Taking responsibility for my consciousness with Eckart Tolle
About Eckhart Tolle:
Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany, where he spent the first thirteen years of his life. After graduating from the University of London, he was a research scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University. When he was twenty-nine, a profound spiritual transformation virtually dissolved his old identity and radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey.
Eckhart Tolle is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. In his teaching, he conveys a simple yet profound message with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters: there is a way out of suffering and into peace.
Tolle uses points of many other teachers, e.g. Nisargadatta, Ramana, and especially Krishnamurti. Tolle’s talent is that he is able to see and articulate how the various teachings and the great religions have the same truth at their core. His insight is evidenced by the fact that he can penetrate the cultural and interpretative biases and then convey the essence of each in comprehensible contemporary terminology.
Eckhart Tolle:
Be present as the watcher of your mind — of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don’t judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don’t make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.
You are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien universe, briefly suspended between life and death, allowed a few short-lived pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be spoken of – yet I am speaking of it now. I am speaking of it now not to give you something to believe in but to show you how you can know it for yourself.
All the misery on the planet arises due to a personalized 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. It’s as simple as that. 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 that false sense of self then becomes your primary motivating force. As long as you are unable to access the power of the Now, every emotional pain that you experience leaves behind a residue of pain that lives on in you.
Humanity is under great pressure to evolve because it is our only chance of survival as a race. This will affect every aspect of your life and close relationships in particular. Never before have relationships been as problematic and conflict ridden as they are now. As you may continue to pursue the goal of salvation through a relationship, you will be disillusioned again and again. But if you accept that the relationship is here to make you conscious instead of happy, then the relationship will offer you salvation, and you will be aligning yourself with the higher consciousness that wants to be born into this world. For those who hold to the old patterns, there will be increasing pain, violence, confusion, and madness.
Is the desire to take personal responsibility for things in life purely ego-based? In response to this important question from one of our members, Eckhart reminds us that it is our state of consciousness in any given moment that creates the world we see around us.
I have read his book “The power of Now,” and it is a good book, which in fact I have presented to a few people. He has borrowed a lot from Indian spirituality. For some reason, as I went through your post I remembered an icon of the eighties, Werner Hans Erhard. He was of German origin too if I am not mistaken. I have attended the EST training when I was in my twenties and well, I liked it. I was quite impressed with the man at the time.
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I was delighted when I discovered his books this year.
We have one of his books at our library…I’ve often considered checking it out, but never did. Perhaps I will.
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@Lana
I like his books and hope you find value in them too.
I cannot tell you the difference Krishnamurti has made over the years in the way I see what I call “myself”. Eckhart Tolle is one, if not the best spokesman to pick up where K. and the other great teachers left off. But, then, I think…each teacher whether it be Gautama Buddha, Shantadevi. Krishnamurti, Tolle…all completed their teaching. It is up to each of us to walk beyond their shadow.I must be prepared to deal with life without their words. Without words, without thought, I am free. We have only to be aware. My best. Count Sneaky
Count Sneaky´s last blog .."To be normal is the ideal aim of the unsucessful."
@Count Sneaky,
It’s been wonderful getting to know you and finding that you admire the same teachers I do. Did you know that Tony Hogan (acoustic guitarist) has begun a series of five videos of Krishnamurti and Chogyam Rinpoche? You can find it here.
Hey, he lives in my home town. We’ve embraced him as one of our own, as he’s so thoroughly embraced Canada and the Lower Mainland.
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That’s interesting. IMHO he would be better suited to island living, but then what do you expect from a gulf island gumbooter, eh? ;)
I’m glad that I found this blog. It’s good to see that you are expressing these aspects of yourself and writing about life and consciousness.
All of us need to pay more attention to life; to find our own unique way to cultivate more awareness, to be more curious — and to be disciplined enough to further that self-enquiry beyond the surface level mind candy and social buzz that is created by the self-help, new age, and consciousness industry.
There is no substitute for discipline and training. Whether it is Meditation, Tai Chi, Chi Gung, Yoga, or whatever. It is through these disciplines that we gain wisdom and knowledge. You can call it silent knowledge because it comes without hearing it from others. It arises within you as a result of your training.
Experiential knowledge is powerful.
:-)
John
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Hello John. I’m glad you found my blog too. :) I agree that experiential knowledge is powerful and there is no substitute for training and discipline. We all need to awake and take responsibility for our own consciousness and I’m determined to go deep and share my experience with others. Thanks for the encouragement.
I’ve just bought Eckhart Tolle books for my uncle who has been through some difficult times in recent years. I havent read them myself but I’ve been feeling a ‘pull’ to do so and putting it off for whatever reason… this post is giving me that excitement again to go out and get the books for myself.
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Hi Lola. I would be delighted to get one of his books as a gift so I hope your uncle feels the same. I’m currently on the inter-library lone list so I can read them all. “The Power of Now” was excellent. Thanks for the feedback and have a great holiday.