I am reading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. I'm into the first couple of chapters, and I am really enjoying it. Although, I don't agree entire entirely with his philosophy. He sees heaven as something we achieve within ourselves. I believe heaven is a real place that may begin inside of us, but is also the place our spirits go when our bodies die. No matter that our philosophies differ, the book is really thought provoking and possibly conscience changing for many. He asks people to look at the importance of "things" in their lives, and encourages the reader to examine how they use things to build themselves up or create false importance in their life.
Here is my Things List:
My furniture
My truck
My basement
My T.V.
My IPOD
How does this have to do with diet? It does in a huge way. One of the "things" can actually be self image. Although, our bodies ultimately wrinkle up and decay, we build up our images on our bodies. No matter if we take the self concept of beauty or ugliness, it is still a false sense of self because ultimately our bodies decay back into dirt and we are left with nothing that was based on a bodily self concept. Whether good or bad, if our self concept comes from our bodies--it is false.
Here is my Things List:
My furniture
My truck
My basement
My T.V.
My IPOD
How does this have to do with diet? It does in a huge way. One of the "things" can actually be self image. Although, our bodies ultimately wrinkle up and decay, we build up our images on our bodies. No matter if we take the self concept of beauty or ugliness, it is still a false sense of self because ultimately our bodies decay back into dirt and we are left with nothing that was based on a bodily self concept. Whether good or bad, if our self concept comes from our bodies--it is false.
I've read this debate on many blogs especially those of the successful weight loss bloggers. I've heard more than one person say that they can't really imagine that fat people are completely happy. However, I think a fat person can be completely happy especially if they don't base their self worth from their body. The next step that Tolle talks about, in the book, is how to stop creating self worth that is body related. I will leave that for another post, as it is completely fascinating. Also, I'd like to try it before I write about it.
2 comments:
I'm not sure that I agree. A fat person will always know that he/she is not doing the best for his/her body and health. Nobody is happy living with a ticking time bomb! Or when your weight and the health issues associated with it prevent you from realizing your dreams of motherhood, etc.
Hanlie,
You make really good points. Being fat often makes life challenging/or extremely painful. However, for me I believe that happiness is more abstract although it's definitely something that can be found and felt. It's a light/vibration inside of you. (Christians might call that light Jesus) My happiness is not based on me being a mom or my fatness. Tolle says something about this in the book that helped me understand what he is talking about. He thinks most people think they should get joy from their passions. (i,e motherhood etc...) That is not true. Joy flows the other way. It flows from you to your passion. Joy can exist without all the things that supposedly create our identity. It only needs a body to flow from.
Also, it's got to be alot easier to change an outer shell like the body when the inner shell is full of joy and happiness. It also will change your reasons for weight loss because it will no longer be based on shallow beauty and more likely to be based on important things like health and having healthy kids.
That's just how I see it.
Selma
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