Inner Peace

Buddhist and Hindu terms

In Buddhist texts, equanimity (Pali upekkha) is listed as the fourth of the four brahmaviharas, or boundless states, alongside loving-kindness, compassion and sympathetic joy. A translation of the Mettam Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 46.54) by Maurice Walshe presents the list and adds a note that distinguishes equanimity as an enlightenment factor from equanimity as a brahmavihara, a difference the note places in the mode of attainment.

In Hindu sources, the word shanti (peace) is tied to invocations. A magazine article on Upanishad study, published by a Hindu monastic order and drawing on commentary attributed to Swami Chinmayananda, states that each Upanishad opens with a blessing followed by a triple repetition of shanti called the Shanti Pada. The article reports that the acharyas explain the three repetitions as addressing three kinds of obstacle: divine, natural and inner. This is an adherent account.

Greek philosophical schools

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Stoicism reports that the Stoics held that the virtuous agent has no passions, so that the happy life is entirely passion-free (apathes). Passions are defined there as excessive impulses, or movements of the soul contrary to reason, and are treated as false judgments. The same entry says the Sage still has good feelings (eupatheiai) and is not an unfeeling robot. The portions reviewed do not use the word ataraxia.

The entry on ancient skepticism ties ataraxia, freedom from disturbance, to Pyrrhonian skepticism instead. It states that the skeptic's goal is tranquility in matters of belief, reached after investigating conflicting views, finding them equally balanced and suspending judgment. The entry notes that Timon and Aenesidemus described the outcome differently and that scholars still debate the role tranquility plays in Pyrrhonism.

Christian and Quaker stillness

The Orthodox Church in America states that hesychia means silence and describes hesychasm as a prayer practice centered on repeating the name of Jesus. It reports that Gregory Palamas (1296 to 1359), a monk of Mount Athos, defended the practice from 1337 against Barlaam, a monk who came to Constantinople in 1330 and denied that humans can have direct communion with God.

A Quaker study unit hosted by Quakers in Ireland describes the silent meeting for worship as the fundamental shared experience of the Quaker way. It says Friends seek a communal gathered stillness in which they can be open to inspiration and to finding peace of mind. The unit separates this from solitary meditation, describing the silence as a shared seeking of the Divine.

Daoist wu wei

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Daoism discusses the Laozi slogan wu wei (usually rendered as non-action or doing nothing) and calls it paradoxical, describing the early text as a form of primitivist quietism. The entry says the mature Zhuangzi text avoids a self-defeating quietism. The portions reviewed do not describe wu wei as a state of inner peace, so this page does not equate the two.

Inner peace and peace of mind

Inner peace is an everyday English phrase, not a technical term in any one tradition. In psychology, a related construct called peace of mind has been measured with a short self-report instrument, the Peace of Mind Scale. A 2025 study describes it as a measure of inner harmony, and a separate study treats peace of mind and mature happiness as related but distinct constructs.

Equanimity is not indifference

A 2014 article in Mindfulness by Desbordes and colleagues defines equanimity as an even-minded mental state or tendency toward all experiences, regardless of whether they are pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. It says classical Buddhism distinguishes equanimity from mindfulness, and that equanimity is not cold indifference or suppression of emotion. Walshe's translation note makes a similar choice of words, stating that equanimous is a rare word in modern English but less misleading than indifferent.

The 2014 article also says that most existing scales lack a theoretical framework and that there is no common agreement on the construct of equanimity. A 2025 paper adapting the Equanimity Scale-16 into Hindi describes equanimity as psychological stability and composure, especially under stress.

Terms that are not interchangeable

The terms above come from different systems and carry different meanings. Upekkha is a Buddhist boundless state, shanti is a Hindu word for peace used in invocations, apatheia is the Stoic freedom from passions, ataraxia is the Pyrrhonian freedom from disturbance, hesychia is Orthodox Christian silence, and Quaker stillness is communal waiting. Each source describes its own setting, and this page does not merge them into one doctrine.

Meditation and retreat settings

Desbordes and colleagues describe meditation techniques used in Buddhist-derived contemplative training to cultivate equanimity and propose it as an outcome in contemplative research. A 2024 study of six-day insight (Vipassana) retreats recorded peak meditative experiences, including what the authors call deep and unusual peace, among retreat participants. Machipedia pages on Meditation, Mindfulness, Zen Meditation (Zazen), Transcendental Meditation and Breathwork cover individual practices and their evidence separately.

Prayer, worship and study

The Orthodox Church in America describes the Jesus Prayer as a prayer said silently with the breath in hesychast prayer, as continual prayer in daily work, and as a brief prayer to resist temptation. It says the fathers describe inner joy and peace as accompanying the practice, while stating that the aim is service of God, not producing experiences. In Quaker worship, Friends gather in silence without a set liturgy. Hindu teaching settings open study with the Shanti Pada. The Machipedia page on Spiritual Direction covers guidance by a trained companion.

Everyday and wellness use

The sources reviewed do not document how inner peace is used in yoga classes, retreat advertising or wellness products, so this page makes no claims about marketing practice. Machipedia pages on Yoga and Relaxation Techniques describe those practices on their own sources. Psychologists use the related terms equanimity and peace of mind as measured variables in studies of students, adults and patients, as described under research.

