Life Strategies: Embracing the lightness of being

I often get back & make reference to Ekhart Tolle’s works in my article. No doubt that his books, mainly “the Power of Now” and “A new Earth”, have been deeply influential as I’m sure they were with most people who have read them. Tolle’s commentary on the deeper spiritual side of humanity is somehow profoundly revelatory and awakens a lot of your spiritual self, as I guess it’s meant to do.

Central to Tolle’s teachings is the notion of being. I would be rather pretentious if I’d expect to convey the concept in one humble post so I will not try. I will however try to make some simple points.

To start with, your being is different than your doing. So far this is linguistically self-evident but not obvious to us all the time. Many times we identify ourselves with our doing – our actions, achievements & failures. Our doing is however transient, only meaningful in a very narrow situation. What we did yesterday may not be relevant today. Our being however is always the same. It doesn’t change. You just are. It’s simple, profound yet elusive.

Our being is not our distorted self-image – our physical countenance, our life history, our socially formed beliefs, our wants or needs. Our being is that deep underlying essence which is not separate from other things around you or in the universe. It is one and the same with all things. Some people call it the inner self, some call it the Tao or God, the pervasive spirit underlying all existence including your own.

Our sense of separateness is a mind created illusion of the ego. The ego, in Tolle’s words, is trapped life energy which is cut off from the energy flow of being. It has a seemingly life of its own and can be self-destructive by feeding on pain, drama, suffering and fear. Collectively it causes the insanity we all witness around us –alienation, war, anger, disenchantment, hysteria and the whole shebang.

The egoic self-centric mind is responsible for much of our created suffering and self-deceit. It makes us feel separate from others and the rest of nature (and this is the arrogant starting point in many religious doctrines). It makes us feel that others are a threat and that the world is a hostile place. It forces us into undesirable behavior – reacting to others’ words or actions, by competing, being envious or judgmental and feeling threatened by others’ successes. On a different level it makes us attach ourselves to certain beliefs and objects of the mind. It makes us react by creating drama if we feel others are a threat to those attachments (think about religious fundamentalists in the past and present killing other humans in the name of God or their ideologies). This is the insanity created by the egoic mind and we are in it to the chin.

Our Being is the extreme opposite of that. It is light and free of any drama, attachments or needs. The being doesn’t react. It doesn’t need to. It just is. We have a glimpse of it in moments of deep calm and peace when we feel grounded and unshaken by happenings around us. We feel a deep sense of joy. It is a moment in time when our ego subsides and goes temporarily dormant. In that moment we are free from desires – momentarily free from that endless cycle of desiring and dissatisfaction – that eternal sense of never reaching your goal but always expecting it round the corner. Some people call this moment “at peace with oneself” or “communion with God” and some spiritual traditions have the objective of reaching this state through meditation and practicing the mind.

Whatever it’s called makes no difference because unlike the ego, labeling is irrelevant for Being. We can access Being sometimes. As I said, I believe this is the objective of some meditative practices. The reason why is simple to see. Meditation quiets the mind from chatter and inner commentary. When the mind becomes still and focused it becomes an entry point to that deep underlying calm called being. If you connect with it often, even for just a few seconds, you are reconnecting yourself with life’s creative energies. Life will start flowing through you. You will feel lighter, happier, more creative and your life will gain deeper meaning. This is not wishy washy talk. This is the long forgotten root of most religions and spiritual traditions.

If we had to embrace our lightness of being and make it our life strategy, the effect would be immense on an individual level. On a collective level I guess it would be the proverbial heaven on earth.

No related posts.