Oprah did an online chapter-by-chapter / class-by-class discussion with Eckhart Tolle, a very long time ago, and I documented it. This book had a great influence on us – presence, mindfulness, taking responsibility and awakening – all hot topics at the moment! Some very important ideas and thoughts in this book that will help raise your vibration, thus contributing to raising the global vibration – great stuff!
I admit I have not re-read this with a fine toothcomb so please be compassionate with my spelling, grammar and “Tina speak”.
“So when you are alert and contemplate a flower, crystal, or bird without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless. There is an inner opening, however slight, into the realm of spirit. This is why these three ‘en-lightened’ life-forms have played such an important part in the evolution of human consciousness since ancient times; why, for example, the jewel in the lotus flower is a central symbol of Buddhism and a white bird, the dove, signifies the Holy Spirit in Christianity. They have been preparing the ground for a more profound shift in planetary consciousness that is destined to take place in the human species. This is the spiritual awakening that we are beginning to witness now.”
– Eckhart Tolle
To purchase this book contact us directly. We also have Be Here Now by him, another great one!
Class One
Were to begin…. so many very important concepts are brought up in this first chapter that I’m going to try and speak about allot of them, more than I usually will, I think, and really look forward to hearing from everyone!!!!
We’ll see allot of his main ideas thread through the entire book but let’s start with do you even want to change? Do you see a need to change? Well, only you can answer that as he said but what I think the really good news is that if you are even interested in this subject, you are already in the process of awakening. He asks us to question what does god, the universe, life, consciousness (whatever word works for you) want from me, rather than what do I want from it and I find that a very interesting thought.
Stillness. Ok, so how do I find this purpose or even know it when it comes…. stillness is the answer. Our conscious shift will be found here. In our crazy non-stop world this can be a real challenge and the first time I played with this idea I actually made a choice to live in my apartment in silence and at first I was afraid of this idea – no TV, no radio, no talking to myself but it was honestly a relief. I immediately felt tension leave my body, the distractions were gone and I felt more at peace. I don’t live this way full time but I thought it might be something to try, especially if you are in a big city like me and don’t have immediate access to nature, although I must admit my apartment is practically a forest I have so many plants.
Eckhart suggests we create a space for our inner purpose to come up by setting a time aside and just sit with yourself in silence and even if nothing comes up honor that time, and space everyday and eventually answers / thoughts will come to you. Sacred moments he called it and our challenge is to incorporate these moments into our daily lives. That might take some time for some of us but be ok with that. Accept the moment as it is. Accept yourself as you are. As Ram Dass famously said “be here now”.
Bringing yourself into presence can be as simple as paying attention to the small ritualistic things you do everyday, like washing your hands, feel the water, and experience it. Feel the vibrancy of life. If you’re taking a shower enjoy it and don’t already be in your head thinking and stressing about work. At a self awareness workshop I went to a long time ago they said if you are driving on your way to work and are late and stressing about it – what will the boss say etc., etc., stop because you are not actually late until you get there. I love that and that completely matches Eckhart’s idea of being present. Don’t worry about something that doesn’t yet exist! How do you deal with the daily stressors that pull us out of presence?
Stillness can be uncomfortable at first, for those of you who read his first book he talks allot about our pain body and how it doesn’t want to let go. When I got to hear Eckhart speak in person he actually made us experience presence by being silent. It was fascinating, we all knew the subject, presence, so at first everyone had a bit of a giggle at his silence, we all thought we “knew” what he was doing – he had just walked up to the podium and looked out at us and back down, really just being in his own space. As the time went on you could feel people getting uncomfortable, people were shifting in their chairs and feeling like ok, enough, we got it but we hadn’t and the silence went on for a good 10 minutes, at least, and when most of us actually surrendered to this experience was when he actually began to speak. It was an amazing experience and lesson. He stood in silence so long we were all pushed from thinking we were getting it, to being uncomfortable and then accepting we didn’t get it, to really getting it by actually being there. It was super cool.
Nature. I really love that nature is our gateway, so to say, for finding stillness because once you are “still” in nature you are able to just feel it. Naming and labeling takes you away from that and away from presence and the oneness that exists in our collective consciousness. Eckhart says flowers are “messengers from another realm” – beautiful. I personally believe we need to have the eye and the mentality of a beginner, of an innocent who appreciates nature’s beauty and is present with it. The labeling / naming we do to ourselves and others is another really important message for me. This means we have to let go of out judgments, about others and ourselves. He calls it ‘the voice” and we all have our pet names for this idea, some of my friends and I call this the committee and this committee always loves to tell me negative things. When we live in our heads too much, “lost in thought” this can lead you to live in abstract / away from nature, away from the present and this deadens us. That voice in our head is our mental conditioning from the way we were brought up. One of my other featured guests Sara Allen who can see energy actually sees us all walking around, literally, with baggage and says think about “who packed your suitcase?” our parents, society, our friends and the list of contributors goes on and on and we have to let go – just be a witness, don’t judge your own inner voice just the way we shouldn’t judge others. Like in meditation thoughts come and we are taught to just watch and let them go. The beginning of being ready may be to ask your higher source for help or to announce, “I’m ready” – go to ‘State your Intention’ in this section and get started!
