Inner awesomeness

Po, our favorite “Kung Fu Panda” hero, is back with twice his awesomeness and hunger (literally) for justice. In his new adventure, the Dragon Warrior battles Shen, a power-hungry peacock.

As one wades through the thickening plot of wit, humor and amazing fight scenes and the terrifying sound of Po’s growling tummy, one realizes that both hero and villain aren’t really that much different from each other: they are each trying to mend a wounded past.

(WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER) Po and Shen are wrestling to regain their identities, but they employ different and radical tactics. Shen wishes to eradicate every fiber of kung fu (a symbol of culture and tradition) by using the power of technology and terror.

Po, on the other hand, faces his inner conflict with inner peace. Our hero’s approach doesn’t only heal the scars of the past, but also gives him the ultimate power to prevail against the wicked plot of Shen to conquer all China. Inner peace is the true source of awesomeness! Peace allows us to really conquer life’s trials and challenges.

Moral: without inner peace, man is incapable of possessing himself and therefore does not have an identity. A tranquil lake is a metaphor of peace that allows one to focus (a lesson stressed in “Kung Fu Panda” part I) and clearly see his reflection upon it. In a more profound manner, peace is that inner dynamic disposition that gives one the strength—stemming from self-knowledge—to give oneself and guide others.

But what robs us of our peace? Here are some peace-depleting elements that are rooted in overindulgence or trust in material-temporal things.

• Disordered Material Security—when one is overly concerned or worried solely about possessing material things (e.g., falling into greed, envy, vanity and anger). The person bases his identity and relationships on earthly things. One can never have true peace this way since material things do not last and their value shifts. People with this disorder are often fearful of not having things, of losing possessions. They are insecure that others may have more or better things.

• Unrealistic Expectations—Our attachment to ideas of how things or people ought to be can also remove our peace. This is an individual’s desire to impose his standards upon situations or persons. When life gets complicated and when things turn out differently, etc., one gets frustrated, anxious and angry. Peace is once again extinguished.

• Psychological-temperamental States—Because of their psychological or temperamental states, there are individuals who may not find it easy to achieve an inner peace. These objective conditions, although not absolute determinants of one’s peace of soul, may cause insecurities and complexes that make it hard to obtain and maintain tranquility.

These examples may be the major causes that prevent peace in the person. But since peace or soul-serenity is an inner state, then what can greatly remove it must also come from within. In fact, some of the previous examples are nothing more than externalizations of inner disorders that empty us of our soul-peace. What is the deeper cause of unpeace?

• Moral Misdirection—This is usually called sin, a precarious condition of man’s disordered choices that make him stray from what is truly fitting or fulfilling for his nature. Man was created for a particular end, for perfection and happiness. When he freely chooses to veer away from his true end, he experiences unpeace.

Man’s interiority is hardwired for happiness and perfection such that any thought, word or action of his that runs contrary to his natural fulfillment is sure to remove his inner peace. When he is bent on this crooked path, he develops a callous attitude to absorb and camouflage his “state of unpeace,” and attempts to annul this void by wallowing in the external and short-lived pleasures of vice.

The intelligent Designer of our nature seemed to have been aware of this possibility: of man’s capacity to rationalize and justify even that which is contrary to the good and perfection of his nature. Thus, these moral parameters have been further outlined in concrete norms or commandments to avoid the danger of falling into moral relativism.

What therefore can give us inner peace?

Jaques Philippe says: “One cannot enjoy a profound and durable peace if he is far from God, if his inmost will is not entirely oriented toward Him. ‘You made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.’ (Saint Augustine) A necessary condition for interior peace, then, is what we might call goodwill. We could also call it purity of heart. It is the stable and constant disposition of a person who is determined more than anything to love God, who desires sincerely to prefer in all circumstances the will of God to his own, who does not wish to consciously refuse anything to God.” (Searching for and Maintaining Peace)

Goodwill is what opens and unites our hearts to do God’s will and not our own. Good will is what will gradually lead us away from the false luster of worldly goods and pleasure to trust in God. Goodwill will sustain us to pray, make sacrifices and serve God and neighbor out of love.

It is not strange therefore that the angels sang in Bethlehem the promise of peace to men of goodwill. It is men of this sort that will truly possess God, themselves and true awesomeness.