Friday 18 June 2010

Eckhart Tolle on Stillness

Ingredients:
A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach... to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs or rules of conduct... you already know... The spiritual teacher is there to uncover and reveal to you that dimension of inner depth that is also peace.

If you are looking for food for thought, you won't find it and you will miss the very essence of the teaching... which is not in the words but within yourself.

Things are getting worse and better at the same time, although the worse is more apparent because it makes so much "noise". Because the thoughts came out of stillness, they have power - the power to take you back into the same stillness from which they arose. That is the essence of your Being. It is inner stillness that will... transform the world.

Eckhart Tolle in Stillness Speaks


Directions:
Silence & Stillness
Stillness is the ground of consciousness that is your essential nature. To lose touch with it is to lose touch with yourself and to lose yourself in the world. Become aware of the breath to reconnect with it. 

Listening to outer silence awakens that awareness of inner silence that is without thought, the gap that our conditioning strives to fill with all manner of addictions. But even when there is outer "noise", we can learn from it by dropping all resistance or attachment and finding peace despite it. That is the way of nature. 

Look at a tree or a flower. Let your attention rest upon it, and just be. It will teach you stillness. Out of stillness comes a deeper intelligence and creativity. This deeper creativity is itself made of stillness, the universe and God in communion with itself. Let this stillness guide you in thought and deed through every problem.

Beyond Thought
Go beyond thought to the Christ or Buddha nature within. You are not your thoughts. Witness them arising and passing in the same way as the breath arises and dissipates. Don't take your thoughts too seriously. They are just perspectives, fragmentary visions of a unified whole. Compulsive thinking avoids what is, the here and the now.

By contrast, pure attention breaks down the barrier of separation between observer and observed, between past and future, between good and evil. Dogmas are conceptual prisons that give a false sense of security. They may be modified or replaced through time, but their underlying delusion remains: identification with thought.

We must awaken to feeling and the body is then a doorway to a deeper sense of aliveness beyond feeling and beyond thought. This involves welcoming a state of "not-knowing" which most would fear, but from this "not-knowing" a deeper non-conceptual "knowing" arises. 

A sign of identification with mind is boredom, which is hunger of the mind. We usually satisfy it, or else transform it into hunger of the body, but what if instead we recognize it, bring our awareness to this feeling and so create a peaceful space of stillness around it? Its energetic hold on us will dissipate. 

Mastery in any field is rooted in spontaneous right action that comes without thinking. It is the opposite of control. We get a taste of what it means to be alert and aware in moments of danger. Thinking stops as we fire into action. Truth goes beyond comprehension. An experience cannot be known. It can only be felt.

The Egoic Self
While the mind seeks food for thought, the ego seeks food for identity, hungry to confirm its existence and security and to continuously re-create itself in the image of its memories, likes, fears, desires and goals. The egoic self is always seeking, for complexity and for completeness. The moment we recognize that we are seeking for a future moment of completeness, we step outside of the egoic self and place our attention in the present. Resentment, reaction, prejudice: these are all by-products of ego that separate "me" from "not-me". Observe and recognize all labels of exclusion and "other" and all attempts at possession, both good and bad, including subtle possessions such as envy and guilt. By all means, set goals, but not for self-enhancement. "No self, no problem" said one Buddhist master. The goals are but signposts along the way. Life is in the journey, in the Now.

The Now
When the Now is the foundation and primary focus of your life, then your life unfolds with ease. Looking forward and looking back create undercurrents of tension which we need to release. Breathe in and feel the aliveness in the body. This anchors you in the Now. There is an alertness, a sense of sacredness in all things. A simple but radical spiritual practice is to accept whatever arises in the Now, within and without. When you say "yes" to what is, you become aligned to the power and intelligence of life itself. Many people confuse the Now with the contents of this moment. The Now is deeper than any content that arises in it. You step out of content into a spacious stillness. I am not the content of my life. I am life. I am consciousness. I am the sace in which all things happen. I am the Now. I am.