It all begins and ends with us. “Discover the dysfunction within yourself” if we each fix ourselves we will then change our consciousness and make a positive contribution to the collective consciousness. This is essential right now because of the accelerated time we live in. he says we must “evolve or die” and I really believe this. He said essential things don’t happen until totally necessary and now it is necessary to awaken because we are at a crisis point. Humanity is destructive and we are in danger of destroying the planet and ourselves. We need this shift in consciousness, an awakening, to stop all the conflict. All of our “advancements” come in all forms, some good and lots bad. Our technology has amplified our power to do harm – what I believe is that we can turn that same energy into a force for good – look at how you think and act and really dissect how you contribute to the world. It really does start within us, the law of attraction proves this – so if you think negative thoughts you attract that and essentially add negativity to our global collective consciousness. You can change that, we all can and I think we all have to. Actually, we are changing that right now, in this moment, just by thinking and discussing these things.
We are creating a field of positive energy in ourselves, our community, the world and universe, good for us! Let’s all pat ourselves on the back or give ourselves a nice hug. Seriously, stop! And do that…
Ok so just want to list some other ideas I really connected with but I’m really looking forward to hearing what you connected with and how these ideas have changed you or how you think they will affect your life…
– “Evolve or die” we must adapt. Consciousness comes though in all forms. We are not the form we see, we are consciousness so humanity may dissolve, and metamorphosis and that may mean our human bodies may die but our energy, our consciousness will always exist. The idea of life ending, as we know it is scary but I think we do have to face that idea and figure out how to accept it. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not going down without a fight – this website is an attempt of mine to positively contribute – let us all know what you do help. I believe hearing what others do inspire us all.
– You know something is coming from ego when it doesn’t satisfy you – you always want more or something else. Happiness only comes from within you during the present moment. If you expect satisfaction all the time you will always be frustrated and that begins a negative cycle.
– Accept this moment as it is! “If you are not friendly with life it can’t be friendly with you.” Being dissatisfied is not a good place to begin a change.
– Ask yourself – what is my relationship with the present moment? Is there negativity? You don’t have to like the situation but you must be at peace with what is. Accept what is and let go of the pain body and the struggle because letting these things go then allows you can change.
– Experience the truth of this book – don’t look for total understanding. If you don’t get something just read on. Remember, if you care about these things you are awakening. Don’t get caught up in what level you are on or if the people in your life are awakening – you must just be concerned with you and your own thoughts and actions.
Class Two
Tools to bring you into the present – get out of your mind, get into your breadth! So let’s stop for a few seconds and breathe…. take three deep breadths in…and out…in…and out…. in…and out….
Ok, now we’re ready to tackle chapter two. The Ego and our stories.
I have to say the most important message to me was about how we identify with our stories and how we need to let go of that. The word “I” is about your story and we are not our stories, they are just thoughts and memories that fool us into thinking that this is who we are and that is where I think we become “victims” by saying and thinking, look what happened to me, I have the right to be angry, sad, resentful or other negative, self defeating ideas and we will have great rationalizations about why this is so real. But, all this does is place limitations of what we can be or what we deserve – let it go!
So many people always talk about “I suffer from…” and just fill in the blank, god knows we can all come up with a laundry list but this is just a common mental condition and the first step is to become aware you do this. The second most important step is to stop talking about it to everyone because all you do is empower the disease!!!! When you stop talking about the illness or trauma you will begin to change your thought process from thinking about your illness to thinking about well-being. You might be feeling some symptoms of your illness and if that is hindering your process Eckhart says to look to nature and get in touch with the peace there, and also get in touch with parts of you that are well, your illness isn’t all of you so if you begin to put focus elsewhere you stop empowering the illness and I believe that can lead to miracles! He says to find a spot in your body that feels good and focus on that – the pain or symptoms may still be there but if you are feeling pain and thinking about it too you are compounding the problem because then it becomes two things. This is hard, I know, and it can take some time to even get your head around this, it did for me because allot of us for years have been identifying ourselves with our illness or trauma but take it step by step and everyday it will get easier. I think this conversation is so important!!!!!
