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BlueStar
November 1st, 2009, 03:37 PM
I decided to create a thread about the work of Eckhart Tolle, for he is perhaps the most influential spiritual teacher in my life and his work has literally transformed my experience of life. He is a shining light in our world, a true enlightened master, who in the past 10 years has emerged as one of the most influential spiritual teachers in the world. Last year he did a free 10 week web class series with Oprah which was downloaded by tens of millions of people all across the world, and which has surely helped facilitate much awakening.

I would like to post some videos and quotes, for everyone to enjoy his teachings....which are the essence of simplicity itself.

His two books, “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth” are both superlative works and have become modern spiritual classics. If I became president of the world, I’d make sure that both of these books were compulsory reading for all :) They truly are blueprints for eradicating suffering, dissolving the ego and pain body and, by relinquishing what he calls ‘psychological time’ (our deeply rooted dependency on past and future), we can awaken to what we are...here and NOW.

Eckhart’s awakening happened when he was 29 years old. His early life was marked by tremendous psychological suffering and he even suffered bouts of suicidal depression. Then one day, when he was 29 years old, he reached rock bottom and finally decided that he "couldn't live with himself". In that moment, a lightbulb flashed inside his mind and he suddenly realised the paradox inherent in those words: who is this 'me' that 'I' can't live with? Such a statement implies that we are somehow split into two: a 'me' and an 'I'. Think about it, it's common to say things like 'I don't like myself', or 'I'm proud of myself', or 'I'm not confident with myself'. But who is this 'me' and who is the 'I' that is aware of 'me' and 'myself'? In that moment of awakening, Eckhart finally snapped out of this split personality disorder which people take as 'normal' and woke up to reality: there only is one 'I' - there only can be one I, and the rest is just 'ego', a fictitious 'false self' created by the mind, an illusion of consciousness, and the primary cause of all our suffering.

Eckhart's two books have been life-savers for me. For anyone who has suffered enough in life, I totally recommend his work. What sets it aside from most other spiritual teachings is the lucidity and simplicity. The ultimate truth is so soooo simple. And it’s almost impossible to encapsulate in words, but Eckhart is gifted in the way he creates such helpful pointers toward that truth.

He talks about how to relinquish suffering by dis-identifying from the ego (the false 'me') and also dealing with what he calls the 'pain body', which is basically a repository of painful/unresolved emotion that is lodged in our pysche and which is triggered by painful events, patterns and relationships. I have studied degree level psychology and Tolle's books are far superior to any psychology texts I have ever read. His teaching is simple, powerful, practical, insightful and if you put it into practise, you'll be amazed at how much more at peace you will be with life and how much joy can be found in each moment.

I truly believe that his work is a gift to the world and something that is desperately needed right now. As Eckhart says in the first chapter of 'A New Earth', we're simply not going to survive as a species unless we move beyond the collective insanity that has characterised the human race throughout history and start waking up to who we truly are. It's not a difficult process, in fact nothing could be simpler, so long as we have an open mind and heart and are willing to let go of all the beliefs/thoughts/identifications that have held us back. But it's so vital. Right now, the human race has a stark choice: evolve or die.

BlueStar
November 1st, 2009, 03:43 PM
Here is an interview Eckhart did with Oprah. It's been a while since I've watched the whole thing but I believe it's a great introduction to his teaching. Hope you enjoy :)

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(I can't seem to get part 3 to work, don't know if it's just me. If not, this and the rest of the interview can be downloaded as a free podcast on itunes under Oprah.com's Spirit Channel)

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BlueStar
November 1st, 2009, 06:22 PM
"The collective disease of humanity is that people are so engrossed in what happens, so hypnotised by the world of fluctuating forms, so absorbed in the context of their lives, they have forgotten the essence which is beyond content, beyond form, beyond thought. They are so consumed by time that they have forgotten eternity, which is the living reality of who you are."

"There are no random events, nor are there events or things that exist by and for themselves, in isolation. The atoms of your body were once forged inside the stars; the causes of even the smallest events are virtually infinite and connected with the whole in incomprehensible ways. The very word ‘cosmos’ means order."

