Inner
Shrine
“To
realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken
spiritually.”
Eckhart
Tolle
Eckhart Tolle wrote,
“Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not 'yours,' not personal.
They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that
comes and goes is you.” Getting down to the essence of what is
“you” takes some digging. It requires getting past the steady
stream of yak-yak-yak that goes on in our brains at all times. It
takes pushing aside the flow of thoughts and emotions, and reaching
the silence underneath. What one finds there is presence. It is
living, breathing consciousness. That presence, that awareness, is
you. An image that comes up for me when I think of this journey, is
walking down a corridor filled with gauzy white curtains. You move through,
pushing aside one curtain and then another until you come to the end
where there is only light—not a blindingly bright light, but a
warm, inviting light. That light is you. It does not come and go, it
does not morph or shape-shift. It is pure consciousness—soul.
When you spend even a few
minutes a day there, in the presence of your soul, basking in that light,
you come away refreshed in a way that is not possible by any other
means. Knowing it is there within you makes everything that comes and
goes less impactful. You can reassure yourself, “Oh, that's just
fear, or that's just sadness. It will pass and something else will
take it's place. I am here, unchanged, reliable.” It's like having a
little shrine within that you can visit any time you want. You
can sit there under your own Bodhi tree, and watch all the jumbled
thoughts, words, and emotions float by like clouds on a blue-sky day.
And when you return your attention to this present moment in this
crazy world, you will feel grateful for the calm light within that
guides you through it without the slightest problem. You bring that
presence, that consciousness, closer to the surface, where just
breathing into it puts your mind at ease. It's not otherworldly—it
is you at the level of your soul.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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