The Pleasure of Peace

The Lord Buddha taught, N'atthi santi param sukham: No other pleasure is greater than peace. What this means is that there are other pleasures, such as the pleasure of watching a play or a movie, mixing with society, having a spouse, the pleasure of gaining wealth, status, and praise. These things are actual pleasures — but they all contain hidden stress, they all require continual contriving, adjustment, and repair — which is where they differ from the pleasure that comes from peace, a pleasure that is cool and tranquil, without any hidden pain, without any need for a great deal of contriving — a pleasure that is easily attained, right here in our own body and mind. We can give rise to it while sitting alone in a quiet place or while surrounded by society, as long as we have a sense of how to make a separation, inclining the heart toward the pleasure of peace so that while the body may be involved in turmoil, the turmoil doesn't reach into the heart.
Even when we are seriously ill, with pain racking the entire body, if we have a sense of how to put the mind in the pleasure of peace, the pain won't be able to disturb the mind.
And once the mind is calm — it can calm the body and cure its pain, at the same time experiencing the pleasure of peace — and there is no greater pleasure.
The Lord Buddha taught us to practice in three ways:
To begin with, he taught us to put our words and deeds at peace through virtue, not allowing any gross faults or dishonesty to arise in word or deed.
He taught us to give rise to the pleasure of peace in the heart through concentration, training the mind not to think thoughts of lust, anger, greed, delusion, fear, restlessness, or uncertainty — things that make the mind irresolute and indecisive. Once these things can be abandoned, the heart is calm, giving rise to the pleasure of peace within.
He taught us to put our views at peace through discernment, reflecting so as to see that:
All things are undependable and inconstant (aniccam).
They can't last. They must alter, deteriorate, and disband. (Thus they are said to be dukkham, or stressful.)
They don't lie under our power or control. We can't force them or plead with them to follow our wishes. (Thus they are said to be anatta or not-self.)
When we see these truths, the mind becomes strong, resilient, stable, and resolute, unaffected by events — because we have seen the truth, with our own discernment, that such things are undependable and unstable; that they have to change, deteriorate, and disband; that they don't lie under our power.
Don't waste your strength of mind trying to force them. Keep the mind free and stable at all times, unaffected by events — and this will keep the mind firmly established in the pleasure of peace.
The mind will be free and gain power — mind power — which we can use to make all our duties and affairs succeed in accordance with our goals.
N'atthi santi param sukham:
No other pleasure is greater than peace.
It takes a peaceful mind to support a peaceful body, and a peaceful body to support a peaceful mind; and both a peaceful mind and a peaceful body to attain all the success that you wish.

by Chao Khun Nararatana Rajamanit (Tryk Dhammavitakko),

translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, 7 June 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/nararatana/iridescence.html . Retrieved on 27 October 2011.