"How to be at peace right now? By making peace with the present moment. Three words convey the secret of all success and happiness: One with life. Being one with life is being one with now. You then realise that you don't live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer and you are the dance."

"All misery on the planet arises due to a personalised sense of "me" or "us". That covers up the essence of who you are. When you are unaware of that inner essence, in the end you always create misery. When you don't know who you are, you create a mind-made self as a substitute for your beautiful divine being and cling to that fearful and needy self. Protecting and enhancing this false sense of self then becomes your primary motivating force."

"You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realising who you are at the deepest level."

"Do you need more knowledge? Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity needs most at this time? But what is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual awareness within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions."

"Many expressions in common usage, and sometimes the structure of language itself, reveal the fact that people don't know who they are. You say: "he lost his life" or "my life", as if life was something you can possess or lose. The truth is: you don't have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or a blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.

Can you sense deep within that you already know that? Can you sense that you already are That?"

"Once there is a certain degree of presence, of still and alert attention in human beings' perception, they can sense the divine life essence, the one indwelling consciousness in every creature, every life-form and recognise it as one with their own essence and so love it as themselves. Until this happens, however, most humans see only the outer forms, unaware of their own essence and identify only with their own physical and psychological form."

"You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge."

"Whenever tragic loss occurs you either resist or yield. Some people become bitter or deeply resentful; others become compassionate, wise and loving. Yielding means inner acceptance of what is. You are open to life. Resistance is an inner contraction, a hardening of the shell of ego. You are closed. When you yield internally, when you surrender, a new dimension of consciousness opens up. If action is possible or necessary, your action will be in alignment with the whole and supported by creative intelligence, the unconditioned consciousness which is in a state of inner openness. You become one with it."

"Mastery of life is a question of finding a balance between human and Being. Human alone is never enough, no matter how hard you try or what you achieve. Then here is Being. It is found in the still, alert presence of consciousness itself, the consciousness that you are. Human is form. Being is formless. Human and Being are not separate but interwoven."

Rana
November 3rd, 2009, 09:49 AM
so glad you have posted the work that comes through Eckart .. thankyou my friend xx

BlueStar
November 3rd, 2009, 04:57 PM
You are most welcome Rana :) Glad you like it. I'm gonna keep this thread alive. I've found just typing out his words brings a certain level of presence. :two hearts:

BlueStar
November 3rd, 2009, 05:02 PM
Some quotes from "The Power of Now"...

Imagine the Earth devoid of human life, inhabited only by plants and animals. Would it still have a past and a future? Could we still speak of time in any meaningful way? The question “what time is it?” or “what day is it today?” - if anybody were there to ask it - would be quite meaningless. The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such a question. “What time?” they would ask. “Well, of course, it’s now. The time is now. What else is there?”

The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is.

The mind, to ensure that it remains in control, seeks continuously to cover up the present moment with past and future, and so, as the vitality and infinite creative potential of Being, which is inseparable from the Now, becomes covered up by time, your true nature is obscured by the mind.

How to stop creating time? Realise deeply that the present moment is all that you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life [...] Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your life.

You are in the here and now, while your mind is in the future. This creates an anxiety gap. And if you are identified with your mind and have lost touch with the power and simplicity of the Now, that anxiety gap will be your constant companion. You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection - you cannot cope with the future.

The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness beyond that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as “my or our God is the only true God and your God is false” or Nietzche’s famous statement “God is dead”.

Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” - and find out that there is no death.

Stargazer
November 3rd, 2009, 06:10 PM
The secret of life is to “die before you die” - and find out that there is no death.


Thanks for sharing Expo :Boy_yes3:

BlueStar
November 6th, 2009, 07:49 PM
Thanks for sharing Expo :Boy_yes3:

You're very welcome my friend :) More will follow!

Mr. Brightside
November 8th, 2009, 12:03 PM
Love this quote


Some quotes from "The Power of Now"...

