Eckhart Tolle’s work teaches us his perspective on how to live a spiritually centred life. He has written many books and shared teachings on dealing with grief, living in the moment or ”the now” and the benefits to be found in practicing stillness and meditation, and living a spiritual existence. He explains the mental pain caused by living in memories of the past, and the difficulties we bring to our lives by focusing on dreams for the future.
When you live in either the past or the future, and compares this to the relief found than the past or future, and the benefits found in embracing our spirituality. I love the way he reminds us that we are spiritual beings having a human experience and that in this knowledge, there is immense psychological freedom. The understanding of this concept is life changing in that it reminds us that this journey is but a step or a single lesson in our evolution. Which you can interpret as; you have a thousand of these lives to lead – so don’t sweat the small stuff. It is an instant perspective changer. Everyone you talk to will tell you that they find their view of their life different if contemplating that they have many thousand more lives to lead.
The other assurance we receive is that in our return to spirit, we re-connect to all those we truly love. This is not just an affirmation that those who have passed will be in our lives again, it is also to be understood that those with whom we have had difficult personal and romantic relationships with will be reconciled and embraced again. Therefore that all heartache is temporary also, and that all loves will indeed become ‘true love’ relationships at that point of leaving behind the human life and returning to spirit.
Tolle’s work is inspiring and full of rewards. There is depth and teaching in every sentence… an example is below, the excerpt from Tolle is in bold type. I have put an interpretation below each sentence in brackets, of the value I found in each sentence. You can see clearly here how much wisdom he has to offer us all. He is a great spiritual teacher… his perspective on dealing with grief or emotional pain is invaluable.
Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behaviour.
(you are more than an earthbound spirit. look at your human self and think about them. they are a part of you…. but you are more than this existence)
You are beneath the thinker.
(The thinker is your human-self, a facet of who you are. You have a physical body, and a human mind, but these are not the sum or total of who you are. You are the higher consciousness that has the ability to think about yourself – the spirit)
You are the stillness beneath the mental noise.
(You are spirit, the human experience is just that “an experience”; an episode in your existence. Allow this to influence the level of emotional upheaval or drama that you attribute to your experiences, whether positive or negative.)
You are the love and joy beneath the pain.
Your pain is transitory and human and a part of the ephemeral experience you are having, your soul or higher self is free from this – connect here, and experience freedom from painful emotions.
-Eckhart Tolle