Many years ago, I recollect reading Tony deMello's first words in his wonderful book, Awareness. He claimed that, in a world that is, apparently, gone mad, all is well. And he repeated the phrase all is well a few times for good measure. And I remember wondering: how can that be...

At this moment, we don't have to go far to learn that the world is in turmoil, full of conflict, even hatred. But we don't have to go to the world's trouble spots to discover turmoil... turmoil is everywhere: ordinary souls losing their living because large-scale investors want to turn a $ - or a few billion of them; people struggling to hold onto their homes; husbands abusing wives and vice versa... and the abuse of children.

But we don't even have to go that far to discover turmoil. We worry about money, about the future, about our own inadequacies. How many of us lie awake at night worrying about something that might be, that isn't there, that might never happen or that has and we can do nothing about it.

Turmoil starts in our head - like almost every other bad thing in this world - where did you think every single world conflict started? Turmoil starts inside and spills over into our lives and the lives of others. We can stop our own turmoil - you can stop yours right now if you really wanted to. The funny thing is that people seem to thrive on turmoil: people like being the first with bad news, I've heard people compete as to who could tell the most depressing story. People love negative gossip, people love a good crisis - sure what else would you talk about over your morning coffee?

But, as it turns out, deMello was right. At this moment, all is well. As I sit here typing these words, the birds are chirpping outside, I'm breathing in and out and it's wonderful. I have to deal with matters that I would prefer to not have to deal with - later today, later this week - but that's not now. I could sit here and worry about whether or not I'll have enough business to pay September's bills, but it's February, it's now. In this moment, I have everything I need for a perfect life. That is a fact of life, at this moment. The fact that, all too often, we don't realize this fact is what makes our lives incomplete, what leads to annoyance, stress, worry, fear and hatred... and we all know where that leads.

People love bad news. A couple of years ago, having a coffee in Dublin Airport as I waited to return home to France, I overheard four young people - in their twenties - compete with each other to tell the worst bad story. It started with one saying that he'd been at a funeral and how terrible it had been. The second piped up that he, too, had been at a funeral and discovered that the deceased's husband had just been diagnosed with cancer. The third, a girl, joined in by saying that half the people she knew were dying and the other half were being evicted from their homes by aggressive bankers. The fourth got up and walked away! Good for him.

Have a listen out for other people's conversations in public places - not to eavesdrop but to be entertained. It's awful stuff.

I've saved the best for last, though. Cast your mind back to August 2005 when New Orleans was inundated by Hurricane Katrina. As the floods hit, the city's Mayor suggested that 10,000 had perished. As the floods subsided a journalist acquaintance said to me "Isn't it afwul in New Orleans - less than 3,000 people died when we thought it was going to be 10,000".

I don't make this stuff up... how could I?