Imagine the Earth devoid of human life, inhabited only by plants and animals. Would it still have a past and a future? Could we still speak of time in any meaningful way? The question “what time is it?” or “what day is it today?” - if anybody were there to ask it - would be quite meaningless. The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such a question. “What time?” they would ask. “Well, of course, it’s now. The time is now. What else is there?”




Thanks for posting these videos and quotes Rory, look forward to some more of Eckharts insights and wisdom, :)

BlueStar
November 8th, 2009, 12:09 PM
Love this quote




Thanks for posting these videos and quotes Rory, look forward to some more of Eckharts insights and wisdom, :)

You're welcome Sean, I'm glad you liked them. I have plenty more to share. There's nothing I love more than being able to share things that have helped and inspired me....spreading around a little inspiration is just a cool thing to do hehe :spinny:

BlueStar
November 13th, 2009, 10:43 AM
Some pics of Eckhart Tolle with the Dalai Lama. Two of the biggest spiritual teachers in my life together, this is just cool :)

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/amoyan/091015_top_tolle.jpg

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/amoyan/1171973_com_eckhart_to.png

More quotes from The Power of Now. Enjoy!

Imagine a ray of sunlight that has forgotten it is an inseparable part of the sun and deludes itself into believing it has to fight for survival and create and cling to an identity other than the sun. Would the death of this delusion not be incredibly liberating?

If you were conscious, that is to say totally present in the Now, all negativity would dissolve almost instantly. It cannot survive in your presence.

If you looked in the mirror and did not like what you saw, you would have to be mad to attack the image in the mirror. That is precisely what you do when you are in a state of nonacceptance. And, of course, if you attack the image, it attacks you back. If you accept the image, no matter what it is, if you become friendly toward it, it cannot not become friendly toward you. This is how you change the world.

Anything “bad” that happens in your life - use it for enlightenment. Let it force you into intense present-moment awareness - and see what happens. Become an alchemist. Transmute base metal into gold, suffering into consciousness, disaster into enlightenment.

To be identified with the mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honour and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be.

The whole essence of Zen consists in walking along the razor’s edge of Now - to be so utterly, so completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not who you are in your essence, can survive in you. In the Now, in the absence of time, all your problems dissolve. Suffering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now.

The mind cannot know the tree. It can only know facts or information about the tree. My mind cannot know you, only labels, judgements, facts, and opinions about you. Being alone knows directly.

The present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not “this moment”.

There is no salvation in time. You cannot be free in the future. Presence is the key to freedom, so you can only be free now.

It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.

The mind always adheres to the known. The unknown is dangerous because it has no control over it. That’s why the mind dislikes and ignores the present moment.

Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one; the step you are taking right now.

Don’t turn away from pain. Face it. Feel it fully. Feel it - don’t think about it! Express it if necessary, but don’t create a script in your mind around it. Give all your attention to the feeling, not to the person, event, or situation that seems to have caused it. Stay alert, stay present - present with your whole Being, with every cell of your body. As you do so, you are bringing a light into this darkness. This is the flame of your consciousness.

Enlightenment consciously chosen means to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to make the Now the main focus of your life.

Surrender is the simple but profound act of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.

BlueStar
January 10th, 2010, 07:47 PM
When I read and re-read A New Earth I was so inspired that I took a lot of notes, and I refer to them often. I thought I would share some, for those who would like some bitesize chunks of deep wisdom. Enjoy. More will follow when I get the chance.

From "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle

"Once there is a certain degree of presence, of still and alert attention in human beings' perception, they can sense the divine life essence, the one indwelling consciousness in every creature, every life-form, recognise it as one with their own essence, and so love it as themselves. Until this happens, however, most humans see only the outer forms, unaware of their inner essence, just as they are unaware of their own essence, and identify only with their own physical and psychological form."

"If the history of humanity were the clinical case history of a single human being, the diagnosis would be: chronic paranoid delusions, a pathological propensity to commit murder and acts of extreme violence and cruelty against his perceived 'enemies' - his own unconsciousness projected outward. Criminally insane, with a few brief lucid intervals."