How do you talk to people like this? I’ve known a few people who are just so attached to their story and I’ve defiantly faltered in the way I approached them. Eckhart say to approach it gently because they will more than likely be very defensive because they are so identified with the “story” they feel attacked when you are telling them to let it go. I’ve had more than one person say to me “you don’t understand, what I have is real, my symptoms are real” and in these situations you can try talking to them about how you deal with these things. And remember not to judge – everyone has to make their own choices and not everyone is ready to let go you have to be ok with that – don’t get caught up in their story and/or their process of either letting go or not letting go. It’s their choice. Another thing you can do is just giving someone your presence and listen to them, don’t judge or resist and don’t buy into their story, just be present with them and this can help. You don’t have to tell them you are going this, like in Eckhart story about the women next door. What a great story that was.
I’d really love to hear everybody’s thoughts on this subject. Probably because I had to go through this process myself and it was defiantly a step-by-step process, I really feel this is one of the biggest ways we hold ourselves back from being our ideal selves. It’s our pain body griping us tightly in a web of illusion.
Below are a few other ideas I felt really impact all of us so I’ll list them without saying too much about them but please feel free to comment anything you want and let’s get the discussion going…
– There is more power in letting go than in clinging, to anything.
– The need to identify with things is like a disease. Things don’t fill you up. Again he comes back to awareness being the first step. Take time everyday to connect with your inner light. I love what he said about not picking the flower, just acknowledge the beauty and leave it – this can work for things too.
– Our ego is our story, the past.
– “I am great or I am bad”. The ego is very tricky, if you let go of possessions ego will want to fill that space with I am better than you now because I am more spiritual. Anytime you feel superior or inferior to others it is ego.
– When we identify with things (and this includes opinions) we feel the need to defend them, protect them and I think this is one of the root causes of the conflicts and judgments we have about people and cultures.
– Peace comes when you live in the present moment whether that moment is good or bad, accept it, this is where you are and you can still take action to do something different but you will be coming from a more positive place when you come from acceptance rather than resistance.
– Our society is obsessed with things – identity enhancers, I love the way he said that.
– Our society is obsessed with youth and beauty but we all age. You’ve got to look in the mirror and be ok with what you see…acceptance! He beautifully says aging is experiencing the destiny of humanity – I love that. When you accept the condition you create space around it and can find peace within that space. The destiny of all form is to dissolve.
– Over-eating is a substitute for not feeling aliveness inside.
– Ego is never satisfied! Start by seeing the illusion of always looking to the future for your happiness or completeness.
– Getting beyond the ego – be aware of it. Awareness lessons the grip of the ego and the pain body. Make friends with the present moment. Always trying to be somewhere else, physically or emotionally, is the ego controlling you. I like the discussion of waiting and that waiting is looking for another moment to be better than where you are so when you have to “wait” for something, like being on a line or in traffic just take that as an opportunity to be with yourself in that moment.
Class Three
So let’s take a moment to come into this space and take a breadth…. let go of your worries and any thoughts that don’t serve you. Close your eyes and set the intention that we will hear what we need to…. take another deep breadth and let’s get going.
Managing your ego. Ego produces suffering because we always want more, more, more…so we have to learn to let go of the suffering which is easier said than done because the pain body doesn’t want to let go. Going into silence will help you to become aware and let go, try and stop the noise in your head and become aware of your breathing. Try it now……….
We are possessed by our mind when we are consumed with thought. When our ego habits make us judge someone it’s usually because we are re-acting to something that is in us – the world is our mirror – so look inside.
Some ego alerts to look out for:
Complaining is a sign of ego because you are constantly criticizing, judging the people and things around you. Some complaints are real – if it brings about change, like his my soup is cold example. But usually it’s the ego mind control complaining in such a way that you are really putting another down or making yourself superior by ‘how wrong they are doing this or that’. When you really need to fix / change something do it from a different perspective, sticking with the facts and being aware of your self and how you are approaching something is good, be mindful.
Name-calling is another ego alert. Once you label someone or a group of people you are desensitizing yourself to the aliveness of that human being and that hinders you from having empathy towards that person or peoples.
I’m superior. Remember that if you feel superior or inferior to anyone it is the ego – beware….
I think the above ideas are so important and simple and yet we have to accept that our pain body will do anything not to let go of these things – if you think you don’t participate in any of the above you are probably in denial. We all do to some extent and it really needs to stop. We hurt each other with these thoughts and actions and hurt feelings come from the ego being attached to something; some idea of yourself was shot down. Anger is a common reaction; the ego is defending itself and goes into self-repair mode by reacting negatively. On a personal level this is harmful but on a global level it is devastating! We are in an unprecedented of war and horrific things on all levels but also now in an unprecedented awakening so we are shifting – good news, we need this.
We need a critical mass to happen where enough people become awakened and stop resonating with violence in order to shift that aspect of out planet. I think this is so important – every single one of us is contributing to the global consciousness and the more of us discussing these things and thinking and awakening more powerful positive vibrations will cover our world and we could really see the world change for the better. I know we can do this we just all need to keep connecting!
