Inner peace is a generally desired good.
Many of us use meditation apps, therapy, or religious practice to find calmness within. The point is to reduce the noise; to settle the inner weather. We long for it, but it is rarely examined for what.
So what is the utility of inner peace?
The opposite of peace is war.
There are inner and outer battles. Some of us are at war with ourselves. Sometimes, however, things outside ourselves actively wage war on us.
Both of those disturb our inner peace.
These two problems also worsen each other, as they catch us between two fires. Being troubled within, you may be tempted to start more fights. To dull external pressures, you may cave in to inner temptations.
People desire peace, to a large degree, because they want life’s wars to end.
There are two ways to end a (just) war.
The first is to win; the second is to give up.
Giving up means embracing defeat. If you are facing real threats, ceasing to fight means rolling over. The result of your passivity is losing.
When something is hostile to you, it is typically after your submission. If you allow it to have its way with you, it will take you captive.
Then, you have the same peace as a prisoner in a cell.
The other option is to win.
You achieve that by undoing whatever plagues you. War ends only when whatever wages it ceases to be. As nothing maintains the disturbance, peace is the natural consequence.
This is the true version; it requires submission to nothing.
It explains why inner peace is rare.
Peace requires you to win a war, or at least stave one off. If surrender were to provide it, everyone would be at peace. It is available for free at all times.
For true peace to prevail, whatever threatens it must be quelled.
You should not go to war over small matters.
Some things are simply not worth the scratches. If every detriment to your mood sets you off, you will end up being the main disturbance to it. Noise is only relevant if it threatens the core of your inner calm; otherwise, it is best ignored.
In the latter case, either you or it will have to go.
We can picture the inner world as a kingdom.
Inside of it, there will always be ordinary setbacks: the common cold, a rainy day, a bad harvest… These events have a cost, but they pass. Endlessly meddling with them is like scratching a wound; it will make things worse, not better.
It is best to let it go. Let the ripples in the lake dissipate; do not add to them.
Small problems eventually die down.
But there are also realer problems.
If the barbarians invade, someone will have to deal with them. Such attacks form an existential threat. When ignored, they imply the end of the kingdom.
These forces should meet resistance. Because if they do not, they will advance until whatever is in their way is undone.
So these two kinds of disturbances should be distinguished.
There are real-world versions of the same phenomenon.
Sometimes, whatever is inside you moves against you without pause. Think of destructive habits, addictions, or self-loathing. To protect yourself, you must quell the parts of you that cause you harm.
But they can exist outside yourself, too. Your friends may be hellbent on making you miserable; you could have a bitter rival at work, or maybe your country is actually being invaded.
To have peace, you must solve such problems first.
When the battles are won, a whole new task announces itself.
The fighting was (inherently) turbulent. So now, the peace must settle; the mist of war is to lie down. This relates to the lake’s ripples, as mentioned before: ever in motion, ever dying down.
As violence still echoes through you, you must discern it from real artillery fire. If all you hear is the lingering noise of what was, it is now time to rest.
Forcing the water flat would only make for more waves.
You must let go.
That is not to say let go of all watchfulness. But constant alertness is no longer of use. What still troubles you are the aftereffects, not actual threats.
So there is an order to these things.
First, a threat emerges. Then, hopefully, you eliminate the threat. After that, there is time to soothe the pain.
If something still holds you at gunpoint, tending to your wounds would be a mistake. If no one possibly could, it is a mistake not to.
The key is circumstance.
But finding peace is not only about recovery.
It is also about returning to life’s positive meaning. A lack of duties will allow you to enjoy life. Coming home, you register ordinary pleasures again.
When the storms fade, you can think clearly, love cleanly, and work without distractions.
Spontaneity, then, comes back into the picture.
Once again, there is room for intuition to guide your decisions. It is possible to do what you want rather than what you must. And even if you are tending to your obligations, you can let a natural flow carry the work.
You come to integrate what you learned and what you already knew.
Life’s beauty can drop in on you. Fighting was merely about surviving. Recovery was merely about returning to full strength.
But bliss is about transcending who you previously were. It makes things not just as good as before, but better.
Peace, ultimately, is the condition under which the world becomes likeable again.
So the reason people pursue inner peace is simple:
They want the negative to end and for the positive to (re)emerge. But to gain peace, they must first end the war. The only way to do that is to win it, which is not easy.
When you do, however, the turbulence does die down. And the light might reemerge.
Then, once again, life proves worth living.