True Self
Peace is internal. It comes from recognizing who you are at the deepest level. Rearranging circumstances only brings peace to our false sense of self. This realization of true self cannot be looked forward to. It is always in the Now and you are it, not its object. The very reason why egoic identity arose is because mentally you made yourself into an object. "That's me" you say, and then you tell others and yourself your story. But you cannot make an object out of your true self. It is the awareness in which phenomenal existence happens, and knowing this, you become free of dependency on phenomena and self-seeking. Things lose their heaviness and a playfulness arises, the world becomes a cosmic dance. Desire and fear add nothing and take nothing from your Being.

Surrender & Acceptance

Wherever you go, there you are. Do not label, reacting with like and dislike as this creates conflict. The reactive "no" strengthens the ego, while surrender to what is weakens it. In whatever you do, do it totally, and do it one thing at a time without resistance. This surrender to life is to identify with the depths of your Being like the depths of a lake. You may be happy or sad, but these are ripples on the surface. The background peace remains undisturbed throughout. It is not a fatalistic surrender to some interpretation of those ripples. Rather, it's a recognition that they don't matter all that much. Surrender comes when you no longer ask "Why me?" It is in the acceptance of the unacceptable, such as in the face of impending death when so many men and women throughout history have found "the peace that surpasseth all understanding". It is in accepting impossibility and unknowability that we find grace. 

It is a shift from reaction to the space around reaction, from our identification with form to being and recognizing yourself as that which has no form. Whatever you accept completely will being you peace, including acceptance that you cannot accept. Let it be.

42 comments:

  1. All excellent! I see you have picked up, "Stillness Speaks" :D
    Great stuff contained in this little book as you can see :)))))

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  2. Ah, yes! I'm still a lost-in-thought person myself... I find it very hard to just let these ideas settle....... the stuff about surrender and acceptance really gets me restless and annoyed, my "egoic self" that is... doesn't like it at all, lol.

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  3. LOL - No ego certainly doesn't. Which is which I re-read my books. To reinforce spirit and give my ego another push away. Yes, the acceptance part is hard. But if you can do it and maintain it....."herein lies PEACE."

    I highly recommend, "The Power of Now."
    Amazing book.

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  4. Actually I have a list of excellent books. The "keepers" I buy and I have a little collection.

    I have told my daughter if anything were to happen to me, she needed to promise me 2 things: 1.) college 2.) read my spiritual books. That's all I ask.

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  5. I think those two are almost contradictory, like yin and yang, or left brain and right brain, but if we can strike a balance and do both, then that is best. It's so easy though to get lost in one or the other.

    Also, I think that they can't be set up as targets like that, because once the targets are completed, what then? It must be a continuous endeavour. Learning doesn't stop when we're out of college, and speaking from my own experience, it's so easy for the spiritual to be read but not practiced.

    So, ... be more demanding! ;^)

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  6. Yes. It is constant work for sure.
    But reading also plants the seeds .... and they take root and grow.
    Of course they grow faster if you "tend" to them ;)
    And as we know a garden takes constant "tending" or there are "weeds"....

    Continual stalking of the ego is required.

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  7. Stalking the ego... I know of indirectly from Deano.

    Oh, by the way, care to share the "list"?

    If I were to make a list of spiritual books, I suddenly realize that I wouldn't have read any of my own recommendations, like the books of Jean Klein. Mostly, I know stuff indirectly, or extracts of.

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  8. Here are some:
    Conversations with God series; 3 books - Neale Donald Walsch
    Tomorrow's God - NDW
    The New Revelations - NDW
    The Seat of the Soul - Gary Zukav
    The Heart of the Soul - Gary Zukav
    The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
    How to Know God - Deepak Chopra
    Your Erroneous Zones - Dr. Wayne Dyer (and others by him)
    A Course in Miracles
    The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
    A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
    The Path Less Traveled - Peck
    Women who run with the Wolves - Clarissa Estes
    Emotional Intelligence - Goleman
    The Four Agreements - Miguel Ruiz

    These are some of my personal favorites....

    I am getting into the teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castenada (Deano's favorites and where you heard the term "Stalking the Ego" and the "Warrior" and a "Path with Heart")

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  9. As I remember more, I'll let you know. I have some of them packed away...

    Oh..

    "Please Understand Me II" - Keirsey (about personality typing - way cool!)
    "The Five Love Languages" - Chapman
    "The Essential Carl Jung" - ?