The biggest step we can take is to take responsibility for our own lives. I like that this was brought up again because we do all have some very legitimate reasons to worry about people in our lives or the state of the world and we can care but care outside what I would call our immediate energy field. Worry will not help anything if anything because you are bringing negative energy to it. The specific thoughts don’t matter just the fact that you are thinking a negative thought or feeling, that negative emotion will affect yourself, your environment and also it will affect the person or situation you are worrying about. Just the way there is long distance healing is the way there can be long distance wrong doing, for lack of a better phrase. What I like to do if I am worried about someone is to picture him or her with white light showering through his or her body or I send him or her the feeling of love. Do something positive. And then you are helping them not adding to the hurt / negativity. We do this through presence – by getting out of your mind and connecting to your oneness.
Sometimes this can be a challenge – we walk out of our house in the morning with the best intentions and then boom, you meet someone who is rude to us. If we run into rude people we should recognize that they might have very deep seeded habit patterns that stem from childhood and its really a dysfunction they have – so you take your ego out of the way and you can clearly see that their negative treatment of you has nothing to do with you this awareness will help you not react and your non-reaction might just change someone. So now we not only are looking for the ego in ourselves but now we want to be able to see the ego in others and this can lead to compassion and empathy and us not needing to react.
Other ideas I like:
– For the ego to thrive you have to be unconscious of it so once you become aware of it you awaken to being more than that and can see any negative habit patterns you have.
– The core of the ego. The core is that voice in our head, the stories that we live with. These roles we play, descriptions of who we are…we are more than that; we are the formless content beyond that. I think of it as my essence. It can make us wonder who are you and it would be great to get used to the idea of, being comfortable with not knowing exactly who you are.
– The truth is the truth and needs no defense and needs no defense – that can be a hard one right, if you think you know something but someone else things the opposite is true – that’s certainly and ego challenge. Not needing to be right is a good sign you are managing your ego.
– Just because everything is an illusion doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy playing in the human form – just try and be aware and present. You can enjoy the form by not being fully attached to the form – I like how he said that.
– We all worry too much. We’re thinking about the future – “worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose”. A great gift to give someone who is sick or needs help is to give them your presence because that is where healing happens. You’re allowing them space to become aware. And remember not to resist – “what you fight strengthens and what you resist persists” – make peace with it – accept it and then any action taken comes out of presence and awareness not reaction.
– Things are more likely to work out for you if you are harmonious. Do you want peace or drama? We all say peace put that’s not enough we have to be aware enough to not fall into the drama habit or as he said the unhappiness addiction – your pain body / ego loves it!
– We are one form of the evolution of conscious in “form” to accept yourself, the “I am” that you are in the present moment. Acceptance of self as you are right now is how you connect with the depths of your essence and oneness. “The now is the hidden exist out of the ego”
– True meaning of eternity is timelessness. Energy changes form but is always there so our energy will live on. If you have ever seen a dead body you know that it is so clear how you are only seeing the form and the spirit is gone. It’s a sad but very clear way to understand that our energy, our spirit, our “life” goes on.
– You are consciousness just making an appearance in human form for a bit – I love that.
Class Four
Hello again, we’re really getting into this now…I’m very excited. So as you may have guessed I think it’s important to stop and use our breadth to come into this moment so that we can receive the information we need as well as be inspired to share our thoughts so let’s take three deep breadths in and out. Close your eyes, tune inward and breath…
Alright class four here we come!
Another class starter was / is putting your intention inside your inner body. Take a deep breadth and tune into the feeling of you – not the mind – and go into stillness for about 10 seconds or more if you like, ok, go….
Oprah brought up a commonly asked question from the message boards that I thought was very useful to talk about: How do you deal with people in your life who are not into this and you feel it hinders your relationships? This has been something I have struggled with. Its hard to see people struggling in self defeating habit patterns when you know you could help but as Eckhart says the shift can only happen within you, you can’t be responsible for others change. You have to accept them as they are and they will change if and when they are ready. Give these people in your life complete acceptance – step out of the judgmental mind. Don’t react to their pattern because you only reinforce the others game. See their ego at work, don’t judge and just see it for what it is because it is not really who they are. This I think is such an essential idea because if we cannot practice non-judgment we will get nowhere in healing our communities and our world. As the ancient Chinese proverb says – be the reed – don’t resist, bend and let things pass by you without affecting you.
Role playing – the many faces of the ego.
Your role of being a doctor or teacher has a function and when you become so immersed in the function it becomes a role, a conditioned personality. You need the awareness to observe the role. You have to identify it before you can change it.
