Should Faith Provide Peace of Mind?
Question: “Should my faith help me to get peace of mind?”Answer: 2,500 years ago the Buddha taught that life is characterized by suffering – due to various causes such as old age, sickness and death. He also taught that everything in this phenomenal world is impermanent. Nothing lasts. In addition we desire things we can’t have, or we desire things we once had, but lost. We also must endure people or situations that we find unpleasant. Or we are separated from loved ones or things we find pleasurable. The Buddha also identified the cause of our suffering as not related to any of these external conditions, but caused by our own mind. Our mind clings and grasps at things that we think are pleasurable and we rejects that which we think is unpleasurable. So, the nature of our suffering is not external but caused by our own mind.
The Buddha taught that it is through meditation that we cut this clinging and grasping of our mind. For this reason Buddhism has sometimes been referred to as a “science of the mind.” Therefore, from the Buddhist perspective finding peace of mind is up to each one of us individually. It is a not something that is bestowed upon us from some divine source, but rather is a do-it-yourself job. It is through meditation that we can recognize our own innate basic goodness and it is there where we find peace of mind – which is available in every moment.
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