Traditionally a new year is a time for reflecting on the past and preparing for the upcoming year.

However, I have learned from reading The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle, that nothing is more important than the present moment. Tolle says that "True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness. It is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has no opposite, the joy of being that depends on nothing outside itself. It is felt not as a passing experience but as an abiding presence. In theistic language it is to ‘know God’ — not as something outside you but as your own innermost essence. True salvation is to know yourself as an inseparable part of the timeless and formless One Life from which all that exists derives its being." Tolle says, "that all suffering is caused by resistance to what is." He further states, "that fear and suffering come from either looking at the past, or from nervously anticipating the future." He poses a powerful question for each and every one of us to ask, which is, "Is anything lacking at this very moment?"

What will you and I do with this moment? Right here, right now, — in this year of 2003.

Tolle also teaches us that happiness is based on external circumstances, while peace is not.

I know I have spent most of my life trying to be happy. I would buy this or that to make me happy. I would get in this or that relationship to be happy. I would move to this or that location to make me happy. When the relationship I was in no longer made me happy, I would move on. When the location no longer made me happy, I would move. When items I bought no longer made me happy, I would buy new things. All of this was based on outside circumstances.

Gandhi said that, "peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances." This has been so true for me. When you are experiencing lack or limitation in the moment, you cannot feel happy. If you have been confronted with an illness or loss, there is nothing in that experience that can make you happy. Yet you can experience peace in the middle of loss, illness or any other situation that causes you distress. There is the peace of God that is unshaken and at the very core of whatever you are experiencing.

The question then becomes, how do you experience peace during any situation? For me, the answer was in the teaching of Tolle, when he clarified the difference between your life situation and your life.

Tolle says that, "your life situation is all that exists at the level of form. It is our human experiences, or our human circumstances. Yet, our life, is the ultimate truth of us. It is unchangeable, ever available. Our life is our divine energy, our source and supply, our goodness, our love. All that is, what many of us call, ‘God.’ Our life is that sense of presence or consciousness, that place of ‘being,’ or ‘centeredness.

Tolle says that, "you cannot bring healing to your life, because it is already whole and perfect. You cannot bring peace to your life, because it IS peace. Yet you can bring healing or peace to your life situation."

This to me was a profound "A-HA." Several months ago, I had an experience in a relationship that caused me great pain. I could not find peace in the situation. I could not feel happiness. I just felt pain. I didn’t know what to do with that pain, and there was nothing I could do to fix it. Yet, there was this immense power in surrendering to the pain, just sitting with it, and feeling the peace beyond the pain.

I realized that while the pain was part of my life situation, it was not my life. It was not the ultimate truth of me, and in that realization the presence of peace existed.

To me this distinction is relevant even in the things we "see" going on outside ourselves. We may turn on the television or read the newspaper and see war and violence going on. That is our Life Situation, but that is not our life. The ultimate truth of the situation is that we are all one, we are all connected, and peace and love exist within each and every one of us.

Tolle says that, "anytime you shine the realization of the Truth, or what he calls ‘consciousness’ or ‘presence’ into any situation that appears to look not so peaceful or loving, that the illusion will dissolve. The presence of darkness dissolves in the power of light. The emotion of hatred or anger dissolves in the presence of love."

How will each and every one of us use this enormous divine energy that we have? Will we use it to shine light into a dark corner, or will we use it to electrocute someone?

I know the Presence of Peace exists within each and every one of us. This year, let’s try "being" that Presence of Peace. Let’s remember to shine our God light into the world. The power of Good, the power of God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. 

Lisa Hepner is an author/ speaker telling stories that speak to the soul. She is author of Peaceful Earth Spiritual Perspectives on Inner Peace and World Peace and the e-book titled 10 Things you can do to maintain inner peace and manifest world peace. website www.peacefulearth.org
 

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