The source of all power is in us. And being present is the entry point of getting to your essence. When you do not connect with this is when we create roles to try and satisfy the ego (which is impossible) and you might feel emptiness when not connected to your inner power, thus prompting you to look for outside sources of power.
We might become aware of a role after we have played it, like the angry person at the post office. Eckhart says when just awakening, becoming aware of the awareness doesn’t automatically “fix you” it’s step by step. And the more you recognize the old pattern the time between the role and the recognition gets smaller – the time gap is shorter and the next step is to realize you are playing the role as you are doing it and you may not be able to stop it at this point but that will be the next step. You will feel the desire to play the role but your awareness will say, wait I don’t need to play this role. Eckhart has seemed this pattern and the steps in thousands of people. I have also seen this in myself and actually have success, after years of practice at stopping myself or at the very least catching myself in time to apologize or correct myself in the immediate situation. It’s a bit humbling but I think that is good for the soul.
We all start the day with great intentions but then we walk out the door…at home our ego may not be engaged and it’s when you leave the house that the ego land mines pop up. Try and bring the feelings of presence you achieve at home into your daily life. His example of the phone ringing is fantastic – let it be a signal for you to be in presence or put a flower next to your computer and look at it from time to time and let these things serve a cues to bring you into presence, if only for a second, and it will help you and you can build from there and before you know it you could find you are living this way effortlessly. And if you fall back into the conditioned thinking its ok, just keep bringing in the breadth, this presence as much as you can.
A personal side note: changing negative habit patterns are helped greatly by Eckhart ideas but I would also check out energy psychology and energy medicine which have very helpful techniques for changing negative habit patterns.
We have functions and roles. As an example, Being a mom is an important function of taking care of them but if you become too identified with the function it becomes a role and you can’t let go when it is no longer appropriate and the mother will become controlling or over protective – you are going too far with the functions. Don’t be attached to our roles b/c that’s all they are and sometimes we need to let go of a role, roles are not forever, they end and change.
Mothers and guilt.
I thought this was really important and I have a few friends with young children and babies who really feel these things so I loved this conversation. A few different kinds of guilt that Jenny McCarthy brought up were – Nine to Five guilt, stay at home and bored guilt and passing on the of illness guilt to those around you.
Eckhart says, the situation may not change but you can change the content, the inner content. The external changes will not help. The mind will bring up the same ego structures. Jobs of the ego are to blame others and to feel guilty and this feeds a false identity. So it doesn’t make sense to feel guilty because if you have to work you have to and you cannot change that but you can change how you deal with it – deal with the content of the situation and this isn’t a one time change because the structures of the guilt (as one example) will keep coming up but if you constantly keep an awareness out for the ego structure pattern / habit patterns that come up in the situation and change your thinking to presence / awareness you will begin to take power away from the ego’s habit pattern and eventually, hopefully, you can change your reaction to that particular situation. I thought Jenny’s story was very touching and such a great example of a mother feeling guilt for no reason because she really had done every “function” she could in helping her autistic son but she still felt guilt.
But note that every child, person has to go through suffering, it is how we grow so as a parent it is not your function to stop all your Childs suffering. This isn’t to say you don’t protect them but more so shielding them from the world’s reality. It could be self generated suffering or from the outside – we all have to go through it in some form or another. It’s a unique journey for us all, not just our children. The best thing to remember is that you do not help the person or situation by going into the suffering with them because all you are doing then is generating an energetic field of suffering yourself that then contributes to theirs.
When you have to discipline a child how do you plus how do you raise a conscious child?
He says pay more attention to your own inner state than what is happening to your daughter. What emotional state are you in? If in anxiety you will create that field and it will affect her and this will further provoke bad behavior because they are picking up on the energy. The child is not making you anxious or mad only you can do that. Accept the moment and ask yourself what are you feeling and see if you can just be the “space” for whatever your daughter is doing (this can apply to other life situations). Accept at this moment my daughter is screaming and become transparent to this annoying / hurtful external factor so that you do not react to the situation, it just passes through you. Your resistance will only create more resistance. Raising a child is a massive spiritual practice. The more you become peaceful so will your energy and that will change the situation and your child’s behavior.
Change your energetic frequency and change your environment or a situation. Again this doesn’t mean you let your child touch a lit flame. This is a way of being that can be applied to any situation – whatever challenges are in your life can be helped with this approach. Remember energy is the language of babies and children and what they react most to. If that’s not motivation to change your energy what is!
Dealing with everyday life.
We can all start out with good intentions and then lets say we get some power and then the latent ego comes out with a roar and maybe we didn’t even realize we had that part of us but we all do so with any form of power comes a great responsibility I think to be aware to your ego’s mental patterns and stop them.