    I'll add more as I remember :)

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  10. I think my list would be very different if I made it now. I have three or four of the books you've mentioned, and of those I've read about one. I'm saving the rest up. ;^) I dip into these kinds of books, lots in the Buddhist tradition also, like those by Thich Nhat Hanh, so I honestly can't say I've read any of them!

    As for what I have read... "Anam Cara" by John O'Donohue I would recommend, and the first book I read which introduced me to a wide spectrum of things was "Living Yoga" which is a collection of articles from different branches of yoga, and it was there I found out about Jean Klein.

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  11. "Things are getting worse and better at the same time, although the worse is more apparent because it makes so much "noise". Because the thoughts came out of stillness, they have power - the power to take you back into the same stillness from which they arose. That is the essence of your Being. It is inner stillness that will... transform the world."


    So true!!!!!!!!!

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  12. "Mastery in any field is rooted in spontaneous right action that comes without thinking. It is the opposite of control. We get a taste of what it means to be alert and aware in moments of danger. Thinking stops as we fire into action. Truth goes beyond comprehension. An experience cannot be known. It can only be felt."


    I have tried to express this but did not know how! I love it!

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  13. "Many people confuse the Now with the contents of this moment. The Now is deeper than any content that arises in it. You step out of content into a spacious stillness. I am not the content of my life. I am life. I am consciousness. I am the space in which all things happen. I am the Now. I am."

    Yes.... content of the moment confusion.

    The spill threw me for a loop recently. Fear. which is leaving the present and worrying about a possible or probable future...

    But at some point, I realized that even if it does get into our city, I will be able to figure out what to do to keep us safe no matter what. So, I let it go.

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  14. Wow Lee!

    What a list that is!

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  15. I was reading today (it was on this BBC site that Meerkat posted) that women in general have a corpus collosum that is larger than men in general... ( that is the bridge between the left and right brain).

    But I wonder if this is because of non use or if it one of the differences among males and females as a result of hormones levels while developing in the womb as they seem to think.

    Apparently, I think more like a Male than a female. Males are more right brained... that surprised me...the average women scored minus 50, and the average man scored plus 50. I scored 25. But a few of the tests, I was so right brain dominant that I think it skewed the results.

    I think there is more research is needed to discover the left brain/right brain thing... I am beginning to wonder if there are fallacies in current assumptions...I am going to get the link to the site. I really think you will find the test fascinating.

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  16. Thanks, many thanks Cyn, for your highlights and insights. I am contemplating them and wishing the best for you.

    I think Four Agreements will be the next I read from Lee's list.

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  17. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml

    this is the link to the test from Meerkatz site.

    this is her post....I am not sure if she made it available to everyone so this is why I gave you the direct link to the test.

    http://meerkatz007.multiply.com/journal/item/1397/_THE_DIFFERENCES_BETWEEN_WOMEN_AND_MEN?replies_read=16

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  18. That might explain multi-tasking. I saw that post by meerkatz coincidentally, but I didn't have flash enabled...on the mobile...so couldn't take the test. I will try it later!

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  19. Males are more right-brained...ahhh, that's why females are better at language. But it's still surprising because women are also more intuitive.

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  20. That test is really a good instrument for looking at one's strengths in certain areas...

    yes!!!!!!!!!!! you already see the contradiction!

    It is about the choices we make...

    Women use right brain functions for different things than males based on social upbringing maybe?

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  21. Oh by the way, I really sucked at the verbal part of the test. I scored lower than most males LOL

    Finding words is a huge struggle for me


    But in the spatial matching test, I only missed two out of 12...

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  22. It was 'to everyone'. There are no direct links on Multiply. Private posts really are supposed to be private. Though these networking sites are known to make security gaffes.

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  23. All of mine are to contacts with a few exception due to the personal things I write.....

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  24. Funny, because I know from the past I'm the opposite. Spatial useless. Otherwise male-brain typical.

    One finger typing on a mobile here so sorry for the lag. Night-night! (((((Cyn)))))

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  25. Sorry Cyn, I was making assumptions. Using a mobile allows me to communicate, but doesn't allow me to express myself properly. It's a dilemma. I think I should stop using the mobile for this.

    On the subject of which, I think a real issue in the modern world is how to stay in the stillness of the Now when using technology?

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  26. What assumptions?


