The problem with inner peace is that it’s really just resignation. It’s giving up. It’s refusing to accept responsibility for one’s actions by refusing to accept that one can act. It’s the epitome of passivity.
Consider the following “symptoms of inner peace”.
“A tendency to think and act spontaneously“—That is, without careful deliberation, without thorough consideration. So when one thinks at all, one’s thought will necessarily be superficial and shallow. Actually, perhaps one won’t think at all; after all, to “act spontaneously” is to do so without thinking. So how, exactly, does one ‘think spontaneously’? The rest of the item provides no help: “…rather than on fears based on past experience“. Past experience is what guides us (at least those of us who are rational): the last time we put our hand on a hot stove, it hurt—so the bright ones among us stopped doing that. Granted, if we use only the fears of our past experience, we are being a bit lopsided, but that doesn’t seem to be the point being made here.
“Loss of interest in judging other people“— So that’s how an actor got to be president of the most powerful country on earth! Could account for a lot of those battered wives too. D’ya suppose they’re feeling innerly peaceful? (I’ll bet they have “frequent attacks of smiling“.)
“Loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others“—This pretty much goes hand in hand with the previous one: if you’re not going to judge, there’s no point in interpreting. Though for the life of me, I can’t see how failing to interpret the actions of someone who is loading and aiming a gun at my friend will lead to my inner peace.
“An increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen”—This one says it all. A complete abdication of responsibility. Que sera sera. If someone blows up the world, well hey, stuff happens.
There you have it. Inner Peace. Aka Resignation. If you don’t care about X or Y, losing X or seeing Y hurt won’t bother you. And an unbothered person is a peaceful person. Don’t worry, be happy.
But a peaceful person is an uncaring person: it’s the absence of inner peace, the presence of frustration, anger, and disappointment that is a measure of one’s caring. The more one cares about X or Y, the more one will be agitated, not at peace, if one loses X or sees Y hurt.
The only thing that makes sense of all this inner peace crap is the belief that someone else, perhaps someone more qualified, is being thoughtful, judgemental, and active. Hm. Could it be God? Well, yes it could. That’s why we don’t have to worry about anything: God will take care of it, what will be will be by God’s will.
The problem with this is that there are no gods.
So the route to inner peace is the route to death. Not thinking, not judging, not interpreting, not acting—sounds a lot like the comatose, who, without someone else to be responsible for them, would die. (And when’s the last time you saw God change a catheter?)
