January 2006
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January 1st 2006
From Consciousness -- Disentanglement
When you don't cover up the 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. And the greatest miracle is the experiencing of your essential self as prior to any words, thoughts, mental labels, and images.
For this to happen, you need to disentangle your sense of I, of Beingness, from all the things it has become mixed up with, that is to say, identified with.
That disentanglement is what 'awakening' is about.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
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January 2nd 2006
From Consciousness -- That's Just Ego
Is it wrong then to be proud of one's possessions or to feel resentful toward people who have more than you? Not at all. That sense of pride, of needing to stand out, the apparent enhancement of one's self through "more than" and diminishment through "less than" is neither right nor wrong -- it is the ego.
The ego isn't wrong; it's just unconscious. When you observe the ego in yourself, you are beginning to go beyond it.
Don't take the ego too seriously. When you detect egoic behavior in yourself, smile. At times you may even laugh. How could humanity have been taken in by this for so long?
Above all, know that the ego isn't personal. It isn't who you are. If you consider the ego to be your personal problem, that's just more ego.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
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January 3rd 2006
From Consciousness -- No Inner Baggage
Many people don't realize until they are on their deathbed and everything external falls away that no thing ever had anything to do with who they are. In the proximity of death, the whole concept of ownership stands revealed as ultimately meaningless.
In the last moments of their life, they then also realize that while they were looking throughout their lives for a more complete sense of self, what they were really looking for, their Being, had actually always already been there, but had been largely obscured by their identification with things, which ultimately means identification with their mind.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit," Jesus said, "for theirs will be the kingdom of heaven. ''What does "poor in spirit" mean? No inner baggage, no identifications. Not with things, nor with any mental concepts that have a sense of self in them.
And what is the "kingdom of heaven"? The simple but profound joy of Being that is there when you let go of identifications and so become "poor in spirit."
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
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January 4th 2006
From Consciousness -- Be Aware of Attachment
How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.
In the meantime, just be aware of your attachment to things. Sometimes you may not know that you are attached to something, which is to say, identified, until you lose it or there is the threat of loss.
If you then become upset, anxious, and so on, it means you are attached. If you are aware that you are identified with a thing, the identification is no longer total.
"I am the awareness that is aware that there is attachment." That's the beginning of the transformation of consciousness.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
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January 5th 2006
From Consciousness -- The Light That Shines Through
Equating the physical sense-perceived body that is destined to grow old, wither, and die with "I" always leads to suffering sooner or later.
To refrain from identifying with the body doesn't mean that you neglect, despise, or no longer care for it. If it is strong, beautiful, or vigorous, you can enjoy and appreciate those attributes -- while they last. You can also improve the body's condition through right nutrition and exercise.
If you don't equate the body with who you are, when beauty fades, vigor diminishes, or the body becomes incapacitated, this will not affect your sense of worth or identity in any way.
In fact, as the body begins to weaken, the formless dimension, the light of consciousness, can shine more easily through the fading form.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
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January 6th 2006
From Consciousness -- The Inner Body What I call the "inner body" isn't really the body anymore but life energy, the bridge between form and formlessness. Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can. After a while, you won't need to close your eyes anymore to feel it.
For example, see if you can feel the inner body whenever you listen to someone. It almost seems like a paradox: When you are in touch with the inner body, you are not identified with your body anymore, nor are you identified with your mind.
This is to say, you are no longer identified with form but moving away from form- identification toward formlessness, which we may also call Being. It is your essence identity.
Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body's ability to heal itself.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
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January 7th 2006
From Consciousness -- That Which Sees But Is Never Seen
That which is aware of you right now, is God. That which is your own innermost awareness, right now, is God. That which sees but is never seen, is God. That Witness in you right now, ever present as pure Presence, is God.
That vast Freedom, that great Emptiness, that primordial Purity, your own present state of awareness, right now, is God.
And thus, most fundamentally and forever, it is God who speaks with your tongue and listens with your ears, and sees with your eyes, this God who is closer to you than you are to yourself, this God who has never abandoned you and never could.
This God who is every breath you take, the very beat of your tender heart, who beholds the entire majesty before your eyes, yet is never, never seen.
Ken Wilber -- The Simple Feeling of Being
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January 8th 2006
From Consciousness -- Seeing Into Our True Nature
The awakening is very deep, we no longer operate from a place of personal self. In other words, everything doesn't relate to "me." Thoughts don't relate to me, feelings don't relate to me, what others do doesn't relate to me, and what happens in the world doesn't relate to me.
