If you judge (a thing/event/person) to be “good,” then there must naturally be a “bad.” The path to inner peace is one of non-judgment.
The Case for Neutrality (and Acceptance)
inner peace
The Farewell
Opal of my Eye
Lessons from my dog:
Find a quiet, sunny place to sit and just enjoy!
Jump and run even if you’re so sore afterward that you can hardly walk.
Eat with gusto and no regrets.
Forgive quickly and stay faithful.
Always go for walks and smell flowers along the way.
Naps = good; stress = what’s stress?
May You Feel Peace
False Self
“Identification with thoughts and the emotions that go with those thoughts creates a false mind-made sense of self, conditioned by the past: the “little me” and its story. This false self is never happy or fulfilled for long. Its normal state is one of unease, fear, insufficiency, and nonfulfillment.”
Tolle
Crumbling Image
“When you look closely at the nature of human suffering you will find that an essential ingredient in most kinds of suffering is a diminishment of one’s sense of self.
In reality, of course, what feels like a diminishment or loss of your sense of self is the crumbling of an image of who you are held in the mind. What dissolves is identification with thought forms that had given you your sense of self. But that sense of self is ultimately false, is ultimately a mental fiction. “
Tolle
Loss Can Lead to Awakening
“For many people, illness – loss of health – represents the crisis situation that triggers an awakening. With serious illness comes awareness of your own mortality, the greatest loss of all.”
Eckhart Tolle
It’s Your Ship
“A thought is harmless unless we believe it.”
Byron Katie
Agitation
“Whenever I am upset, it’s because I am upsettable.”
Eric Butterworth
Changing My Walk
Tolle talks about people who walk out in nature while listening to their earbuds, talking on their phone and doing other activities that take them out of being present. I realized I really have enjoyed listening to music and podcasts while walking my dog, but that in doing so, I am missing out on being 100% present.
For the past two weeks, I have walked my dog without using my phone except to take one picture of a flower or cactus. In this short period, I’ve realized a difference in the rest of my day. I feel calmer and my mind does not go (as bonkers) as it used to. In fact, when my mind starts to go astray, I can bring it back to the present much faster now.
Kismet 