COMPOSURE / PEACE / TRANQUILITY

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

When you realize where you come from,
you naturally become tolerant,
disinterested, amused,
kindhearted as a grandmother,
dignified as a king.
Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,
you can deal with whatever life brings you,
and when death comes, you are ready.
Laozi
570-490 BCE, Chinese Philosopher
Tao Te Ching: A New English Version , Stephen Mitchell, tr., 1988

The mind of the sage in repose becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.
Zhuangzi
c. 369-c. 286 BCE, Chinese Daoist Master, Philosopher, Comedian

The heart and mind can find peace and harmony by contemplating the transcendental nature of the true self as supreme effulgent light.
Patanjali
c. 200-150 BCE, Indian Philosopher, Writer
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even.
Horace
65-8 BCE, Roman Lyric Poet, Satirist

The mind is never right but when it is at peace with itself.
Seneca
c. 4 BCE-65 CE, Roman Philosopher, Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Rhetorician, Statesman

Heaven is calm and clear,
Earth is stable and peaceful.
Beings who lose these
Qualities die,
While those who emulate
Them live.
Calm spaciousness is the
House of spiritual light;
Open selflessness is the
Abode of the Way.
Huai-nan-tzu
1st Century BCE, Chinese Chan Master

When you are disturbed by events and lose your serenity, quickly return to yourself and don't stay upset longer than the experience lasts; for you'll have more mastery over your inner harmony by continually returning to it.
Marcus Aurelius
121-180, Roman Emperor, Stoic Philosopher
The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius , Mark Forstater, tr., 2000

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.
Marcus Aurelius

When water is pure and sparkling clear,
You see straight to the bottom
When your mind holds no concern,
No circumstance can turn you
And once your mind doesn't stray,
A kalpa has no changes.
From such awareness nothing hides.
Han-shan 'Cold Mountain'
fl. 730-850, Chinese Taoist Mystic, Poet

When you are inwardly empty and quiet, while outwardly detached from perception, you naturally attain penetrating experience of nonminding, which means that even if everything happens at once, that cannot disturb your spirit, and even though all kinds of troubles face you, that does not affect your thoughts.
Yuanwu Kekin
1063-1135, Chinese Chan Master
in Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom , Thomas Cleary, tr. & ed., 1989

Five enemies of peace inhabit with us – avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
Petrarch
1304-1374, Italian Poet

Those things that cause you inward peace, think upon deeply.
Thomas à Kempis
c.1380-1471, Dutch Theologian, Monk
The Imitation of Christ

A quiet mind cureth all.
Robert Burton
1577-1640, English Cleric, Mathematician, Astrologer
The Anatomy of Melancholy

Peace is not an absence of war. It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Spinoza
1632-1677, Dutch Philosopher, Theologian

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Thomas Jefferson
1743-1826, 3rd US President, Philosopher, Social Architect

Do not let trifles disturb your tranquility of mind … Life is too precious to be sacrificed for the nonessential and transient … Ignore the inconsequential.
Johann Richter
1763-1825, German Writer

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist, Philosopher
Essays, First Series , 1841

There is no joy but calm.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
1809-1892, English Lyric Poet

A small room in a tranquil cottage, daily walks and thoughtful talk, a little income and a few friends – these, and these only, suit a still and meditative mind.
Walter Bagehot
1826-1877, English Economist, Political Philosopher
Literary Studies , Vol. III

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace like the ticking of a clock during a thunderstorm.
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850-1894, Scottish Writer, Poet, Essayist

Herein lies the whole secret of existence. Waves may roll over the surface and tempest rage, but deep down there is the stratum of infinite calmness, infinite peace, and infinite bliss.
Vivekananda
1863-1902, Indian Guru, Writer
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 1984-1987 , 4:354

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
And make allowance for their doubting too.
Rudyard Kipling
1865-1936, English Writer
"If "

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.
Mahatma Gandhi
1869-1948, Indian Spiritual Leader

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
And remember what peace there may be in silence.
Max Ehrmann
1872-1945, German-American Lawyer, Poet
Desiderata , 1927

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
Robert Frost
1874-1963, American Poet

Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.
Rainer Maria Rilke
1875-1926, Czech-Austrian Poet

Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we stop spoiling it. We are not going to create peace anew. For instance, originally there is nothing but space in a room. We fill it up with various objects. If we want space, all we need do is remove all those objecrts, and we get space. In the same way, if we remove all the rubbish, all the thoughts, from our minds, peace will appear. What is obstructing the peace has to be removed. Peace is the only reality.
Ramana Maharshi
1879-1950, Indian Yogi
in A. Devaraja Mudaliar & Sri Ramanasramam, Day by Day with Bhagavan , 1977

Repose is the secret of all contemplation and meditation, the secret of getting in tune with that aspect of life which is the essence of all things. When one is not accustomed to taking repose, one does not know what is behind one's being.
Hazrat Khan
1882-1927, Indian Sufi Master, Musician
The Mysticism of Sound and Music , 1991

The Art of Peace begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace. Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow … Foster peace in your own life and then apply the Art to all that you encounter.
Morihei Ueshiba
1883-1969, Japanese Martial Artist, Founder of Aikido
The Art of Peace , John Stevens, tr., 1992

Inner calm is possible only when man is not disturbed by the vicissitudes of fortune.
Lin Yutang
1895-1976, Chinese Writer, Dramatist, Translator
The Importance of Living , 1937

When the mind is free from all its projections, there is a state of quietness in which problems cease, and then only the timeless, the eternal comes into being.
Krishnamurti
1895-1986, Indian Philosopher, Writer

To live peacefully every day means you have no nationality, religion, dogma, or authority. Peace means to love, to be kind; if you haven't that, then you are responsible for all the confusion.
Krishnamurti

Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.
Indra Devi
1899-2002, Russian Yogi, Writer

No one can achieve serenity until the glare of passion is past the meridian.
Cyril Connolly
1903-1974, English Literary Editor, Writer, Critic

Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself.
Shunryu Suzuki
1905-1971, Japanese Zen Master
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind , 1970

Heaven is where you'll be when you are okay right where you are.
Sun Ra
1914-1993, African-American Musician

Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.
Thomas Merton
1915-1968, American Trappist Monk, Writer

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
Thomas Szasz
1920-, Hungarian/American Psychiatrist, Writer

People say "I want peace." If you remove I (ego), and your want (desire), you are left with peace.
Sai Baba
1926-, Indian Mystic

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden, or even your bathtub.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
1926-, Swiss/American Psychiatrist, Thanatologist

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929-1968, African-American Civil Rights Leader, Cleric, 1964 Nobel Laureate

If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.
Marvin Gaye
1939-1984, African-American Singer, Songwriter

Go beyond the secret passages and the dark alleys and the ghost filled attics of your mind and you will discover that your essential being is full of peace.
Deepak Chopra
1947-, Indian/American Physician, Writer

Lao-tze said to cultivate
Tranquility and detachment.
To be natural means not to force things.
When you act natural, you get what you need,
But to know what is natural,
You have to cultivate tranquility.
Tehyi Hsieh

True inward quietness … is not vacancy, but stability; the steadfastness of a single purpose.
- Caroline Stephen

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Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, © 2004