Achieve Peace of Mind
To achieve contentment through peace of mind, you should start practicing the Buddhist way of life.
Start now and select any one of the 5 basic principles stated earlier, and conscientiously start to live within that principle, for a few minutes – say about 5 minutes – everyday. Commit to do this at the same time everyday. You can do this while continuing your normal life.
More Detailed Information
A look at how to live the Buddhist way of life.
>> The Buddhist Way of LifeA look at the general Buddhist way of life.
The five basic precepts (පන් සිල්)
- Refrain from killing.
- Refrain from stealing.
- Refrain from sexual misconduct that is unacceptable to good human society.
- Refrain from telling lies.
- Refrain from taking alcohol and other substances which give rise to the deferment of one’s deeds and duties.
When you continue with this you would also be training to control your mind. Do this for a few days. So say that you start with the first principle, “Refrain from killing”. You devote 5 minutes a day to live without killing.
The meaning of killing here is very explicit in that anything that is living is included. Killing an ant or an insect, or a fish, or a mosquito is also killing.
If during your devoted time, you find that your hand had moved and killed a mosquito, acknowledge the fact and do not think about that deed anymore. Then make up your mind again and continue within the principle. Refresh your determination to continue.
It truly is that simple to living the Bauddha (fn!oaO) way, the Buddhist way.
After some days of practicing living this way for a few minutes each day, you will find that you can extend this period, quite easily.
When you are comfortable within yourself to live within the bounds of the selected principle during the time period devoted for it, increase the duration, to say 10 minutes, 15 minutes etc until you are comfortable continuing for a relatively long duration. You will find that you are able to live your normal life without any hindrance while practicing this way of living.
At some point in time, you can decide to start on another principle, which you do 5 minutes a day as earlier, while continuing for the longer duration with the earlier practiced principles. This way, you can gradually expand your coverage to all 5 principles. And always remember to be determined to continue this way of living. If you had broken any of these principles, reassure yourself that this is the human nature and continue with a fresh determination.
After sometime you will find for yourself that your mind is at ease when living this way. And also, remember, not to give up when you find that you have broken any of these principles. Understand for yourself, that not adhering to these is normal human nature, and that you are in training your mind to live your selected way of living to achieve peace of mind and contentment. You are in the process of changing yourself from normal human nature to achieve something special.
You may find, that after about 1 year, (the duration depends on the strength of your determination) that you are quite comfortable to live within these 5 basic principles whilst accepting the fact that sometimes the principles get broken.
You will also find that with this training of your mind, your mind starts to alert you every time one of these principles is to be broken. Further down this path of living you will find for yourself that it will become difficult to break any of the basic principles. Your mind is trained to act as the policeman who stops you committing misdeeds.
When you have reached this level, you are well on your way to fully living the Buddhist way, possibly better than most people who claim to be Buddhist. You will find that you are happy and contented with peace of mind prevailing most of your time.
This is all there is to living the Buddhist way. There is no need to get converted to be a Buddhist. There is no need to go to the temples, etc. to live the Buddhist way. Training your mind to follow the right path is all that matters.
Now you are ready to go further down the path to contentment. At the end of the path is Nirvana, the all supreme blissful state that you must determine to reach, for within the Buddhist way of living, your ultimate goal must be to attain the state of Nirvana. You are the only one who can make the difference to the level of your contentment.
You have now realized that you are your own master. No one else can take away the contentment and the freedom that you enjoy from now on.
To continue further down this path refer to the other articles on the path to Nirvana (link) on this site.