The Myth of Inner Peace Meditation and the Freedom of What Is

Uno spazio dove non ti viene chiesto nulla. Nessuna domanda, nessuna chat, nessun giudizio. Solo essere. We live in a world that feels like a constant assault on our senses. Between the aggressive noise of the street and the exhausting social masks we are forced to wear in public offices or during digital interactions, the body-mind feels overstimulated and perpetually out of place. We feel the pressure to be anxious because everyone else is anxious. We are told that if we aren't vibrating with the same frantic energy as the world around us, we are somehow broken or "unfit" for the range of modern life. Many turn to **inner peace meditation** as a way to escape this, treating it like a ladder to climb or a pill to take. We think that if we sit long enough or follow a specific technique, we will finally achieve a state of permanent calm. But who is the one trying to achieve? Who is the one sitting there waiting for a result? The separate self is always looking for a way to manipulate the present moment to satisfy its own desires. It wants the world to be organized according to its own sense of justice and comfort. It wants the red light to turn green, the elderly person blocking the road to move, and the office atmosphere to be less toxic. When we engage in **inner peace meditation** with a goal in mind, we are actually declaring war on reality. We are saying that what is happening right now—the heat, the noise, the flickering lights, the social pressure—is not enough. We create a "should be" in our heads and then suffer because the "is" doesn't match it. But we must ask ourselves: is the wave separate from the ocean? A vortex in a river might look like a distinct thing, but it is nothing but the water itself. Our perturbations, our anxieties, and even our resistance to the world are just movements of the absolute. In the daily grind of a public office or a crowded street, we often feel a distance between our metaphysical longing for unity and the mundane task of filling out forms or paying bills. We feel judged by others who see our quietness as a sign of being "slow" or "out of it." They might mock us, calling us "Zen masters" because we don't share their frantic pace. But the pressure they exert is nothing compared to the pressure they feel within themselves. Peace is contagious, even when others try to defend themselves against it with sarcasm. We often talk about "practicing" awareness, but let's be frank: you cannot practice what you already are. Seeking the absolute while being the absolute is like searching for the donkey while you are already riding it. We are so distracted by the "me" and its endless list of grievances that we miss the obvious. Liberation is never for the separate self; it is *from* the separate self. It is the realization that the "I" who wants to be taller, richer, or more peaceful is just a psychological function, a relational mode that tries to manage the environment.