What traditions say the state offers

The Orthodox Church in America reports that hesychast fathers describe union with God, a sense of divine light, and inner joy and peace, and that the Quaker unit states that Friends value silence as a way to sense the Divine and to find release from fear, anxiety and emotional confusion. Stoic sources, as summarized in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, present a passion-free life as the happy life, and Pyrrhonian sources present tranquility as the goal that follows suspension of judgment. These are the traditions' own claims and were not tested in the studies reviewed here.

Psychological framing

Desbordes and colleagues propose that equanimity may capture potentially the most important psychological element in the improvement of well-being, and that it should be a focus of future research. This is a proposal in a conceptual article. The authors state that the neuroimaging and physiological studies they reviewed were not designed to investigate equanimity itself.

Measuring equanimity and peace of mind

A 2025 longitudinal study of 330 undergraduates and working adults tested a six-item Peace of Mind Scale after removing one item. Scores showed moderate inverse relationships with stress and predicted well-being two weeks later, although a related mature happiness scale predicted well-being beyond peace of mind. A 2025 cross-sectional study of 336 Chinese college students found peace of mind associated with psychological well-being and mediating links from gratitude and reappraisal. The cross-sectional design limits conclusions about direction.

For equanimity, the Hindi adaptation of the Equanimity Scale-16 reported an internal consistency of 0.725 in 83 participants who were fluent in Hindi and English. Desbordes and colleagues report that physiological evidence includes a single case study of one experienced monk and that many findings come from small samples of experienced meditators.

Meditation trials and reviews

A 2014 systematic review and meta-analysis by Goyal and colleagues included 47 randomized trials with 3,515 participants. It found moderate evidence that mindfulness meditation programs improved anxiety (effect size 0.38 at 8 weeks and 0.22 at 3 to 6 months), depression and pain, low or insufficient evidence for other outcomes including positive mood and sleep, and no evidence that meditation programs were better than active treatments.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health summarizes later reviews as mixed, with a 2021 analysis finding mixed short-term results and no long-term effects in the few studies following participants beyond two months. These outcomes concern anxiety, depression and pain, not inner peace as such.

Cultural differences in valued calm

Jeanne Tsai's 2007 review in Perspectives on Psychological Science compared American and East Asian cultures and reported that they differ in how much they value high-arousal positive states such as excitement and low-arousal positive states such as calm and peacefulness. A 2017 review by Tsai states that European Americans typically want high-arousal states more, while East Asians want low-arousal states more, and that cultural factors shape ideal affect more than actual affect.

Tsai's 2017 review also reports that greater discrepancies between ideal and actual affect were correlated with more depression and that valuing negative affect reduced its harmful impact on health. These are associations from the studies discussed.

Limits of measuring peace

The sources reviewed do not include a randomized trial testing whether a practice produces inner peace as an outcome, and the searches run (PubMed and web searches for equanimity, peace of mind and inner peace with trial and review terms) found no systematic review of inner peace itself. Whether a calm state reported on a questionnaire corresponds to the states described in religious texts is not addressed by these studies, and the metaphysical or religious claims of the traditions are not testable by them.

Adverse meditation experiences

Lindahl and colleagues interviewed Western Buddhist meditators and experts in Theravada, Zen and Tibetan traditions in 2017 and described 59 meditation-related experiences across seven domains. They reported that valence ranged from very positive to very negative and that distress and functional impairment ranged from minimal and transient to severe and enduring.

A 2021 study by Britton and colleagues of 96 people in an eight-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy program found that 83 percent reported at least one meditation-related side effect. Adverse effects with negative valence or negative impact on functioning occurred in 58 percent and 37 percent of the sample, and lasting bad effects in 6 to 14 percent, associated with signs of dysregulated arousal such as hyperarousal and dissociation. The authors concluded that rates of transient distress were similar to other psychological treatments. The 2024 retreat study found unpleasant peak experiences at similar rates in retreat participants and matched controls and reported that their impact was typically more salutary than adverse at two weeks, so findings differ between designs.

Suppression and dismissing distress

Desbordes and colleagues state that equanimity does not mean suppressing emotions. Tsai reports that valuing negative affect reduced its harmful impact on health and that gaps between ideal and actual feelings were associated with more depression. The sources reviewed did not study whether telling a distressed person to be at peace has harmful effects, so this page makes no claim about that practice beyond what these authors state.

The Orthodox Church in America states that the Jesus Prayer should not be used without a guide and without humility and sanity, that postural and breathing techniques were curtailed after some people harmed their health, and that seeking spiritual pleasure is a danger. It also says prayer does not excuse idleness, so duties remain part of life.

When to seek care

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states that meditation and mindfulness are generally seen as low-risk but have been studied too little for firm safety claims, and it cites a 2020 review of 83 studies in which about 8 percent of participants had a negative effect, most often anxiety and depression. It advises that meditation should not replace conventional medical care or delay seeing a health care provider about a health problem. Persistent anxiety, low mood, dissociation or distress after a contemplative practice calls for professional assessment rather than further practice alone.