The Higher Good Beyond Good and Bad
Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace?
Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive;
inner peace does not.
Is it not possible to attract only positive conditions into our life?
If our attitude and our thinking are always positive, we would
manifest only positive events and situations, wouldn't we?
Do you truly know what is positive and what is negative? Do you have
the total picture? There have been many people for whom limitation,
failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form turned out to be
their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images
and superficial ego-dictated goals and desires. It gave them depth,
humility, and compassion. It made them more real.
Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson
concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Even a
brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in
your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn't.
Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be
more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they
are. And when you live in complete acceptance of what is — which is
the only sane way to live — there is no "good" or "bad" in your life
anymore. There is only a higher good — which includes the "bad." Seen
from the perspective of the mind, however, there is good-bad,
like-dislike, love-hate. Hence, in the Book of Genesis, it is said
that Adam and Eve were no longer allowed to dwell in "paradise" when
they "ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
This sounds to me like denial and self-deception. When something
dreadful happens to me or someone close to me — accident, illness,
pain of some kind or death — I can pretend that it isn't bad, but the
fact remains that it is bad, so why deny it?
You are not pretending anything. You are allowing it to be as it is,
that's all. This "allowing to be" takes you beyond the mind with its
resistance patterns that create the positive-negative polarities. It
is an essential aspect of forgiveness. Forgiveness of the present is
even more important than forgiveness of the past. If you forgive every
moment — allow it to be as it is — then there will be no accumulation
of resentment that needs to be forgiven at some later time.
Remember that we are not talking about happiness here. For example,
when a loved one has just died, or you feel your own death
approaching, you cannot be happy. It is impossible. But you can be at
peace. There may be sadness and tears, but provided that you have
relinquished resistance, underneath the sadness you will feel a deep
serenity, a stillness, a sacred presence. This is the emanation of
Being, this is inner peace, the good that has no opposite.
What if it is a situation that I can do something about? How can 1
allow it to be and change it at the same time?
Do what you have to do. In the meantime, accept what is. Since mind
and resistance are synonymous, acceptance immediately frees you from
mind dominance and thus reconnects you with Being. As a result, the
usual ego motivations for "doing" — fear, greed, control, defending or
feeding the false sense of self — will cease to operate. An
intelligence much greater than the mind is now in charge, and so a
different quality of consciousness will flow into your doing.
"Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny,
for what could more aptly fit your needs?" This was written 2000 years
ago by Marcus Aurelius, one of those exceedingly rare humans who
possessed worldly power as well as wisdom.
It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering
before they will relinquish resistance and accept — before they will
forgive. As soon as they do, one of the greatest miracles happens: the
awakening of Being-consciousness through what appears as evil, the
transmutation of suffering into inner peace. The ultimate effect of
all the evil and suffering in the world is that it will force humans
into realizing who they are beyond name and form. Thus, what we
perceive as evil from our limited perspective is actually part of the
higher good that has no opposite. This, however, does not become true
for you except through forgiveness. Until that happens, evil has not
been redeemed and therefore remains evil.
Through forgiveness, which essentially means recognizing the
insubstantiality of the past and allowing the present moment to be as
it is, the miracle of transformation happens not only within but also
without. A silent space of intense presence arises both in you and
around you. Whoever or whatever enters that field of consciousness
will be affected by it, sometimes visibly and immediately, sometimes
at deeper levels with visible changes appearing at a later time. You
dissolve discord, heal pain, dispel unconsciousness — without doing
anything — simply by being and holding that frequency of intense
presence.
~Eckhart Tolle
--
Thanks and best regards
J.Suresh
New No.3, Old No.7,
Chamiers road - 1st Lane,
Alwarpet,
Chennai - 600018
Ph: 044 42030947
Mobile: 91 9884071738
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