"You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you and allowing that goodness to emerge."

"We are witnessing not only an unprecedented influx of consciousness at this time, but also an entrenchment and intensification of ego."

"Words cast an almost hypnotic spell over you. You lose yourself in them, become hypnotised into believing that when you have attached a word to something, you know what it is. The fact is: you don't know what it is. You have only covered up the mystery with a label. Everything, a bird, a tree, even a simple stone, and certainly a human being, is ultimately unknowable. It has unfathomable depth. All we can perceive, experience, think about, is the surface level of reality, less than the tip of the iceberg."

"When you don't cover up your world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life, that was lost a long time ago when humanity, instead of using thought, became possessed by thought. A depth returns to your life. Things regain their newness, their freshness."

"The ego, the illusory sense of self, is what Albert Einstein called "an optical delusion of consciousness."

"What you usually refer to when you say "I" is not who you are. By a monstrous act of reductionism, the infinite depth of who you are is confused with a sound produced by the vocal cords or the thought of "I" in your mind and whatever the "I" is identified with."

"Ego is a conglomeration of recurring thought forms and conditioned mental-emotional patterns that are invested with a sense of "I", a sense of self. Ego arrives when your sense of Beingness, of "I am", which is formless consciousness, gets mixed up with form."

"The unconscious compulsion to enhance one's identity through association with an object is built into the very structure of the egoic mind."

"One of the unconscious assumptions is that by identifying with an object through the fiction of 'ownership', the apparent solidity and permanency of that material object will endow your sense of self with greater solidity and permanency."

"How do you let go of attachment to things? You don't even try. Attachment to things drops away the moment you no longer seek to find yourself in them."

"The thought forms of "me" and "mine", of "more than", of "I want", "I need", "I must have" and of "not enough" pertain not to the content but the structure of the ego. The content is interchangable."

"No content will satisfy you, as long as the egoic structure remains in place. No matter what you get, you won't be happy. You will always be looking for something else that promises greater fulfilment, that promises to make your incomplete sense of self complete and fill that sense of lack you feel within you."

"Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because it is the experience you are having at this moment."

Lion Spirit Walker
January 11th, 2010, 01:15 AM
I love this, and thank you very much for sharing it my good friend.

Truth.
:cool.3:

BlueStar
January 11th, 2010, 06:54 PM
I love this, and thank you very much for sharing it my good friend.

Truth.
:cool.3:

You are so welcome, Michael, I love sharing things that have inspired and helped me. I'm glad to spread it around :)

BlueStar
January 19th, 2010, 12:08 PM
“Your physical energy is also subject to cycles. It cannot always be at a peak. There will be times of low as well as high energy. There will be periods when you are highly active and creative, but there may also be times when everything seems stagnant, when it seems that you are not getting anywhere, not achieving anything. A cycle can last for anything from a few hours to a few years. There are large cycles and small cycles within these large ones. Many illnesses are created through fighting against the cycles of low energy, which are vital for regeneration. The compulsion to do, and the tendency to derive your sense of self-worth and identity from external factors such as achievement, is an inevitable illusion as long as you are identified with your mind. This makes it hard or impossible for you to accept the low cycles and allow them to be. Thus, intelligence of the organism may take over as a self-protective measure and create illness in order to force you to stop, so that the necessary regeneration can take place.” Eckhart Tolle

I really needed to read that....repeatedly :)

BlueStar
January 27th, 2010, 04:48 PM
I liked this so much I transcribed it from one of Eckhart's online meditations.

“That out of which the Big Bang came never disappeared. The uncreated, the unmanifested, the unborn reality that underlies the world didn’t disappear when the world came into being. It’s just hiding in every form...as its essence. The Buddha talked about that 2,600 years ago. He said to his monks, ‘There is the uncreated, the unborn, the unmanifested. If there were not the uncreated, the unborn, the unmanifested, there would be no escape from the world of the born, the created and the manifested’.”

BlueStar
June 6th, 2010, 02:48 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deq_1lg9Dlo