BY JEAN-MARC VOGT
I used to think that “It’s not what the problem is that matters, it’s how you deal with it” was clever. But in truth, I don’t think that it is the case anymore. I’m reading Mr. Tolle’s “The power of Now” and I’m beginning to see his point.
Adopting the attitude I have quoted above, will only feed the ego: a false sense of self.
Have you ever considered that the problem wasn’t external but internal? That is to say: you were making it into a problem and one you would solve? And solving that problem would give you fulfilment and a justification for your existence?
What Mr. Tolle is saying, if I’m getting it right, is that the mind loves to solve problems to justify itself as being of use to you.
In order for a problem to be solved, it needs to be created.
Don’t you think life would be a whole lot easier if there weren’t any problems, imposing themselves on you as obstacles, in your journey?
Problems should just be left free to be and not tangled or wrestled with as interpretations or judgments.
That means, I’m only halfway in the book, that focusing on the present: “the Now” absolutely, and without question, will eliminate all the imagined problems of the past and future.
In this way the impostor that is the mind or ego will be stripped away to unmask or expose your true self. Something that is probably even more or perhaps infinitely more powerful than absolutely anything you could ever imagine.
So I think I’m writing this as a declaration to the collective; that I will try.
It will take practice and integrity.
The best way is never the easiest way. Instead the hardest way is: because it is the right thing to do.
Jean-Marc Vogt is just a guy with nothing to lose and everything to give.
Tags: philosophy, problem solving, the mind