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A monologue recorded October 3, 2011, about pain and loss as paths to spiritual realization. The speaker argues that adversity can lead to a formless peace that exists beyond external circumstances, separate from emotional reactions.
A monologue recorded October 3, 2011, about pain and loss as paths to spiritual realization. The speaker argues that adversity can lead to a formless peace that exists beyond external circumstances, separate from emotional reactions.
And of course you see your life, your so called life, crumbling and it's painful and it's would be. We're not denying that. That's not saying it's not painful. It is painful, but it is a chance. It's an opportunity for people to go deeper and realize a foundation, something what you could call true sense of safety or security that has nothing to do with the externals of your life. And it seems that it's necessary for many people to experience adversity in the form of loss, to be driven there voluntarily. They don't go there. And not everybody who experiences adversity will go there. Some get trapped in a reactive movement and become deeply either angry, say it's not fair, shouldn't have happened to me, or despondent, you can't take anymore, or you cry for the next five years you get stuck in a reactive movement and so you're even more deeply stuck in a rigid pattern. But there is a chance that you can go deeper and let go of seeking to identify with any form in your life. And suddenly something arises from deep within that is peaceful, you can't name it. And so you've touched suddenly something that you didn't know existed in you. I sometimes call it the formless called spirit. Because spirit is the formless. And suddenly you have the peace that passes all understanding, because you can't explain it. Well, I'm trying to explain it, but it's hard.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