In the egoic state of consciousness, literally every single thing that ever happens is happening to a me. Right? That's the "normal" state of consciousness.
Nobody can really explain what the personal self is; we just feel it. It's a visceral thing. It's not just how we act and what we say, it's our central fixation of self. As we see through it, we realize that the personal self is not who we are and that it was not ever anything substantial to begin with.
And as we really see into our true nature, there is a paradox that arises: the more we realize that there isn't a self, the more intimately present we actually are.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
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January 9th 2006
From Consciousness -- Innocence and Love
What took the place of the personal self in my experience was the innocence and the love.
Of course, they had been there all the time, but they were covered over by this conglomeration of thoughts and feelings that had become "me."
This innocence continues to amaze me because it never ends. It continues to be innocent no matter how much it sees, no matter how deep its spiritual insight or its spiritual depth grows, and it continues to grow more innocent.
With the egoic sense of self, the more we know, the less innocent we feel. But to our true nature, the more we know, the more innocent we feel.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
From Consciousness -- Coming Only From Itself
(Our true nature) has the feeling of innocence with which everyone can identify, and also it has the sense of being very unguarded. When we are unguarded, we notice that this innocence comes only from itself.
When we relate from the egoic state of consciousness, we are basically coming from an idea, a point of view that is a conglomeration of beliefs or memories.
When we are coming from innocence, we are not coming from an idea, a point of view, or a belief. We are coming from innocence itself, which isn't a particular point of view. It doesn't have an ideology; it doesn't have a theology; it doesn't have a list of beliefs; and it doesn't have a list of ideas. It's the only thing in the world that is very sure that it doesn't know what is going on.
In innocence, there is no idea about what's going on, and this is the wonderment. When I say it doesn't know what's going on, I mean it's not relating to experience through thought. It's bypassing thought when it relates to experience. It's not being filtered at all. That's why it's innocent.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
From Consciousness -- Heart Wisdom
Many religions advise us to be childlike (which is not childish, but childlike) because that childlikeness is always so vitally interested in what is. This is the quality of freshness we feel when we are living from no separate self.
Of course we still have a brain and we still have thoughts, so things are still learned and experiences are accumulated. The egoic state of consciousness always perceives through this accumulated knowledge. The only difference in living from no separate self is that we do not perceive through that accumulation, although we can reach into it when necessary.
Perceiving instead through innocence actually makes us extraordinarily capable of being wise in the moment because, in that state, the deepest wisdom of the moment arises. This wisdom belongs only to the moment and is not part of our accumulated knowledge.
In Zen we call it prajna, heart wisdom, which is a wisdom that belongs to the whole. It belongs to the moment. We no longer relate from the personal sense of me but from the whole of existence.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
From Consciousness -- A Love That Loves To Live
The other quality (apart from innocence) that I found in awakening was a love for the mere fact of existence itself.
It wasn't a love that was caused by anything. It wasn't based on a good day, or a good person, or a good encounter, or a good feeling.
In fact, it could be not such a good day, not such a good encounter, not such a good person, or not such a good feeling, and there was still just as much love for it.
This is a love that loves to live this life because in life it is actually meeting itself moment to moment.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
From Consciousness -- When Forms Collapse
When forms that you had identified with, that gave you your sense of self, collapse or are taken away, it can lead to a collapse of the ego, since ego is identification with form. When there is nothing to identify with anymore, who are you?
When forms around you die or death approaches, your sense of Beingness, of I Am, is freed from its entanglement with form: Spirit is released from its imprisonment in matter.
You realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-pervasive Presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications. You realize your true identity as consciousness itself, rather than what consciousness had identified with. That's the peace of God.
The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but ... I Am.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- A New DImension Through Surrender
Whatever action you take in a state of inner resistance (which we could also call negativity) will create more outer resistance, and the universe will not be on your side; life will not be helpful. If the shutters are closed, the sunlight cannot come in.
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 in a state of inner openness you become one with. Circumstances and people then become helpful, cooperative. Coincidences happen.
If no action is possible, you rest in the peace and inner stillness that come with surrender. You rest in God.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- One Absolute Truth
All religions are equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them. You can use them in the service of the ego, or you can use them in the service of the Truth. If you believe only your religion is the Truth, you are using it in the service of the ego. Used in such a way, religion becomes ideology and creates an illusory sense of superiority as well as division and conflict between people.
