The Power of the Heart: Finding Your True Purpose in Life (11 page)
Read The Power of the Heart: Finding Your True Purpose in Life Online
Authors: Baptist de Pape
At the end of the day, when your heart is open, there is this energy of love that fulfills everything.
MICHAEL BECKWITH
When you begin to live at that level, the universe responds to that field, and then more and more and more things to be grateful for show up out of nothing.
There is love in everyone, always waiting for the moment it can free itself, like a butterfly from its cocoon. You release love within yourself by appreciating life and the people around you. That love you send out will come back to you many times over, attracting people, ideas, and events that enrich your life.
Deep listening requires letting go of our internal argument with the world. We must exhaust ourselves of our assumptions.
—MARK NEPO
MARCI SHIMOFF
That perspective helps us keep our hearts open in a state of love. And living in a state of gratitude, living in the belief that this is a friendly universe changes everything. We move from feeling afraid and challenged to feeling open and looking at life through the eyes of love, through the eyes of the heart.
Three Blessings
In general, we think too much about what goes wrong and not enough about what goes right. To be healthier and happier, we can think more about what has gone well and exercise gratitude. Positive psychologist Martin Seligman created this exercise, which increases happiness and well-being in everyone who tries it.
WHAT WENT WELL, OR THREE BLESSINGS
Every night for a week, take ten minutes before you go to sleep to write down three things that went well for you today. Keep a physical record in a journal or on your computer or your phone’s notes app. The three things that went well can be small or large, unimportant or important. (“The train came on time.” “My husband cleared the snow from the driveway.” “My niece’s surgery was successful.” “My boss gave our department a bonus.”)
Next to each item that went well, answer the question “Why did this go well?” (“The train crews anticipated bad weather.” “My husband can be thoughtful.” “My niece found the right doctor and prepared for her surgery.” “Our department works hard and well together.”)
Keep this list for at least one week and you will feel better, happier, and more grateful for all the blessings in your life. You will feel more connected to your heart and your life in the present. The longer you practice gratitude and counting your blessings, the longer your happiness will last and the more blessings you will have.
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless . . . huge, vast, and limitless.
—PEMA CHÖDRÖN
Because Eckhart Tolle’s words had set me on my path to exploring the powers of the heart, I was particularly eager to meet and interview him. I also wanted to hear about Tolle’s own awakening experience as a young research assistant at the University of Cambridge. At his home near Vancouver, Canada, Tolle told me that in his twenties, he wrestled for years with unbearable anxiety and thoughts of suicide. The world felt cold and hostile to him and he reached the point where he felt he wanted to leave it sooner rather than later. One night, the pain, anxiety, and dread were worse than ever
before, and Tolle kept thinking that he just could not live with himself anymore.
Suddenly, he had a different thought: “If I cannot live with myself, then there must be two selves: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.” And, he realized, perhaps only one of those selves was real.
This realization so overwhelmed Tolle that in that moment, he was unable to think anymore. Even though he was conscious, his mind could not form a single thought; for the first time in his life, his mind was put completely on standby. He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but before he could, he suddenly felt drawn into a vortex of energy and his body began to tremble uncontrollably. Scared that he might lose himself, Tolle clung desperately to who he thought himself to be: Ulrich Leonard Tolle, a research assistant, a German, a man, a person, a . . . But all he could do was to give in to that whirl of energy. When he did, he heard a voice within his chest tell him not to resist—and suddenly he wasn’t afraid.
Tolle could not remember what happened next, but when he came to the next morning, he felt different. At peace. And the world around him seemed to have changed. It no longer seemed hostile, but beautiful. Tolle strolled through the city in utter amazement at the beauty all around him. He felt as if he had been born again in some essential way.
Only later would he understand what had happened to him. The intense pressure of his suffering that night had become so bad that his consciousness had been forced to liberate itself from his unhappy and fearful “self.” Tolle said it was as if his past had been suddenly erased and his future had become unimportant. The only thing that mattered was the present, the now. And in that powerful here and now, everything was good.
Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then you must accept the consequences.
—ECKHART TOLLE,
THE POWER OF NOW
In his new state of consciousness, Tolle realized he only needed to be himself. His true purpose was to be in the present. According to Tolle, we all can reach this state of consciousness, of being in the now, of pulling body and soul together into one consciousness when we shut down the noise of our thoughts. Then we are able to connect with our heart, the conduit to our true, essential selves. By focusing your awareness on your heart, by listening to the voice of your heart, you get an understanding of who you really are.
You are more than your name, nationality, profession, or any other label. Even if you were to adopt a different name or change your nationality or profession, you would remain yourself. You’re also more than your personality, whether you’re kind or competitive, optimistic or fatalistic. You’re also more than your physical body. If you are seriously injured, you may change in some ways, but you are essentially the same individual.
Eckhart Tolle
DEAN SHROCK
If I could create a new diagnostic code, I would actually call it Forgotten Identity. I think we’ve genuinely forgotten who we really are and the power we have and our real essence.
Your true identity is your heart, the seat of your soul, the most authentic, most genuine, and most profound core of yourself. Your heart and soul are your essence. Your personality operates in the world of your five senses, but you don’t perceive your soul with those senses. Your soul is beyond the world of labels.
Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.
—ECKHART TOLLE,
A NEW EARTH
Yet, to live in the world, we modify our behavior to fit all kinds of situations: at home, at work, at school, at the gym. As we do, we may project an image of ourselves, a persona that is at odds with our true selves. This personality can make us afraid to be as we really are, so sometimes we deny our true selves and hide behind a mask.