This is the key – we can all be “Zen” at home in our secure sacred space what about in public with people pushing and shoving and generally getting in your way, being angry or annoying – this is out test. If annoyed by life’s situations Eckhart suggests we imagine that we are transparent and letting it all pass through you, this way you become present by observing it and don’t become negative as you might if you took it on by absorbing that external negative situation or person – or even a sound – or a NYC summer street smell (you have to experience it to understand).
When your inner state is at peace and not affected by external factors you are free!
Other points I loved:
– Loving kindness meditation – I love love that! (I have something similar in the visualization part of energy exercises called planetary healing, try it.)
– Animals can help us get into presence. Because they live in a state of “being” – Eckhart calls them the guardians of being.
– We get real self-esteem when it comes from being centered inside ourselves and centered in the stillness.
– The ego gets angry when criticized.
– The way we change ourselves is the way we will change the world.
– Ego is in play when someone feels inferior or superior. The person who feels superior we can guess that they are over compensating for insecurity, helped by the illusion that you are better than others. The shy person is afraid of ego loss / what others will think about them and this is when the ego is found in the inferior.
– Generally most people are afraid of not being good enough, I am. And the way in which we compensate for this is where the ego gets very involved and manifests in many ways usually focused around illusion and denial.
– The background unhappiness (what I don’t have or what I have that I don’t want) in our life is structurally based not content. And that structure will always pop up no matter the situation because its an ego habit pattern so at the end of the day we just have to change these patterns by becoming one with life “life is the dancer and you are the dance” life is dancing the dance of form but is really just the oneness that exists and we are not separate from that. Language creates the illusion of separation. If you can loose your life that would mean you are separate from life but you are not so essentially you cannot loose your life. We are not our bodies and once you really feel that you know you are at one with all and all is life. Don’t confuse your physical body / form with your life force that is connected to all that is. We are just a brief expression of the universe experiencing itself as human.
– Taking your attention away from the mind and getting into the feeling of where you are and being there completely – not allowing the mind looping as I call it.
– Any mind activity is better when create after a time of presence. You will be calm and probably more objective because you are centered. Being one with what you are doing is how you create a new earth. What we give our attention too comes from a better place – “the zone” as athletes call it.
– The more you focus on acquiring power in the future the more it will drain you. The more present you are and in acceptance of it – you plan within that.
– “His need to win drains him of power” – from a Zen master. You might win and get power without presence but you will probably suffer for it in other areas in your life such as joy of life and an inner connections and peace. He says to maintain presence constant alertness is crucial. Because people and situations can pull us out of our level of consciousness and into theirs – you get sucked into their story so to say.
Class Five
Let’s take a moment to center ourselves and come into this present moment and accept it as it is, no matter what form it takes. Take slow deep breadths and just be in stillness for about 10 seconds or longer…sense beyond your form….
When I first read about the pain body in The Power of Now it changed my life. I clearly see and feel its affects. It does not like change and it loves drama. Loving bad news is feeding the pain body – i.e. the rag mags feed our need for scandal and that feeds our pain body because any enjoyment of negativity is the pain body!
It loves all the stories we hold onto. What I learned from Eckhart and first hand is that when you do decide to make a change or to let go of something the pain body really fights back and makes whatever feelings you were having seem even stronger, it wants to fool you because it essentially does not want to die. Parts of us are constantly dying and then we experience re-birth usually in a positive way – we have gown. Eckhart says just by giving your self a cue like saying the words “pain body” when you think it is rearing its ugly head can help it dissipate. I found this helpful.
Our pain body is not who we are its our story, our fears and out desire to keep the status quo even if the status quo isn’t great – better that then change or the letting go of things we carry around with us.
Eckhart says we are stuck in our stories and thinking, the voice, repetitive thought patterns. These negative thought patterns are addictive and this is a global crisis. Again we have to awaken in order to see that we are involved in this. These negative thought patterns and the past, your past does not have power over you and that is apart of the illusion. We become so attached to the past and how it defines us we don’t want to let go, that we can’t. Nothing in the past can stop you from being present, noth9ing in the past can stop you from becoming your ideal self, from finding peace – you just have to find stillness and presence and then these negative things just begin to fall away.
Children especially hold onto pain body things because they are taught to repress their negative emotions. I think this happens because the parents don’t want to deal with the pain they have just inflicted on their children or loved ones. As children thoughts can become logged in our minds – like you are stupid, not smart enough, not thin enough, and not good enough. Just one of these thoughts can take over you but they are old thoughts, it is not the truth it is an old record and name it as such and it will loose its power. Nobody can act beyond their level of consciousness so we cannot expect more from some people. Especially in a parent situation.
