"…heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness." – Eckhart Tolle

   At the age of 29, caught in the claws of a suicidal depression, the now world famous Eckhart Tolle found his life unbearable. Fortunately for him, and for all of us, he hung on.

   On the other side of his worst night lay his best day – a transforming experience that led to "two years of bliss." Since then, he has been a missionary for a world view that frees us of the world – particularly of the weight of our egos. 

   "To recognize one's own insanity is," Tolle writes, "the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence."  

   So much of our trouble is tied to our ego's insane attempts to feed and protect itself. Consider how we merge ourselves with our jobs and our things to the point where if we lose them we feel diminished as human beings.

   In his epiphany story Tolle describes how his dark night "killed off" much of his previous life-view. 

   He is concerned that we think of the world, including our children and our spouses, as "ours" – as if we owned them. Instead, Tolle suggests, we need to appreciate and celebrate.

   We don't "own"anything. As Kahlil Gibran wrote: "Our children are not our children. They are life's longing for itself."

  Depression has strangled many of us. Tolle shares the light he found on the other side of his.

   "Ego takes everything personally," he writes, opening a way for us to free ourselves from criticizing others, complaining about our situation, and insisting we are right as opposed to simply reporting observations. 

   Every faith teaches that we are fools to cling to things as evidence of our worth. Why is it so hard for us to let go?

   Stuart Updike, M.D. (my brother-in-law) told me once about how some of his terminally ill patients developed  a "tragic" life view. "They stopped caring about things," he told me. "They wondered why they ever cared so much about them."

   Dr. Updike learned well from his patients. He is one of the least materialistic people I know. 

   Everyone wants to know how to reach "the inner realm."

   I'm not sure of the answer. But, it's clear that we can't reach paradise with the weight of our egos on our backs. 

    We are not our job or possessions. Our worth is not determined by where we live or our appearance. 

   The inner realm cares nothing about these these. 

   Dying patients understand this. Do we?

-Erie Chapman

Photograph: "End" copyright erie chapman 2012

Postscript: When I opened Czeslaw Milosz' Collected Poems here is the first poem I saw:

"A day so happy./ Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden./ Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers./ There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess./ I knew no one worth my envying him./ Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot./ To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me./ In my body I felt no pain./ When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails." – The Gift, 1971