Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as being able to remake ourselves.
Mahatma Gandhi
1869 – 1948
Do you often feel trapped in your life — as if you can’t get ahead no matter what you do? I often work with people who feel this way. Let me share a story which will illustrate how to break out of mental traps.
This event took place in India some 2,000 years ago, in a village of about 200 people. One afternoon, an elderly man decided to go into the forest to pick fruits and nuts. He had been gone about an hour when it started to rain, so he sought shelter under a large tree.
The storm grew stronger and the winds began to really blow. He inched closer to the trunk of the tree, but the storm continued to intensify. Finally, to keep from being blown away, he wrapped his arms around the tree, holding on to the trunk with all his energy.
The storm lasted all night. In the morning, the rain stopped and the wind died down.
In the village, the storm had caused considerable damage. The leader gathered his people in the center of the village to make sure everyone was safe. There were a few people with scratches and bruises, but the biggest problem was the missing man. Someone mentioned they had seen him go into the forest right before the storm hit.
The village leader organized a search party to look for the man. They hadn’t gotten far into the forest before they heard a faint voice calling for help. As the searchers got nearer, they could hear the elderly man calling, “Help, help, save me from this tree.”
The village leader followed the sound of the voice and soon found the missing man. He was still hugging the tree and calling out, “Help, help, save me from this tree.”
The village leader walked around the tree, getting a good look at the situation. Then he approached the elderly man and said, “The tree does not have hold of you. You are holding on to the tree. All you need to do to save yourself is to simply let go.”
Most people who hear this story think that the old man was quite foolish. He should have known that as long as he clung to the tree, he would be trapped there.
We all endure emotional storms. When we’re experiencing emotional upheaval, we all seek a safe “tree” to grasp — something to protect us from the turbulence we’re feeling. And typically, we remain in the shelter of the tree long after the storm has subsided. We trap ourselves by continuing to cling to that source of temporary safety.
Unfortunately, a lot of emotional storms occur when we are quite young. We adopt beliefs about who we are and how we fit into the world, and these beliefs are often used to protect us from upheaval around us. The storms pass in time, but we continue to grasp beliefs which no longer serve us.
If you really take an honest look at what is keeping you trapped, you’ll often find that you’re holding on to something which provided safety at one time in your life but which no longer serves you: old beliefs, fears, resentments or hatreds. And all you need to do to free yourself is let go.
The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that.
Eckhart Tolle
1948 –
Copyright © 2012 John Chancellor