All emotions and thoughts are a form of energy so when thoughts and emotions become immersed in negativity this energy has a life of its own – its like its it’s own thing – like a another body / person inside you that seeks out more negative thoughts and situations because that is feed this pain body we have developed. Negativity can be an addiction – it’s the awareness we’ve talked about that begins to dissipate it. This negativity we hold onto has to take form and it can manifest as being over weight, being angry all the time and becoming ill.
Eckhart says most frequently in relationships. Partner’s re-enact intense emotional activity and the pain body loves this because it is being feed. Pain body knows exactly what “buttons” to push in your partner to get their pan body going. This is an unhappy vibration and the end of this – to change this is perceived as death to the pain body so it will fight strongly to stay alive and keep the negativity going.
I loved that they brought up how divorced people hold on so tightly to what the other did or did not do and they never get over that hurt or resentment. When I was traveling for my old company Tony&Tina and doing color card readings with thousands of people the most common thing I saw holding people back was old relationships. I can tell you it is not easy to let go and it can be very painful to look at your part of the relationships destruction or even why you attracted it in the fist place but I can also tell you letting and facing these things can be the best thing that ever happened to you – it was for me and my divorce and now we are great friends and I am apart of his new family. It was hard for all of us to come to this beautiful place but well worth it!
Again one of the biggest challenges we have is when we see others we love suffering from the pain body and we can only give them compassion and if you are present and aware you will not re-act to their drama, you will not feed the drama and this will be a new experience to that person to have someone just accept them and their drama and does not feed it and when you don’t feed the pain body it will begin to dissipate and the person might get confused (as in his story about the lady with the papers) or the pain body will be sneaky and try to get you involved and now that becomes your journey – to not be drawn into the drama. Man, do I know how hard that is personally!!!!
Family gatherings are an orgy of feeding for the pain body. It takes great awareness not to get drawn in and even the most aware person can fall into this but it takes just one person to be present to begin to change the energy.
What you do to others you do to yourself. America holds this collective pain body about or history of violence and the suppression of certain races. As a country we don’t want to see we are still apart of it because “I wasn’t around then” “I didn’t have anything to do with slavery” but this energy still exists in our collective pain.
Every personal pain body is an expression of the collective pain body! I think this is such a crucial idea to accept and maybe the acceptance of this can begin a real healing process.
The suppression of the feminine has hurt us – ego is not as deeply rooted in women. Men and women need to be equal but that was destroyed a long time ago and very likely has contributed to the destructive world we live in – the male ego took over. But the good news is that more women are actually going through this shift and awakening and that will help our collective shift. As women we are coming into our power and of course men areas well but it is the feminine power we need to call upon now. This is a common thought in many believe systems if that is the right word but I will say I have heard many spiritual leaders speak of this time as being the time of the feminine power and I sure how that can help and change our world for the better – how can it not!
Other thoughts I loved:
Thoughts are very powerful and your body does not know the difference between what is real or not – if you think it, it is real to your energy so you must clear your mind of negative repetitive thought patterns.
Duck story – he sat and watched two ducks get into a fight and then swam in different directions and began to flap their wings as if shaking off the negative emotion – animals do not let things accumulate, in the wild animals will commonly shake rapidly after a confrontation of some sort – they shake it off. We though want to go and talk to people about can you believe what that duck did to me etc. and then the negative pattern we’ve talked about begins.
The monk story is priceless!!!!! It shows how human we all are – even monks are challenged to let things go – love it.
How do we honor our loved ones who passed, how do we grieve but not be apart of the pain body. He says morning is natural but if it becomes excessive debilitating depression or anger for years that is an active pain body. Just morning and remembering and even shedding tears years later are ok, its beautiful to allow the sad emotion to release and maybe under that morning is peace. There is of course a void because the physical form is gone and we need to accept they are gone because the formless can come though and be a wonderful guide or angle for you. Some people feel closer to a person or animal after they have passed on. This can be a very tuff one. When I lost my beautiful cat, Moonpie Love Madness (her full name) I was inconsolable and really felt my beliefs challenged because Oprah and Eckhart were kind of saying they loved the people (I count animals as people) who passed more after they passes and felt the love from them more and felt closer. My experience with Moonpie was a bit different because everyday I had her she gave me such tangible love and I fully appreciated her in every moment that when her form transitioned I didn’t feel closer to her. I do feel her spirit and love when I focus on her and I can almost feel her. I accept it but I still hurt, not all the time but her presence is missed greatly. I could go on but that would be creating a story wouldn’t it!
Violent entertainment – what is that about? From one point of view it can show the madness behind violence but when it is just meant to feed the pain body because the violence is being enjoyed. The pain bodies write, produce and watch them.
Does the pain body allow for more creativity? Well some artists express their pain through the art but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be as creative without the pain. Great art usually shows you what is beyond pain.
You will never worry yourself out of a problem. You cannot change a problem from the consciousness from which it arose.
