Last month I explained that as a psychotherapist and meditation teacher my goal is to help others connect with their “soul wisdom,” the inner compass we can rely on to handle challenging emotions or situations as they arise. Just how do we access our soul wisdom? We can look to two widely-respected spiritual teachers for some perspective.
Eckhart Tolle on Presence and Identity
Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now, teaches that true happiness and freedom resides in the still, present moment. Here lies the deepest intuition, creative action, knowledge and joy. These qualities are available to all of us—not just the special few—because they are fundamental to our very nature as conscious beings.
What hinders access to the deepest truth of our being is compulsive thinking—that is the tendency of the mind to chatter incessantly. The “voice in the head” obsesses about the past and future, about problems we think we have. Often it consists of habitual, repetitive thoughts shaped by memories, reactive patterns, negative emotions and early conditioning. Typically, we derive our whole identity (“the story of me”) from this endless stream of thinking.
To break free from the tyranny of thinking, Tolle suggests the practice of mindful awareness of the present moment, even for just a few minutes at a time. In that stillness, we can observe our thinking and realize that the interior dialogue is not who we really are. Our identity gradually shifts to that spacious awareness, which is the source of the deepest wisdom and intelligence. It is from this place that we can best meet life challenges and heal our psychic wounds.
Pema Chödrön on Discomfort and Transformation
Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart, counsels people on how to deal with difficult times in life. She says it really boils down to how we approach challenging situations—situations that can help us grow. The typical response is to avoid them with a variety of distractions and addictions. But attempting to escape that which makes us uncomfortable only increases the suffering.
The more productive response, says Chödrön, is to remain present with our feelings of uneasiness, sadness, anger, fear, etc. “It’s when we stay with uncertainty and discomfort without trying to fix it that we connect with our own innate joy, wisdom, and love.”
Chödrön calls this practice “spiritual detox,” which involves asking ourselves a series of questions when negative emotions become too intense to bear. Think about the outer situation: what just happened to provoke your discomfort? What feeling has this brought up: anger, fear, sadness? And what “strategy” do you habitually use to avoid the rawness of this feeling? Finally, let the avoidance strategy go and stay with the experience for five, ten, even thirty minutes. “If you’re willing to stay with your neurosis — not act it out, not repress it, not fix it — then your own wisdom guide will come forth,” she says.
Staying Present as a Path to Soul Wisdom
So, for both Tolle and Chödrön true “soul wisdom” lies in the clear experience of the present moment. If we abide in the here and now, there is the real prospect of deep healing and self-realization through spiritual counseling.