In the service of the Truth, religious teachings represent signposts or maps left behind by awakened humans to assist you in spiritual awakening, that is to say, in becoming free of identification with form.
There is only one absolute Truth, and all other truths emanate from it. When you find that Truth, your actions will be in alignment with it. Human action can reflect the Truth, or it can reflect illusion.
Can the Truth be put into words? Yes, but the words are, of course, not it. They only point to it.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- A Collective Dysfunction
Recognize the ego for what it is: a collective dysfunction, the insanity of the human mind. When you recognize it for what it is, you no longer misperceive it as somebody's identity.
Once you see the ego for what it is, it becomes much easier to remain nonreactive toward it. You don't take it personally anymore. There is no complaining, blaming, accusing, or making wrong. Nobody is wrong. It is the ego in someone, that's all.
Compassion arises when you recognize that all are suffering from the same sickness of the mind, some more acutely than others. You do not fuel the drama anymore that is part of all egoic relationships.
What is its fuel? Reactivity. The ego thrives on it.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- The Power of Awareness
A power can come into your life that is far greater than the ego, greater than the mind. All that is required to become free of the ego is to be aware of it, since awareness and ego are incompatible.
Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence.
The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world. And this is also why becoming free of the ego cannot be made into a goal to be attained at some point in the future.
Only Presence can free you of the ego, and you can only be present Now, not yesterday or tomorrow. Only Presence can undo the past in you and thus transform your state of consciousness.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- My Essential Beingness
'Being' is the deeper true I, the light of consciousness in which perceptions, experiences, thoughts, and feelings come and go.
When I know myself as that, whatever happens in my life is no longer of absolute but only of relative importance. I honor it, but it loses its absolute seriousness, its heaviness.
The only thing that ultimately matters is this: Can I sense my essential Beingness, the I Am, in the background of my life at all times? To be more accurate, can I sense the I Am that I Am at this moment?
Can I sense my essential identity as consciousness itself? Or am I losing myself in what happens, losing myself in the mind, in the world?
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- Stop and See
I invite you to stop. Right here. Right now. Stop. Whatever it is you are searching for, stop. Whatever it is you are trying to keep away, stop.
Stop and see what is always here. It may appear terrifying, it may appear thrilling, it may appear dead, it may appear blank, but if you stop reaching for it or running from it, you cannot help but finally see what is.
I use the word "consciousness," but if you have some idea of what that is, throw it away. We can also use the word "God," but there are confusing meanings of God according to each religion and even each individual mind. No matter how you have tried to name it, drop the words you have used and see what is left.
See what is shining here, right now, without needing a name or a definition. For an instant, recognize not only what is within you, but also what you are in -- what you are born into, what you live in, and what you will die into.
Gangaji -- The Diamond In Your Pocket
From Consciousness -- You Are The Hereness
As a means of deeper investigation, you can inquire directly within. You can ask yourself this question: What is here?
Take a moment just to be still, to be here, regardless of what is passing through you.
Recognize that you are the hereness that all is passing through.
All the changes, sights, sounds, smells, emotions, thoughts, information, events, births, and deaths are all passing through the ever-present stillness that is here now in the core of your being.
Gangaji -- The Diamond In Your Pocket
From Consciousness -- True Freedom
Self-inquiry is not a path that leads you somewhere. It is the path that stops you in your tracks so that you can discover directly, for yourself, who you are.
The power of stopping is indescribable. In the moment of stopping, there is no concept of anything, yet there is consciousness. Consciousness without concept is naturally and inherently free. In an instant, it is self-evident. We are so trained to follow our concepts that we even turn consciousness itself into a concept.
In the timeless instant of recognizing that consciousness exists without any need of concept, identification with concept falls away. This is an essential experience. What follows is the deepening recognition that consciousness is free regardless of concept. This is true freedom.
The concept of yourself as a man or a woman doesn't even begin to touch the truth of yourself as consciousness.
Gangaji -- The Diamond In Your Pocket
From Consciousness -- The Gargoyle At The Gate
Fear is often a part of the essential shift away from identification with concepts toward identification with the silent ground of being, because the shift threatens the known structure of life.
Fear can have many different disguises, including anger, numbness, and despair.
This existential terror is like the gargoyle at the gate to the sanctuary.
Unless it is met and exposed as just another strategy of mind, it can keep you away from the revelation of the silent, aware peace at the core of your being.
