The last session I attended at the PoP conference was about the question “Why aren’t we already peaceful.” Paul posted it, and frankly I’m not really sure if he was seriously pondering the question himself, or if he maybe posted it because he thought it was a question we needed to look at.

Anyway, the discussion steadily circled around to the fact that in order for you to be at peace, you must start with yourself. If you expect peace to be some external, perfect and permanent state that you will attain once all war, conflict and suffering has disappeared from the plant, then you will never be peaceful. If you want to be at peace, you must find a way to be so in the presence of all these things.

Here’s my answer: You will be at peace, when you believe that the world is exactly as it should be. This doesn’t mean that you can’t work to improve things, it just means that you acknowledge and appreciate the world for what it is right now. When you believe that you can be peaceful, and when you’re peaceful, you can work much more effectively to change the world.