Finding Serenity

What is spiritual serenity, and how does one get to such an enlightened place? I’ve put forth this question many times throughout my life, and I’ve also had it asked of me. People hear what I do for a living and they immediately assume I walk around chanting Buddhist chants, or waving sage throughout my sacred space 24 hours a day. If only!

I don’t have the answers any more than the next person does. There are some things I have learned and seen, as I am sure I have yet more to learn and see. It is an endless cycle of not knowing and then knowing, the same cycle we all go through. The same lessons. It is only in how we apply them that we become different. We grow differently and start to use parts of ourselves that perhaps someone else, who is growing ‘at their own pace’ may not be using yet. And that is okay.

Let us accept the invitation, ever-open, from the Stillness, taste its exquisite sweetness, and heed its silent instruction ~ Paul Brunton

In my experience, serenity begins where non-acceptance leaves off. So much in this life (and the next) is beyond our control. The sooner we learn this, and the sooner we accept this, the sooner it becomes part of the very fibers of our being. Indeed it becomes a way of being and this is one step closer to that place of serenity we all seem to seek.

Some knowingly seek serenity, while others only have a feeling about something they cannot name yet, but they know it is there. The truth, if it be known, is that serenity has never been lost. It is not some elusive prize that is only given out to the most deserving, or those who have searched within themselves the longest. That would be a false state of affairs and true serenity is never false.

Picture your most treasured childhood memory, if you had a good childhood and felt loved and supported throughout. If you didn’t have that blessing, then picture an adult memory of something that has brought you great pleasure, be it a person, place or event. It could be a loved one, or it could be a sunset – it is the feeling you are after.

Imagine we could bottle feelings! Being in a state of serenity is kind of like that. You have your feelings and emotions there at hand, where you can access them at any time. You rule over them, not the other way around. This is serenity. It is no longer being buffeted around in a wild sea of unfulfilled longings or dreams that haven’t come true.

True serenity is therefore no longer being at the mercy of your emotions, which can really lead down scary mental roads at times. I feel nauseous just thinking about it. Being serene means that no matter what life itself throws your way, you ride it like a champion surfer rides a North Shore wave – with confidence, as you are at one with the flow of life.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life ~  Epictetus

Serenity is when you long for nothing, when you know everything comes your way – as long as you do your part with the flow if life, which is so easy to do.

Want to know the secret? Get up. Yes. Wake up each morning or night, or several times if you like to nap, but just get up. And live! If you live, then life can take care of itself. You will always be in the right place, at the right time, and maybe sometimes the wrong place, at the wrong time, but that is when your serenity kicks in, because you are naturally observant, it comes with being in a serene state.

Learning to simply live and let live can be a daunting task at first. It demands that you give up control. But I promise you it’s worth the journey, because, you see, you’ll eventually come right back to yourself and find out the serenity was inside you all along. It’s known as coming full circle.