Tuesday, May 6, 2008

What Life Wants of You

Last night I viewed the final live web broadcast of Oprah Winfrey's 10 week class featuring author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle and his book A New Earth.

Since March, I have joined millions of other people in the participation of Oprah's groundbreaking series of webcasts of
A New Earth.


WHAT DOES LIFE WANT OF ME?
One of the most important points I have gotten from Eckhart Tolle's teachings is about getting in touch with what life wants of you.

When Oprah asked Tolle where his inspiration came from to write the book
The Power of Now (which she said is one of the most important books of our time), he said it came from the space of stillness within, where there is no mental noise and where all creative endeavors are born.


Tolle stated: "Out of that stillness, when the time is right, sometimes an impulse comes, a feeling that something wants to be born into this world. Rather than me wanting to write a book, there is a book that wants to be written."

Tolle said the book "was inspired, but not channeled." Every day he set aside time for writing the book, however, on some days the flow was not as strong.

The lesson for all of us is we must ask life what purpose it has for us. And to find that purpose, we need to go beyond the superficial level of our human ego and human mind and act from deeper impulses that come from our higher mind, our higher self.

When we invite stillness in our life, when we find a space of stillness within, spirit flows through us more freely. However, stillness does not happen until the mind becomes still.

One of the most important keys to the true fulfillment of our destiny is learning how to create not from the human ego, but from the higher self, from a place of Creative Intelligence, Infinite Intelligence, the Source, the Creator, or God, or whatever we may name it.

On my personal life journey, I have found that an understanding of my higher purpose has not come from a one-time revelatory experience.

Instead, trying to fulfill my life purpose has involved an ongoing process of daily creating a place of stillness and inner peace as the foundation for all my decisions and actions.

The more I can live my life from a place of stillness and inner peace, the more my life can contribute to the greater good of humanity. And I believe that a contribution to the greater good is the highest and best purpose for my life.

Intellectually, I cannot figure out how to best contribute to the greater good, but I believe my higher self knows exactly what I can do to fulfill this purpose for my life.

My goal is to try to elevate my consciousness to that level where it connects to my higher self, and the study and practice of the teachings found in the Eckhart Tolle books have been very helpful for working on that goal.

I commend Oprah and the corporate sponsors of the classes who have made these webcasts free to millions of people in the world.

You can watch or listen to webcasts of the entire 10 week New Earth online series at Oprah.com.