BEST of PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 by Eckhart Tolle in THE POWER OF NOW

“You may have heard the phrase “turn the other cheek,” which a great teacher of enlightenment used 2,000 years ago. He was attempting to convey symbolically the secret of nonresistance and non-reaction. In this statement, as in all his others, he was concerned only with your inner reality, not with the outer conduct of your life.

Do you know the story of Banzan? Before he became a great Zen master, he spent many years in the pursuit of enlightenment, but it eluded him. Then one day, as he was walking in the marketplace, he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. “Give me the best piece of meat you have,” said the customer. And the butcher replied, “Every piece of meat I have is the best. There is no piece of meat here that is not the best.” Upon hearing this, Banzan became enlightened.

I can see you are waiting for some explanation.

When you accept what is, every piece of meat — every moment — is the best. That is enlightenment.”

Eckhart Tolle, in “The Power of Now”

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Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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