The following is a passage cited from the novel "Eyeless in Gaza", by Aldous Huxley (p.471,72) which I have also (see PI) converted into a poem for its natural prosaic eloquence on immaterial matters such as attempting to describe "peace".
United in peace.
In peace,
he repeated,
in peace, in Peace.
In the depth of every mind,
Peace
The same space for all,
continuous between
mind and mind
At the surface,
the separate waves,
the whirlpools, the spray;
but below them
the continuous and undifferentiated expanse of the sea,
becoming calmer
as it
deepens,
till at last there is an absolute stillness...
Dark peace
in the depths.
A dark peace
that is the same for all who can
descend
to
it.
Peace, that by a strange paradox
is the substance and source of the storm at the surface.
Born of peace,
the waves yet destroy peace; destroy it,
but are necessary;
for without the storm
on the surface
there would be no existence,
no knowledge of goodness,
no effort to allay the leaping frenzy of evil,
no rediscovery of the underlying calm,
no realization that
the substance of the frenzy,
is the same as
the substance of Peace.
Frenzy of evil and separation.
In Peace there is Unity.
Unity with other lives.
Unity with all Being.
Freedom from Truth.
The truth of unity.
Peace in the profound subaqueous night,
Peace in this silence,
this still emptiness
where there is no more time,
where there are no more images,
no more words...
Image of painting by Marcus Larson (1825-1864) "Stormy Sea" (1857) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
