The Seer

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It was recntly announced that Eckhart Tolle will be coming to Australia and New Zealand in March next year! It’s planned that he will give an Intensive in Sydney on March 7th. a talk in Melbourne on March 10th, another talk in Brisbane on March 12th, and then a three-day retreat from March 20th at the Hyatt Resort at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.

When I and many others wrrote to Eckhart’s office in Vancouver asking for Perth to be incluced in the Australian tour, Erin replied:

“Our original Australia/New Zealand itinerary for Eckhart included Perth, Adelaide, Wellington, and Christchurch; however it was Eckhart’s decision to remove these cities from the tour. He knows that there are many people in each of these cities who would love to have him teach there. If only he could be everywhere all the time! It is just physically impossible for him to meet all of the expectations placed upon him. We understand your disappointment and hope you’ll be able to make it to one of his Australian destinations.”

Further details of the Australian tour can be found on Eckhart’s Web site.

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After our last Satsang gathering at Gurukula, our friend, John Walker, returned home, went to bed and finally drifted off to sleep listening to a CD talk by Eckhart Tolle. At 2.30am, John was woken to a major shock. A car being pursued by police crashed through a wall into the room where John was sleeping. The flying bricks stripped the bedding off him and grazed his back, bum and legs. His headset he had been wearing ended up at the foot of the bed on the floor under the rubble! It made a news story on all our TV channels. We’re so thankful John’s form was preserved.

John’s narrow escape reminded us of some apt words by Adyashanti when he said:

“This that you are is here to experience anything and everything that comes down the pike (highway). It’s the only way to experience the greatest love, the greatest freedom, in a way that’s permanent ­- not just a vacation. It’s a permanent abidance in the truth of your being.”

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We rarely make book recommendations in fiction, but you might find this odd new book from Sentient Publications of interest: God Is An Atheist: a novella for those who have run out of time.

The author, N. Nosirrah is a writer and philosopher who asks his readers to question their existence, God’s existence, and in particular, Nosirrah’s existence. He has said that those who understand his writings have no need to meet him, those who do not have no reason to meet him, and those who need to meet him have no need to read his writings.

A profoundly funny romp through religion, spirituality, and the contemporary clash of cultures of belief, with special attention to the human obsession with knowing what can’t be known. Nosirrah provokes just about everyone as he describes a world where God is on the run from Islamic extremists, the Pope announces he shares a bed with Richard Dawkins, and Buddha’s son disappoints by getting enlightened instead of becoming a doctor.

To say this novella is strange might give the reader a way to relate to it, but in fact, nothing will shift the burden away from the reader. In its pages, the world is bent around the reader’s mind until either the mind itself begins to bend, or indeed, breaks. A book without plot, characters, structure, or obvious purpose, this is an endless descent into the netherworlds of a dystopian mind. If a thousand monkeys typing endlessly would eventually produce all great works of literature, then God Is an Atheist (ISBN 978-1-59181-072-8) is their first draft.

Click on the link to see an amusing YouTube book trailer for God Is an Atheist. (Not available from Clearsight)

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Oprah Winfrey’s ten-session Webcast series with Eckhart Tolle, discussing his book, A New Earth has now concluded with most viewers hailing it as a stimulating and enriching exchange in many ways. Due to the vast number of people Oprah can reach, (over two million watched these live events) there were all kinds of people drawn into an experience they may never have opened to. This is cool . . . but it was bound to ruffle some feathers.

The first thing I noticed was a lot of fundamental leaning Christians having problems with Eckhart’s teaching, or perhaps it was with coming to grips with their own shallow grasp of what Yeshua (Jesus) really taught. Many people in the forum are expressing problems with guilt or with their fellow Christians chastising them for accusing this gentle teacher of being “satanic” or the “antichrist” WOW, but it does not surprise me. It would be laughable if it were not such a sad reflection on the unconsciousness of these ‘religious’ critics.

Satanic? An English friend tells the humorous story about giving his sister a copy of The Power of Now

On a more sombre note, this fundamentalist claims on YouTube that Oprah was host to Antichrist

In case you’re wondering, the Antichrist is considered by believers to be the prodigious tyrant of the last days, the arch-enemy of Christ. It was a notion that combined Persian dualism with Judeo-Christian apocalypse. Antichrist first appeared in Revelation as the pseudo-messiah ‘who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped…. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given to him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.’ In the Middle Ages, however, he was portrayed not only as a world tyrant but also as an airborne beast with a huge head, flaming eyes, ass’s ears, and iron teeth.

