When you believe in things you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way

Is there any other form of belief than that in which we don’t understand? Isn’t that what belief is? All the things we believe are things we don’t know. And if we don’t know something, then we can’t fully understand it.

Examine your beliefs—religion, politics, etiquette, education, how to raise kids, how to do dishes, guns, terrorism, health, science, relationships, war—they are everywhere. Our whole lives are guided by them. And we suffer; we’re very superstitious, us humans.

How do we suffer? We argue, for one. Arguments can get ugly fast. You know what we call really big arguments? War. But all arguments are a form of warfare, and all of them—every single one—are based on belief. Think about it: there are universal truths, and everything else is belief. If it’s a universal truth, there can be no arguing about it: it’s universal. If it’s not universal, then it’s not true for everyone; and if it’s not true for everyone, then how can it be true? Truth is absolute.

How else do we suffer for our beliefs? We defend them. There are many people in the Middle East right now laying down their lives for their beliefs. Every willing soldier in every war in history has put their lives on the line for the same reason. Again: war.

Examine your beliefs: can you find one that you are not willing—in some small way—to go to war over? Even if it’s just in your mind, even if it’s just that muttering under your breath, or that nasty thought that keeps repeating itself in your mind; even if it’s one of those imagined dialogs, or a thump of your fist on the table—it doesn’t matter, any thought of attack, no matter how small, is an act of war. We are fighting for our beliefs all the time.

War has an opposite. It is still, it is silent, it is completely forgiving: it is peace. Peace is the expression of truth. Peace has no need or desire to fight; peace just is.

And because it is the expression of truth—of universal truth—it is the one thing we all have in common. Within every single one of us lies pure, unadulterated peace. (That’s a tautology, by the way: peace is pure, and cannot be adulterated.) Wouldn’t it be good to be in the place where universal truth resides? To experience that is to know, to truly understand, to not suffer.

Give yourself the opportunity to find it. To do so requires stillness. And it means giving up all your cherished beliefs, but is that such a sacrifice when the reward is so great?

Be in peace.