Ray: Learning to deal with the small things in the now trains you to deal with the larger ones, doesn’t it, Eckhart?
Eckhart: Exactly right. When you observe yourself reacting to what are minor things in your life, you will find that the mechanism is the same as when major things seem to go wrong in your life and there is upset.
By learning to accept the small things immediately as they happen, you can be free of having to react to things at all.
You still can respond when action is needed, but you can be free, internally, of events. You then can continue to be in a state of peace even while things are happening that the mind says should not be happening.
Freedom comes. After a while, people realize how wonderful it is to live in such a way, and then they actually welcome the challenges that life brings.
Every challenge takes you a little deeper and awakens you again and again. Without the challenges, you probably would go to back to sleep. The challenges keep you awake.
So, this is the practice: working with whatever life brings in the present moment. Not seeking some enlightened state, but working with what is at hand, here, now. The enlightened state only can be here and now.
*Learn about Eckhart Tolle and his teachings at www.eckharttolle.com, and read more of this interview at Hemachandra.com. I did the interview for New Age Retailer magazine.
Ray Hemachandra at Golden Moon Circles 