    I found nothing for you to be sorry for?


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  27. Well, I scored -25, so female! Mostly, I was male-dominant or neutral, except for my right hand which had longer index finger(!), the word-game which I did pretty well at, and curiously the face-attraction choices. For the 3d spatial test it was funny - I only managed to answer four and a half out of six and I was totally guessing thinking, oh! I'm so bad at this, but 8 of my 9 choices ended up being right somehow.

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  28. I was assuming it was night for you...

    "Women use right brain functions for different things than males based on social upbringing maybe?"

    "I think there is more research needed to discover the left brain/right brain thing... I am beginning to wonder if there are fallacies in current assumptions..."

    Interesting thoughts...

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  29. Something I notice I do is I try to conceptualize something so that I "know" I'm getting the right answer. I find a method for working out the "type" of problem being asked. The reason why I was so doubtful about my spatial answers is because I don't have time in that test to find a "method" and check I'm getting my answers right. But it seems I did ok anyway. This is as opposed to the "angles" test where immediately I have a method, namely: "with which line does it form a parallelogram?" and the test becomes very easy then.

    The "method"-approach is almost certainly left brain, and is essential for anything where consistency, say 90% or more is desired. So when exactness is more important than quick answers likely to be right.

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  30. exactly! that is why some of the tests have penalties for wrong answers because studies have found that when people guess ( or use the right brian) they get it correct!

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  31. I took this test but posted results on Tiina's link ;)

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  32. Ah, you must have scored positive on the systematization test...awhile back, I was very interested in process or systems but it was making me obsessive. So I abandoned it.


    Part of this is due to lifestyle. I had a full time job, 2 kids, a husband who worked out of town more than half of the time and housework.... In the beginning it seemed important to discover the most efficient way of doing things. But I found it did not matter as there was always an unforeseen obstacle preventing me doing this. So, I just gave up.

    still I could not care less about the components of machines...

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  33. Thanks Lee... I've gone over to Tiina site also now. :^)

    Cyn, I'm not systematic in the grand scheme, but I love systems. When something has a system, it gets done consistently and quickly.

    But there are many things I don't have systems for, and part of me wishes I did... for example "how to read?"... how to both enjoy a book (right-brain), and also preserve the memories (left-brain)... it's incredibly difficult to do both in the same reading. I'd almost need to re-read the whole book a second time to "remember" the bits that caught me the first time when I was fully absorbed.

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  34. I also gave an example over on Tiina's site of my systematizing tendencies:

    I remember as a kid, I'd been playing chess for a while and the chess board is numbered a,b,c, ..., h across and 1,2,3,...,8 up, and after playing a while you have a picture of the board in your head, so to develop this, the guy at our chess club decided to test us a8, white or black?, d4, white or black? etc. ... I found this really difficult to begin with, but I quickly did a calculation... add the number of the letter across to the number up, e.g. e4 = 5+4=9 and if the number is even, then the square is black, if odd, then it's white... having worked this out I could fire off answers really quickly, but of course when the guy found out he complained I was "cheating" his test. ;^)

    I definitely see it as a good thing though!

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  35. Great post, Okei and interesting discussion.

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  36. I missed this...

    I read memory was stored in the right brain...

    There is a method for remembering. ( I won't get into it as probably know it already) It involves transferring to the left brain- but that is for recall because the left brain deals with verbal centers. But reading itself involves visual which is right brain.

    I remember in college, I never read anything for enjoyment much because I did so much reading with a mind to recall it. But once I was finished, I started reading for fun again.

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  37. Tiina said something great in response to this... over on her blog...
    "I took part in a yoga course once, and there was this hindu teacher. Everybody started complaining that there was too much noise coming from outside and so he taught us to think that every sound that comes takes us deeper in meditation: Another way is to make everything blend into the background. I feel that having learned TM is the greatest asset that one can have in this. You can meditate (or sleep, or work) with any kind of noise going on: It's the effect of mantra meditation, basically mindfulness meditation."

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  38. Thanks, Nancy!

    Cyn, I didn't know it was stored in the right, but I guess that would make sense. It explains why we "forget" things so easily. Left brain then is like the "processor" or RAM, and right is the "hard disk". Is that about right or a hopeless generalization?

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