If this hasn’t put you off the Oprah / Eckhart Webcasts for good, we now have the complete series of ten available on DVD disks … or disk, for a nominal price of $2 a disk. Wih over 15 hours of teaching and entertaining inspiration, these sessions reveal again the liberating truth of Who we really are.

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My apologies for the ’suspension’ of posts for the past month or so but there were a couple of reasons for this. First, The Seer, was attacked by a hacker or hackers who managed to corrupt the code on the home page and insert some mischiefous code of their own redirecting visitors to other sites etc.

This has now been fixed and I hope the loopholes in the blog software that allowed this to happen have been closed. We are also trying to upgrade the software and install greater protection against these ‘invasions’.

As I explained in an email to our subscribers, this happened just as I had a bit of a crisis with my eyesight and adding new posts became extremely difficult let alone trying to undo the damage done to The Seer by the hackers.

After the crisis, a corneal transplant was redone on my right eye and at this stage, I have some good useful vision with every prospect of it improving over the next few months (in the absence of complications). Of course, the formless dimension or ‘light of consciousness’ remains as crystal clear as ever and has been the Source of deep abiding peace through all these comings and goings of sensory perception.

With regard to these medical issues, I constantly abide in Awareness — the still silent background to all my life-experience in the foreground, so to speak — this is my meditation. I also consult with and am guided by medical specialists who are wondrous expressions or manifestations of the One that I am and you are too. It is all God.

I’m now looking forward to sharing more regularly with interested friends through this blog and thank you for your patience with the recent scarcity of posts.

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Last Tuesday morning’s webcast (Perth time) was one of the largest single online events in the history of the Internet. More than 500,000 simultaneously logged on to watch Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle live, resulting in 242 Gbps of information moving through the Internet.

Unfortunately, most experienced delays in viewing the webcast. As one friend reported: “Things started pretty well - downloading was running at about 770 kbits/sec - video quality great. So I sat back to watch and enjoy. Eckhart was really great — and it was fantastic seeing him live, rather than a recoding of ‘live’. Slowly, however, the bandwidth started dropping, and the video quality ‘ran aground’ from time to time. Then it really ran aground, and then the tide went out !!!”

Oprah’s IT people said: “We deeply regret that so many did not have an optimal viewing experience. Interactive Internet broadcasting to a mass audience is still an emerging medium, and we’re proud to have been pioneers in pushing the industry forward. We are trying to identify the specific causes for the problems experienced and will work diligently to rectify them.

The good news is that the first session of the Oprah-Eckhart webinar is now available in its entirety on Oprah.com for viewing or for downloading as a podcast.

The next Webcast, featuring Chapter 2 of A New Earth is
scheduled for Tuesday, March 11th at 11.00am (Perth time). For full information, go to our Oprah-Eckhart Page.

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This week, we learned that more than 250,000 people have recently joined Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club so they can participate in her upcoming series of Webcasts with Eckhart Tolle on his latest book, A New Earth.

Oprah hopes her Web course with Eckhart will become “the world’s largest classroom” and, all the indicatons are, that her hopes will be realized.

Being a Web course or Webcast means you will be able to see and hear it on your own computer. The course is free, but you have to register on-line to access it. You can register quickly and easily >Here

The 10-program course begins March 3, 2008 at 9.00pm Eastern time in the USA and runs each week till May 5.

For Australian viewers, 9.00pm Monday March 3, in US/Eastern (9/8c) converts to 11.00am Tuesday March 4, in Perth — 1.00pm Tuesday March 4, in Sydney/Melbourne.

>Click Here for details on how to o be part of this great event,

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It seems that once again, Consciousness has moved American TV talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, the most influential book reviewer in the world, to bestow her awesome marketing power on Vancouver-based spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle.

In revealing her 61st choice of reading material for her 700,000-member book club and countless other fans, Oprah recently told her TV audience she was selecting Eckhart’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.

Oprah, who in 2001 helped catapult Eckhart’s The Power of
Now into a million-copy bestseller, also announced she will soon join Eckhart in hosting an online workshop on his latest book, A New Earth.

Oprah hopes her Web course with Eckhart will become “the world’s largest classroom.”

