Photo: s_falkow / Flickr

‘There are cycles of success, when things come to you and thrive, and cycles of failure, when they wither or disintegrate, and you have to let them go in order to make room for new things to arise,’ writes Eckhart Tolle in his book Practising the Power of Now. Suffering comes from holding on and not going with the natural flow of life. ‘Dissolution is needed for growth to happen,’ continues Tolle who believes that upwards cycles can’t exist without downward cycles.

Acceptance

Tolle advises to offer no resistance to life. He says that a cycle can last for a few hours or a few years and that there are cycles within cycles. By accepting the cycles and allowing them to be as they are, is ‘to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad.’

The hidden gifts of failure, loss or pain

Because many people receive their sense of identity and self-esteem from external sources, they keep themselves busy with such things as achievement. Everyone is bound to ‘fail’ at some stage though since ‘failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every failure.’

Some people may experience their success as meaningless in the end. This in turn may be experienced as failure. But Tolle points out that failure, loss or pain on a very deep level can lead to spiritual realisation. This is because they act as catalysts for drawing one to the ‘spiritual dimension’.

The paradox

‘It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly,’ writes Tolle. Whatever you thought you required seems to come with little effort ‘and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them – while they last.’

Tolle makes it a point that all these things are bound to pass away at some point. Even so, with dependency gone, he says that there is no more fear or loss since life ‘flows with ease’.

Tags: lifestyle