Gangaji -- The Diamond In Your Pocket
From Consciousness -- The Sweet Truth
The great masters who have realized their essential nature encourage us to meet this terror of the dissolution of our individuality. The result of this meeting is paradoxical: the individual is dissolved and yet becomes more individually distinct.
The uniqueness of consciousness is that consciousness can recognize itself through the individual form and simultaneously recognize itself as the animating force of everything.
There comes a point of willingness to surrender individuality. In that willingness, what is actually released is conditioned individuality, and individual consciousness reveals itself to be unified with all consciousness. Yet, first must come the willingness to lose everything that is perceived to be the individual self.
Fear arises only because the reality of this loss cannot be imagined. When the loss comes, it is actually very good news. The individual identity is revealed to be the husk that covers the sweet truth of self-realization.
Gangaji -- The Diamond In Your Pocket
From Consciousness -- Rest In Nothing
Mind patterns of defense against nothingness, against emptiness, can be found wrapped around this fear. These patterns are strategic responses to fear.
The mind may quickly become very active: "Yes, but what does this mean? This can't be so. How will I be able to do my job?"
Just for this moment, let all those thoughts fall aside. Allow your mind to rest in nothing -- being nothing, doing nothing, having nothing, getting nothing, keeping nothing.
In this moment, if you can actually, willingly, consciously, simply be nothing at all, in a flash you can discover the peace, the expansion, the freedom from boundaries inherent in nothingness.
Gangaji -- The Diamond In Your Pocket
From Consciousness -- Defining yourself Through Thought
I usually congratulate people when they tell me, "I don't know who I am anymore." Then they look perplexed and ask, "Are you saying it is a good thing to be confused?" I ask them to investigate. What does it mean to be confused? "I don't know" is not confusion. Confusion is: "I don't know, but I should know" or "I don't know, but I need to know."
Is it possible to let go of the belief that you should or need to know who you are? In other words, can you cease looking to conceptual definitions to give you a sense of self? Can you cease looking to thought for an identity?
When you let go of the belief that you should or need to know who you are, what happens to confusion? Suddenly it is gone. When you fully accept that you don't know, you actually enter a state of peace and clarity that is closer to who you truly are than thought could ever be.
Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- Be The Awareness
The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral, which always is as it is.
There is the situation or the fact, and here are my thoughts about it. Instead of making up stories, stay with the facts. For example, "I am ruined" is a story. It limits you and prevents you from taking effective action. "I have fifty cents left in my bank account" is a fact. Facing facts is always empowering.
Be aware that what you think, to a large extent, creates the emotions that you feel. See the link between your thinking and your emotions.
Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- Your Natural State of Well-Being
Don't seek happiness. If you seek it, you won't find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness.
Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is rather than making up stories about it.
Unhappiness covers up your natural state of well-being and inner peace, the source of true happiness.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- You Don't Need to Believe Every Thought
Be alert. Are some of the thoughts that go through your mind the internalized voice of your father or mother, saying perhaps something like, "You are not good enough. You will never amount to anything," or some other judgment or mental position?
If there is awareness in you, you will be able to recognize that voice in your head for what it is: an old thought, conditioned by the past.
If there is awareness in you, you no longer need to believe in every thought you think. It's an old thought, no more.
Awareness means Presence, and only Presence can dissolve the unconscious past in you.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- A Good Test
"If you think you are so enlightened," Ram Dass said, "go and spend a week with your parents."
That is good advice. The relationship with your parents is not only the primordial relationship that sets the tone for all subsequent relationships, it is also a good test for your degree of Presence.
The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to relive the past again and again.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- Two Kinds of Attention
The key (to success in relationships) is to give attention. There are two kinds of attention. One we might call form-based attention. The other is formless attention. Form-based attention is always connected inseparable from the dimension of Being. How does it work?
As you look at, listen to, touch, or help your child/partner/friend with this or that, you are alert, still, completely present, not wanting anything other than that moment as it is.
In this way, you make room for Being. In that moment, if you are present, you are not a parent or partner etc. You are the alertness, the stillness, the Presence that is listening, looking, touching, even speaking.
You are the Being behind the doing.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
From Consciousness -- Human and Being
You are a human being. What does that mean? Mastery of life is not a question of control, but of finding a balance between human and Being.
Mother, father, husband, wife, young, old, the roles you play, the functions you fulfill, whatever you do -- all that belongs to the human dimension. It has its place and needs to be honored, but in itself it is not enough for a fulfilled, truly meaningful relationship or life. Human alone is never enough, no matter how hard you try or what you achieve.
Then there 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.
Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth
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