethren. You have been admonished to "gird up the loins of your mind." When this is in effect, it is easier to see how your self-mastery reveals itself; or, alternately, how your lesser nature is in the practice of taking your higher nature for a walk down Penny Lane.

The reward for fostering the value of enduring peace is the quality of fraternity that results, the freedom to enjoy that which is portrayed by your spiritual fragrance in the social fields wherein trade and commerce are an active part of your community interactions and sense of satisfaction. You begin to put peace into your quality lives on a daily basis, unyielding as to allowing yourself to be toppled by the ebullient and immature enthusiasm of others.