Eckhart Tolle emphasizes the role of what he calls the voice in the head in controlling and directing our lives and the choices we make. In other words, our current choices are dictated by past experiences and memories, rather than the opportunities of the moment.
The central core of all your mind activity consists
of certain repetitive and persistent thoughts, emotions,
and reactive patterns that you identify with
most strongly.
When I play the blame game, I get hooked into a role which places the responsibility for misadventure and suffering on someone else, then I get to dodge my own responsibility and/or guilt for the outcomes in my life. Instead of learning and growing, I get to play the righteous victim.
Non-resistance is the path of peace, of strength. When I refuse to take another's aggressive behavior personally, I go beyond the ego, freeing myself from the collective dysfunctionality as well. I can then respond to inappropriate behavior in a more appropriate manner if a response is needed.
There is the situation and here is
the anger I feel about it, and then I realize
there are other ways of approaching the situation,
other ways of seeing it and dealing
with it.
Rev. Claudia Naylor
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