Being a Web course or Webcast means you will be able to see and hear it on your own computer. The course is free, but you have to register on-line to access it. You can register quickly and easily >Here

The 10-program course begins March 3, 2008 at 9.00pm Eastern time in the USA and runs each week till May 5.

For Australian viewers, 9.00pm Monday March 3, in US/Eastern (9/8c) converts to 11.00am Tuesday March 4, in Perth — 1.00pm Tuesday March 4, in Sydney/Melbourne.

Eckhart’s earlier work, The Power of Now, is already a best-seller and one of Oprah’s Favourite Books on her Web site.

The Power of Now, which forms the foundation of A New Earth, shows readers how to find freedom form mind-made suffering and total identification with the ego. This can lead to the discovery of our true nature which many refer to as an Awakening.

Don’t miss this great opportunity. For further details, >Click Here.

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Timothy Freke is an inspiring author and charismatic communicator living in the UK who gives his all to help participants taste the experience of spiritual enlivenment that the ancients call ‘gnosis’ and he calls ‘lucid living’. Lucid living is a natural state of awareness that spontaneously arises when we wake up from (or to) the collective dream we mistake for ‘real life’ and appreciate the mystery of existence.

Lucid living is a state of super-clarity in which it becomes obvious that, although we appear to be separate individuals, in reality we are one awareness which is dreaming itself to be everyone and everything. Lucid living is a beautiful experience of communion and compassion into which we dissolve when we see through the illusion of separateness and realise that all is one.

Tim has co-authored several significant books with Peter Ganduy and in their latest offering: “The Laughing Jesus”, Tim begins with words that get our attention straight away …

“Wake up!” he writes, “Rouse yourself from the collective coma you mistake for ‘real life’. See through the illusion of separateness and recognize that we are all essentially one.

Although we appear to be isolated individuals, in reality there is one awareness dreaming itself to be everyone and everything. This is our shared essential nature.

The simple secret to enjoying the dream we call ‘life’ is to wake up to oneness. Because, knowing you are one with all, you will find yourself in love with all. You will fall in love with living.”

For more info about Tim and the Alliance for Lucid LIving (ALL), go to: www.timothyfreke.com

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Back in the 13th Century, the Dominican friar and mystic, Meister Eckhart, once observed, “It is because the eye has no color that we see color.”

Of course, he was referring to the conea of the eye, that normally transparent windscreen through which Consciousness looks out at the manifest world. That seeing is also conditioned by our ’self-consciousness’, but that’s another story.

You may remember that my corneas were badly injured some years ago by a working-bee accident and that because they became ‘colored’ instead of transparent, I could no longer see colors etc.

Since then, I’ve had several corneal transplants that have restored some useful eyesight from time to time, but these transplants have a limited life and that’s why they have to be ‘redone’.

Last August, my previous graft, which had lasted ten years, turned up its toes and I had to go back to no eyesight again though the seeing continued on uninterrupted.

My ophthalmic surgeon here in Perth made it plain that after so many other transplants and some arising complications, the likelihood of another successful graft was very slim, but that he would give it a go nevertheless.

So, when suitable donated tissue suddenly became available a week ago, I had the operation at RPH. Although my eyelids are still stitched together, the initial indicatiions are that the procedure went well and there is no doubt that I will once again have some useful sight, but how much and for how long is not something anyone can predict.

Of course, our satsang community here has been aware of my situation as have been a numberof my correspondents around the world, and I’ve received so many expressions of love, support and good wishes for the operation etc. that all this positive energy has been extraordinarily uplifting. For all these and those unexpressed but felt, Pearl and I are most profoundly grateful.

Because so many have held this situation in Consciousness, there has been from the outset a ‘peace that passes understanding’ about whether eyesight is to be in the picture for Pete from now on or not. Naturally, I have my preferences, but overall, I know that it is good if it happens and good if it doesn’t. Eyesight matters, of course, but not absolutely.

The only thing that matters absolutely is seeing which has nothing to do with fleshy corneas, but with disidentifying from the egoic self (little me) and seeing What we really are.

When the “I” that I am has no color (no discrimination), then all the colors are seen and what is seen, is recognised as the true Self that is all. What unabated joy there is in this seeing that cannot be touched by bodily frailty or imperfection.

It is this joy that has no opposite or cause that Pearl and I trust you will experience at this festive time when we celebrate the birth of awakening Consciousness in our midst.

Your ever well-wisher,

Pete S.