reaction paper 10

In Chapter 9, Tolle evokes the subject of happiness. It is similar to the ideas of “The Happiness Advantage” that we have previously read, but with the difference of Tolle going beyond the concept of happiness into the idea of “inner peace”. For Tolle, no one can really qualify what is positive and what is negative, and most things are neither because they exist outside of those concepts. Tolle argues that a lot of things that we consider as negative, such as loss, pain, illness, and other things have actually “benefited” the people that experienced them, and made them become a better person.

I cannot really agree with things such as loss being in any way positive, to be completely honest, and I do not personally feel that the loss I have experienced in my life has somehow made me better. Tolle does say that happiness in these cases is impossible, and that we can be in state of inner peace instead. What blocks this mindset is what Tolle calls, “resistance patterns”, and forgiveness is a key aspect of overcoming these patterns. Forgiveness is something that I have always struggled with, but am trying my best to learn to achieve. I am not generally a resentful person, and if I was hurt by someone, I would not shut them out or treat them much differently after the fact. But I did have a hard time forgetting, meaning that I would not trust that person again, which shows that at the core of things, I did not forgive the person. Throughout this semester, I feel like I have made a lot of progress in this area.

For things that are smaller than loss, I do find it easier to reach a state of acceptance. There were so many instances in my life where I would stress out because of trivial things, like not getting the class that I wanted, and other things such as break ups. And in all those occasions, something better came along at the end. Of course, it might not be objectively better, but they were “better” for me because they did teach me that things always happen for a reason, and that a solution is always available once you stop stressing, because that is what keeps you from seeing everything else out there. In all those situations, once everything was resolved, I looked back on my moments of panic and each time regretted letting my body feel such stress because of such minor things, especially in the scope of everything that happens in life.

After I realized this, seeing things from a state of acceptance has become easier and easier, and especially after this semester where everything that we have read and talked about in our class clearly show that it is the best mindset to be in.