But having reached rock bottom something happened and his eyes were opened and a great peace came to him. He realised that the “I” that was torturing him did not have to be his master. He could control it. There was something more basic to his being than the “I” with all its multitude of thoughts. He goes on to describe a radical change in his life and “sitting on a park bench for two years in a state of the most intense joy”!
What happened to Tolle has happened to countless people. They have come to a life-changing experience in one way or another. Their eyes have been opened and they see things differently. This happened to Paul at Damascus, Augustine in Milan and Ignatius at Loyola. These were famous conversions but the experience is available to everyone and everyone is called to it. There is nothing that binds a person to live in unhappiness – even if the circumstance of their life makes them unhappy. I do not like what happened to me last week. It had the power to make me unhappy. But I don’t have to accept that unhappiness. It is disappointing, yes, and it makes me angry. But it doesn’t make me unhappy – unless I allow it to.
Jesus raised a few people from the dead, less than you could count on the fingers of one hand. They were signs that he wanted people to rise from the death of loneliness, depression, hopelessness, unhappiness. People do not have to lie in “darkness and the shadow of death.” They can move out of it by changing their way of thinking, which is the meaning of the Greek word used in the gospels, metanoia (Matt 3:2). The people are thrilled when he touches the bier of the dead young man, “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow”, and raises him up. “A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people” (Luke :11-17).
They were amazed and delighted but they were also in danger of missing the point. Jesus had not come to work wonders like raising the dead. His purpose was to raise people’s hearts and minds to see that there is another way to live. There are other ways of running our lives and our country. We don’t have to be trapped in miserable conditions. We have the power to rise up and change.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis