"There Are No Problems"

Back in 2008, we had been home for 1 year from our time in Brazil, I had Walmart and Costco again and a nice big house, but I was struggling just the same as I had been in Brazil in our chacara with the grocery store 45 minutes away with expensive diapers and food.  During Brazil I was able to blame it on being out of the blesses US of A, and on being pregnant, but we were back in the US, capitalism and freedom reigned once again! I had no excuse, but felt just as grumpy as I had been before.  (One story of me being a grouchy party pooper here). In between my mood swings and crying I went searching, cause I was sick of being in a bad mood.  I knew in my head I had no real reason to be sooo grouchy, but didn't know how to get out of it.  As I searched for answers from the scriptures, conference, friends and books, I remember reading in a book by Eckhart Tolle, that "There are no problems, just situations.  Situations to be dealt with" - something like that, and along with other things, that part helped, and over the years that phrase has stuck with me.

I've been thinking about that again the past few months and wanted the reference... I have googled it, but couldn't find it.  I've been re-reading "A New Earth" to try and find it cause I thought it was in that book.  Gave up today on New Earth and started to browse through his other book "The Power of NOW" and there it was ~ allow me to share from pages 64-66

Q: It feels as if a heavy burden has been lifted.  A sense of lightness.  I feel clear... but my problems are still there waiting for me, aren't they?  They haven't been solved.  Am I not just temporarily evading them?

A:  If you found yourself in paradise, it wouldn't be long before your mind would say "yes, but..." Ultimately, this is not about solving your problems.  It's about realizing that there are no problems.  Only situations - to be dealt with now, or to be left alone and accepted as part of the "is-ness" of the present moment until they change or can be dealt with.  Problems are mind-made and need time to survive.  They cannot survive in the actuality of "the Now".

Focus your attention on the NOW and tell me what problem you have at this moment.

I am not getting any answer because it is impossible to have a problem when you attention is fully in the Now.  A situation that needs to be either dealt with or accepted - yes.  Why make it into a problem?  Why make anything into a problem?  Isn't life challenging enough as it is?  What do you need problems for?  The mind unconsciously loves problems because they give you an identity of sorts.  This is normal, and it is insane.  "Problem" means that you are dwelling on a situation mentally without there being a true intention or possibility of taking action now and that you are unconsciously making it part of your sense of self.  You become so overwhelmed by your life situation that you lose your sense of life, of Being.  Or you are carrying in your mind the insane burden of a hundred things that you will or may have to do in the future instead of focusing your attention on the one thing that you can do now.  

When you create a problem, you create pain.  All it takes is a simple choice, a simple decision: no matter what happens, I will create no more pain for myself.  I will create no more problems.  Although it is a simple choice, it is also very radical.  You won't make that choice unless you are truly fed up with suffering, unless you have truly had enough.  And you won't be able to go through with it unless you access the power of the Now.  If you create no more pain for yourself, then you create no more pain for others.  You also no longer contaminate the beautiful Earth, your inner space, and the collective human psyche with the negativity of problem-making.  


If you have ever been in a life-or-death emergency situation, you will know that it wasn't a problem.  The mind didn't have time to fool around and make it into a problem.  In a true emergency, the mind stops; you become totally present in the Now and something infinitely more powerful takes over.  This is hwy there are many reports of ordinary people suddenly becoming capable of incredibly courageous deeds.  In any emergency, either you survive or you don't.  Either way it is not a problem. 


Some people get angry when they hear me say that problems are illusions.  I am threatening to take away their sense of who they are.  They  have invested much time in a false sense of self.  For many years, they have unconsciously defined their whole identity in terms of their problems or their suffering.  Who would they be without it?


A great deal of what people say, think, or do it actually motivated by fear, which of course is always linked with having your focus on the future and being out of touch with the Now.  As there are no problems in the Now, there is no fear either.  


Should a situation arise that you need to deal with now, your action will be clear and incisive if it arises out of present-moment awareness.  It is also more likely to be effective.  It will not be a reaction coming from the past conditioning of your mind but an intuitive response to the situation.  In other instances, when the time-bound mind would have reacted, you will find it more effective to do nothing- just stay centered in the Now.


There are a few conclusions that Tolle reaches in both of his books I don't ring true to me, but others that do.  Read the reviews on Amazon to get an idea of what the book is like.  For me, the concept he presented of there being no problems in life is one that I liked and that helped me.  In 2008 it helped me a little, but I had to go through another refiner's fire in Costa Rica and Chile to really get it through my head.  I think the book Through His Eyes teaches the same basic concepts but from a gospel perspective (acknowledging God and not just "Being" for example), and Pearce's book was easier for me to understand and relate to. 

Still, I'd recommend Tolle's books, they each get 3 out of 5 stars, if you read them or have read them, let me know and we can discuss.  :)  Or you can know that I read both of them and this "problem" thing was the only thing that really stuck through the years, so just pretend you read them and this is what you remembered too.  :)