I just came back from three months at the Bright Path Ishaya retreat in Spain. Waking up this morning in my little cottage in the UK is different, but wonderful. There was a real sense of peace and serenity and aliveness on the mountain there in Spain.
But you know what? There is here in North Yorkshire too.
While waiting for our lift to the airport I read the last chapter of an autobiography of a guy who went to live besides a river in India to find his peace.
He returns back to the west after years and years of spiritual study and practice and instantly freaks out. The noise, the yelling, the traffic,the consumerism, the drunkenness, the sex.
He completely loses it, becomes a gibbering wreck until he manages to stumble upon a meditation centre - to him, an oasis of sacredness in the midst of a city of the profane.
How sad.
He's completely missed the point of all of his practice. He's created a mood, an idea that peace and clarity is only available when the world looks a certain way. When I'm by my river, then there is peace. When I'm on my mountain retreat, then there is peace.
Life is out there, continually knocking at your door. You cannot avoid it forever. You cannot make it look the way you want it to all the time.
But peace is everywhere, no matter what, if you know how to tap into it.
In reality there is nothing that is not worthy of love.
All this time you've been looking for peace, it has been within you - and it will be, forever more.
Life transforms when you realise this. The circumstances of life don't give you peace, you bring peace to life - regardless of the circumstances.
Permanent peace, freedom and happiness is an inside job.
It may take practice to realise this, but it is the only reality in town.