Beneath
the Turmoil
“To know
yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness
underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is
freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”
Eckhart
Tolle
I set out to write about
surrender this morning. About being here now and accepting the world
as it is instead of judging it. I felt a lot of resistance about
doing that. Surrender is a painful word for most of us, unless that
surrender is to love and relationship. I find that I, and most of the
people I know, are looking for peace of mind at this time, but we are
not quite ready for surrender.
Spending a few minutes in
stillness, sensing what is underneath all the worldly concerns is
helpful in finding peace in our fast-paced world. Instead of speeding
up to match it, we can sit and be still and get underneath all the
fretting that is going on inside our heads, and in the world. There
is a floating level of consciousness that lies beneath all the
turmoil, and if you can get there even for a few minutes, it proves
exceptionally calming. I am reminded of the words of Julian of
Norwich, which came during one of her near-death visions. Jesus
explained to her that hardship ("sin") is necessary in the world, but “all
shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
Being here now, making
reality the center of your awareness, is how things change. We can't
change anything simply by staying holed-up grouching and complaining.
Eckhart Tolle says it this way, “Realize deeply that the present
moment is all you ever have. Make it the primary focus of your life.”
If there is something you don't like about your life, change it. If
you cannot change it, either remove yourself from the situation, or
accept it as it is. This allows us to focus our energy away from
anger, which is an energy vampire, and toward something constructive. Acceptance of our present
reality, exactly as it is, gives us the freedom to change it.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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