Personal development: The implications of acceptance August 31, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.Tags: acceptance, controlling ego, Eckhart Tolle, life, philosophy, resistance, surrender, The Power of Now, writing
add a comment
In much of the literature of personal growth theory there is a repeating theme of the need to bring the practice of acceptance into our lives.
We are told that without adhering to the principle of acceptance, we will be frozen into the judgemental world we are trying so hard to escape through programs directed at reaching our full personal development potential.
Eckhart Tolle, in his book, Practicing the Power of Now, views acceptance as a form of surrender, and compares it with its opposite, resistance: “Bondage or inner freedom from external conditions. Suffering or inner peace.”
Non-surrender ultimately means expending significant intellectual and moral energy on the act and implications of resistance:
“If you can never accept what is, by implication you will not be able to accept anybody the way they are. You will judge, criticize, label, reject, or attempt to change people.”
— Dennis Mellersh
Allowing the diminishment of the ego April 1, 2014
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management.Tags: A New Earth, awareness, controlling ego, Eckhart Tolle, ego management, managing the ego, personal development, personal growth, philosophy, spirituality
add a comment
As we have learned in our ongoing efforts with our personal development, our ego can have a negative effect on our ability to realize our growth goals.
This is because the ego frequently works against what we consciously know to be our best interests.
Eckhart Tolle has written and spoken extensively about these negative tendencies of the ego and of how we can control or better manage the ego’s destructive tendencies.
In his book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Tolle offers a number of techniques to accomplish this.
One of these is “allowing the diminishment of the ego.”
Tolle considers the emotion of anger to be one of the ego’s main repair mechanisms. He cites the example of our being in a situation in which the ego wants us to react with immediate angry words.
Instead, Tolle suggests we resist the urge to react immediately and defensively. Instead, say nothing for a few moments, collect ourselves, and then speak with deliberation and calmness.
Reacting with anger Tolle says, “causes a temporary, but huge ego inflation.”
By contrast, reacting with calmness, yet still responding firmly and clearly, “diminishes” the ego and its defensiveness…There will be power behind your words, yet no reactive force,” Tolle explains.
By practicing this frequently, the ego’s repair mechanism of anger is thwarted, and the ego is diminished, thus making us more conscious and in better control.
Personal Development Ideas 