Four questions

I've been reading Eckart Tolle's A New Earth and have found it incredibly helpful in screwing my head back on straight. The books speaks about how human kind has a bad habit of completely identifying with its thoughts, to the point that we confuse our thoughts for who we we really are.

I've been highlighting and discussing the book with anyone who will hear me, but there were four questions that really hit home.

Eckart speaks of a time when he was working as a spiritual teacher and counsellor. He would visit a woman who had been diagnosed with Cancer and was given but months to live. He said that during their visits he showed her how to access peace in silence and they would practice this. One day, however, when he came to visit, he found the woman in great distress. Her diamond ring, once belonging to her grandmother, had gone missing and she was convinced that the care worker who looked after her a few hours each day had stolen it.

Eckart listened to the woman and advised her that while he could not tell her what to do, he had 4 questions that he would like to ask her. He explained to her that she need not answer aloud and that he would give her time to reflect after each question.

The questions were:

"Do you realise that you will have to let go of the ring at some point, perhaps quite soon?

How much more time do you need before you will be ready to let go of it?

Will you become less when you let go of it?

Has who you are become diminished by the loss?"

As I read these questions a smile came to my face. When I think of most things that have been worrying me in my life and apply these questions, I begin to see that the process of letting go is actually quite simple when I quit deriving my identity with the object/person that needs to be released.

Letting go does not mean I lose myself...