"If you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others."
--- Eckhart Tolle
When it seemed the whole world was reading "A New Earth," I, too, bought the book. Unlike many people who found it life-changing, I found it rather repetitive. I felt like he made his point with the flower story very early in the book and then just repeated himself for the next couple of hundred pages.
I put the book aside, and then picked it up again months later to discover I had stopped reading just as I was getting to the best part - the last few pages.
This quote is near the end of the book and it is something I felt worthy of highlighting and flagging. Tonight I picked up the book to look at the things I had marked and noticed this again. It still rings of truth to me.
When I think about times when I've been upset, often over petty things, I can't think of any circumstance where I was in one of those three states. The idea that you're causing pain to yourself or others when not in one of those states is sobering.
I've written these three words on an index card and put them near my computer so I'll be reminded of the concept every day. I'll be thinking more about this.
2 comments:
My guess is that you're being too hard on yourself. Perhaps more than anyone else I know, you find joy in the small things in life -- a blessed outlook, to be sure. Plenty of times, you've sounded enthusiastic, even about work. Chill out, kiddo. You deserve it.
And any book which doesn't reach its highlights until 200 pages in needs rewriting.
I guess many people found the entire book fabulous. I found it quite repetitive until the end. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
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