Questioner: Sir, where does the mind get power from?
Acharya Prashant: Power is always in the context of doing something, achieving something, acting upon something.
What does the mind want?
Peace.
So, all the power that the mind has is directed towards getting peace. What can reach peace? Can disturbance reach peace? So, surely the mind is powered by peace itself.
Q: Can we call peace an energy?
AP: No. Peace is not an energy.
Q: Force?
AP: Force? No, the Peace has no ‘force’ as such.
Force, again, means movement, displacement. Peace is rather a settlement, a stopping.
Peace is neither energy nor force. Energy means change; Peace means non-movement.
A center that is relaxed and settled. Yes, when you are relaxed and settled, then from that relaxed and settled state, a lot of energy flows. But that energy is just something that happens in peace; it is not peace.
Q2: Sir, we say that the mind is powered by peace, but can disturbance reach peace? Then, what is the solution?
AP: Go back to fundamentals—do you need to reach there?
Q2: No.
AP: You are?
Q2: In peace.
AP: Just stop believing otherwise.
Q: Is peace a unity?
AP: Silence. Far better than that.
You see, even when we say 'unity', there is always something outside that unity, is there not? When you say 'unity', you probably mean oneness. But, even if you say oneness, it will have a definition, which means whatever does not conform to that definition is outside unity or Oneness. So, it is not really unity; not really Oneness.
There are two. What? One, which is inside the definition; the second, which is outside the definition. So, where is the question of unity, oneness? There are already two.
Q3: Is there a unity in duality?
AP: Yes, there is, of course. In non-duality, non-duality and duality are one, of course. Non-Duality means no differences, if there are no differences then how can Non-Duality be different from Duality? So, non-duality and duality...
In non-duality, non-duality and duality are one.
Non-Duality means no differences, if there are no differences then how can Non-Duality be different from Duality? So, non-duality and duality too are one. There is that unity, yes. But that unity does not mean that both non-duality and duality are something.
They are one and nothing.
They are the same.
Same, in the sense that they are both nothing.
That is non-duality, perfect non-duality.
In the office you are Mr. Nice; in front of the wife you are Mr. Submissive; then in the bar you will be the most raucous and unmanageable drinker, breaking bottles, throwing tantrums, inviting brawls.
Questioner: If positive and negative, good and bad, beauty and ugliness are all a matter of personal perspective, then can universal positivity, universal goodness, or universal beauty exist? If it is the majority that decides, then is the majority the judge of the deeds to be done by one in…
Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, what is the purpose of life if death comes and the body is born again and again?
Acharya Prashant (AP): When do worries exist?
Q: When you are scared.
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