A Brief History of Your Life- Eckhart Tolle

I pulled these paragraphs from the final chapter of a book that has somehow transformed my views about life. I wanted to share them in the hope that they will inspire you.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF YOUR LIFE

“The coming into manifestations of the world, as well as its return to the unmanifested- its expansion and contraction-, are two universal movements that we could call the outgoing and returning home. Those two moments are reflected throughout the universe in many ways, such as in the incessant expansion and contradiction of your heart, as well as in the inhalation and exhalation of your breath.  They are also reflected in the cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Each night, without knowing it, you return to the unmanifested Source of all life when you enter the stage of deep, dreamless sleep, and then re-emerge again in the morning, replenished.

Those two movements, the outgoing and the return, are also reflected in each person’s life cycle. Out of nowhere, so to speak, “you” suddenly appear in the world. Birth is followed by expansion. There is not only physical growth, but also growth of knowledge, activities, possessions, and experiences. Your sphere of influence expands and life becomes increasingly complex. This is a time when you are mainly concerned with finding or pursuing your outer purpose. Usually, there is also a corresponding, growth of the ego, which is identification with all the above things, and so your form identity becomes more and more defined. This is also the time when your outer purpose- growth- tends to become usurped by the ego, which unlike nature does not know when to stop in its pursuit of expansion and has a voracious appetite for more.

And then, when you thought you made it or that you belong here, the return movement begins. Perhaps people close to you begin to die, people who were part of your world. Then your physical form weakens; your sphere of influence shrinks. Instead of becoming more you become less, and the ego reacts to this with increased anxiety and depression. Your world is beginning to contract, and you may find you are not in control anymore. Instead of acting upon life, life now acts upon you by slowly reducing your world. The consciousness that is identified with form is now experiencing the sunset, the dissolution of form. And then one day, you too disappear. Your armchair is still there. But instead of you sitting there, there is just an empty space. You went back to where you came from just a few years ago.

Each person’s life- each life- forms, in fact- represents the world, a unique way in which the universe experiences itself. And when your forms dissolve, a world comes to an end one of countless worlds”.

No matter what, we always follow the cycle of life. Even though we seek control over our lives in a somehow ‘mundane’ way, we will always end up the same way, returning to the main source, where we come from.

I believe that being in contact with nature and acknowledging its cycles, as we cycle ourselves, helps us navigate the ups and downs of life smoothly. To realize there is just so much we can do before leaving the rest to the 'universe' to take care of. After all, we will all return to the 'source'.

Cover of the book by Eckhart Tolle

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Eckhart Tolle. (2016). A new earth: awakening to your life’s purpose. Chapter 10. Plume.

Pg. 282- 283.