Eckhart Tolle Part II: Fear and Awakening

"There is a lot of fear in people," observes spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. "They might lose their job, their investments are losing their value, many people are losing their jobs. So there are huge challenges coming."

But this is also (a) great opportunity for human beings to wake up when they are being challenged. How do you respond to these challenges," he asks?

"I would say that your life is not determined by what happens to you. That is what people believe. But that means you are at the mercy of every little circumstance.Your life is really determined by how you react to what happens to you. And how you react, or rather respond, to what happens to you determines what happens next."

"So if your reaction is of a negative kind," says the best-selling author, "if there is fear and anxiety, or continuous mental complaining - "this shouldn't be, but it is" - then that is the state of your consciousness, and the next moment or the future reflects that state of consciousness.

But if you are able to work and live in alignment with the present moment, rather than being in a state of hostility towards what is'" he concludes, "this is where the importance of the present moment comes in, the power of now comes in; the importance of not making life anything but what is the present moment."

"Because where else," he asks, "do you find life but in the present moment?"




See: Eckhart Tolle Part I: Ego, Silence, Being and Enlightenment"