Inner Peace

I like the Kung Fu Panda movies, but they have no idea what "inner peace" is. In the first movie, there is a scene in which Master Shifu is meditating to the mantra of "inner peace," but his "peace" keeps getting disturbed by a sound that is almost impossible to hear unless you turn the volume up significantly higher than it would normally be set. I would have thought that, after years of training, Master Shifu would be able to block out such quiet distractions and maintain his "inner peace," but perhaps I shouldn't be too hard on him. After all, I'm still trying to develop the ability to maintain my peace and patience despite frequent, irritating distractions.

In life, there will always be turmoil. There will always be problems and irritations to bother us, and many people, myself included, find it difficult to remain peaceful sometimes. Fortunately, there are ways to find a true inner peace, a peace that endures despite external problems. I don't know how much faith I put in meditation, but I've heard good things about it and I believe that it's a close cousin to prayer. Spending a few moments in prayer and/or meditation, perhaps with some relaxing music playing in the background, can help one calm their soul and find inner peace.

Now, one may say that seeking inner peace isn't very productive. After all, staying calm isn't going to solve the world's problems. And I agree that meditating through a crisis, hoping that it all just blows over, isn't a practical solution. However, finding and maintaining inner peace can help you find a solution. Master Oogwa, Master Shifu's teacher, explained this with an analogy. He compared Shifu's mind to a reflection pool. When the water was agitated, the ripples distorted the reflection, making it difficult to see clearly, but when the water was still, the reflection was smooth and clear, like a mirror. Merely finding peace won't solve all your problems, but it may help you clearly see the solutions.

I don't think people are at their most productive when they're angry or irritated, and I don't think they're at their best when they're easily distracted and annoyed. If we really want to solve our problems, we would do well to remain calm and try to think things through clearly, not letting the storms of life distract us or disturb our peace. I don't know if any of the characters in Kung Fu Panda learned to master this kind of inner peace other than Master Oogwa, but we can, and it may help us solve our problems if we do.