The Vessel that carries my Soul

I have been reading Eckhart Tolle lately. If you don't know who Eckhart Tolle is then I highly suggest that you check him out. He is a spiritual teacher and author of many books including The Power of Now. He teaches spiritual enlightenment, consciousness and awareness. The more I dive into this spiritual journey, the more I realize that I have already learned all of this. I have heard it all before. It just sounded different. I know I already know everything I am hearing but in a different form. That form being the Bible. Everything that Eckhart Tolle teaches is what God has been trying to teach us all along. Just in a deeper way. I believe that God uses people or vessels on earth to help spread his word in a way that we humans might understand. Sometimes we need to relate to someone or something before we really get it. Before it clicks and we have that Ah Ha moment that we all hear about. I believe that Eckhart Tolle is one of those people that God is using to reach and teach people. I won't go as far as to call him a prophet but a great teacher indeed.

As I have been learning and growing I have noticed some things that I never noticed before. I have been slowly awakening to the truth and it is beyond enlightening. It might be a little challenging to explain myself if you have not read or do not know and understand what Tolle teaches. It is truly something felt inside and not so much explained. So in order to express to you my ah ha moment I first need to try and explain a little about Eckhart's teachings and what it means. I will do my best to sum it up but honestly Eckhart has a way of explaining things that seem to stick.

We are the consciousness that allows everything to take place. Without consciousness everything ceases to exist. Do you understand what that means? We are all souls or consciousness inside these vessels or bodies. We are not the bodies that we inhabit. We are not the thoughts we think. We are so much more than that. In order to explain it a little better I am going to have to quote Eckhart Tolle:

“The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.”
― Eckhart Tolle

“Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind.”
― Eckhart Tolle

“The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not “the thinker.” The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.”
― Eckhart Tolle

I always thought it was good to think and be deep and know more and learn more all the time but that is not so. None of those things matter in the big picture and in fact they only interfere with our highest purpose and that is to be in the present moment. That is to be the consciousness in which life takes place. We are to be the light and love that inhabits these vessels that we use to inhabit the earth. These souls leave the body when the body dies. The problem is that these bodies have these big brains that just think non-stop. 
“The human condition: lost in thought.”   ― Eckhart Tolle

Once you realize that you control this body, this vessel, then you can really start to live fully and be present. When I find that I get angry, I now can stop and look at myself thinking these thoughts and say that is anger, that is not who I am. And I let that thought pass and I remember that this moment is all there is and I need to be present. Not in the past being angry and not in the future being anxious. But right here in this very moment for a reason.

Once I realized that, I began to think as we humans tend to do. But I went with this thought because I felt like it was more enlightening than it was anything else. If I am not this body and I am a soul then this body is the vessel that carries my soul. I pictured myself sitting inside this body and none of it belonging to me. Like a light or aura (intelligence) sitting inside a robot or machine if you will. I realized I am what moves this body. I tell this body what to do. Which also means I tell this body what to think. I have to nourish this body and take care of this body so that it lasts before this soul moves on. I have to take care of this body like I would my car or a machine. Of course I probably don't take care of my car as well as I do my body but it is the same concept. If you don't change the oil, perform regular maintenance, change the spark plugs, put fuel in it, your car will stop running. If our car dies on us and stops running, what do we do? We go out and get a newer one.

The same goes for this body. But we can't just go out and buy a new one when it shuts down for good. This body or machine is a vessel for my soul to move about in. I need to take care of it and perform regular maintenance on it. I need to feed/fuel the body with the best possible stuff to make sure it runs right. I don't want to fill it up with the cheapest fuel they make. I want to put only the best inside of it to make sure that it lasts as long as It needs to. I want to do the regular maintenances required for this vessel to run in tip top shape.

I did not get to choose the eye color or hair color of this vessel. I did not get to choose the shape or size or even the form of this body and it doesn't even matter what it looks like. It was chosen for me and my job is the be light within this body to shine out and ooze the love and acceptance of what is. It is my job to love it and nurture it and not to make it prettier or alter it. It is perfect as it is. My job is only to maintain and preserve it. For it is the vessel that carries my soul.

We struggle. We fight. We judge. We compare. We are angry. We spend our time thinking, labeling and judging that we fail to just live. That is not what this life is about. Like God said, "You are the light." That is our purpose. That is what God has been trying to tell me all along. When we let go of the suffering in our minds and surrender to what is, we can truly live. We are digging our heals in and resisting life instead of letting it be. Without the soul all these bodies roaming the earth would cease to exist. Who would be there to see it? When the body dies the soul leaves it and inhabits something somewhere else. All I know is that right now my soul is dwelling in this body and it is only temporary. It is not who I am. It will change. But I will still be this soul when I move on. I will leave this body behind and I don't worry about where I will go. Because I am here. I am Now. Now is all there is ever is.

I found this picture on Google. I do not know its origin. It is called

"Connecting with my soul"

The unbearable heaviness of being human by Bryonie’s

   I came across this blog post on Elephant Journal called "The unbearable heaviness of being human" by a blogger named Byronie and I must say that It struck a cord with me. This is one of those reads that touches you and at least for me, hit close to home. As I was reading the post, I felt like they were my words, like I was writing the post. I felt like, wow, this person knows exactly how I feel and what it is like to struggle in this world. To eek through the days just trying to keep it together when the world can be so harsh. It only took reading the first line of the post and I felt drawn to continue reading...

"The past few days, the weight of my heavy heart has brought me to my knees.

I bring my forehead to touch the ground, with gratitude, with grief, with sorrow, with joy. For all of these emotions are me, in any given moment…in every given moment."

   I wanted to share this post because I feel like there has to be so many people out there that feel the same way as she describes. People will read it and say, "yes, that is me. I completely know what you are talking about.

"As I continue to practice, as I dive deeper into this human being that is me, I am consistently confronted with the many faces of myself.
I try, most days, to meet myself where I am, with a warm heart and kind eyes; when I am in integrity, this is easy, so easy. But when I stray outside of my authentic self, it gets harder to meet my demons with softness. I strive to be the fawn in the woods, who meets the monster before her with so much compassion that the power of her love melts him away."

   See what I mean. Goosebumps! That is intense. It is so personal and deep. I think if most of us could actually articulate our feelings in this way, we would. She did it for us. This is a great inspirational, touching post and I wanted to share it and always keep it around to read over and over again. It resonates with my soul. I will leave you with this last quote from the post and hopefully you will take a moment to stop over at Elephant Journal and read it in it's entirety. You will be glad you did. They have so many great writers over there. Check it out.

"I strive to listen to my heart and speak truth and love and do everything I can to live well in this world."