Addiction can be an escape from not wanting to feel the pain body. When life becomes unbearable this can actually help you become aware because you just can’t bare the pain anymore and want to change. If you like your life you may not be as inclined to seek out awareness and change. So very bad situations can have very great outcomes!
Class Six
Let’s come into the space of stillness…bring your energy into your body, imagine an anchor to the aliveness of the inner body…. and breadth….
Breaking free of the pain body
The pain body is that part of ourselves addicted to pain and drama and negative thought and habit patterns. Now we’re going to discuss letting that go. Breaking free of our stories. When we let go we create space and that old energy is transmuted into positive.
In today’s world it is very common to medicate ourselves and that can get in the way of letting go of the pain body – always consult a doctor before stopping or changing any medication you are on but we’re talking about our daily “mothers helpers” that are only Band-Aids to our stressful lives, not a cure. We need to feel the pain body in order to awaken from it. Learn to be with physical and emotional pain that comes up without our numbing behaviors – learn to accept it. We have to deal with it not mask it. One book I read when things fall apart said to dive straight into the pain, to fearlessly walk into the grief because that was the only way to come out on the other side. That book changed my life and helped me through a difficult divorce.
You can suppress the “symptoms” (whatever they may be) but the root cause is still there and we want to let go of the cause, let go of the past and our stories. Lets say anger is a common manifestation of your pain body and you think those thoughts that support that emotion and the pain body loves that because it is its favorite food. The self-talk, that voice in our heads, becomes its own negative energetic frequency and your perceptions will reflect this inner emotion, the world is your mirror. Remember the law of attraction, like energy attracts like energy. We all generate an active energy field so what we hold inside is ultimately projected outward. And this more than likely will attract more of what you don’t want. Our pain bodies want to be active and will try to attract negative situations to you that will feed its need, so to say.
In relationships we can see lots of pain body interaction in arguments, don’t be fooled (or identified) with the idea that you are not involved or attached – basically I’m talking about the guy who called in saying he wasn’t contributing to his wife’s pain body but he was actually opposing her. If you become peace and are really not involved in the story the story, the argument disappears. It does take two to tango. Don’t become self-righteous thinking you know about all these things and you’re above the other person’s state of awareness because that is ego! Don’t make the argument about the other person – think, “what is my contribution” and “what can I do about it”.
Pain body cautionary note: During a pain body attack as he said you cannot bring up the pain body, meaning say to the other person, hey your pain body is active – the pain body cannot talk to the pain body, that will only instigate things.
Do mothers pass on their pain body to the baby, and even through generations? Yes he says from generation to generation and from mother to child. The baby is affected by the mother’s thoughts and energy. Eckhart suspects the pain body might even be passed on through the DNA so some of it may be inherited not just acquired. This related to our discussion on the collective pain body of let’s say slavery. Our DNA is the living past within you but remember the past cannot affect the present. It takes one conscious moment to recognize, to see it (behaviors and patterns) for what they are and then you have broken the unconsciousness that has gone on for generations! Very cool, we really can heal our mothers and the generations past. I really just love that because I want that for my own mother and those who came before her.
Pain bodies are toxic and pollute the environment you are in – thus arguing in front of your children is really not good. But children will also absorb the emotional negativity even when the parents are trying to hide it – you can’t hide it!!!!! Suppressing it (maybe even unconsciously) will still affect the children and they will act out. Energy is the language of children.
Remember how tricky the ego and pain body is. That girl who called in was perfect – talking about feeling like her world would end if she let go of her ego and what that is the ego / pain body defense. It will always try and fool you and make you feel that presence will leave you lonely and in despair and you may very well have to give some things up but that’s only because you have a new state of being so it makes sense you will have some new and positive people or situations in your life.
It’s easy for us to see these things in other people but to see it in ourselves is to catch it as it arises – in emotion, before it takes over the mind. You will begin though observation / awareness of what pushes your buttons, what activates your pain body? That’s a great, amazing tool to have – that awareness will change your life. If you know something is your pain body it brings you into awareness – you are shining the light of consciousness on it so it may still be there but it cannot control you because you are aware of it. Your presence will also stop it from renewing itself. Pain body will always try and wiggle in, it will wait for the appropriate time but it still is what it is and you can still choose to not get sucked into it.
In order to begin the change you want to ask yourself what is your internal state – the external is secondary. Ask yourself “what am I feeling and thinking”. Do this as an exercise to begin to understand how your mind really works. You don’t want to really try this at first when you are in a pain body state because your perceptions are distorted but we can learn so much about what kind of energy we generate just by checking in with ourselves throughout the day and notice how many negative thoughts you have, how often are you judging those around you, etc. Ego loves negative thinking! Put up reminders around your house “what is going on inside me” – great idea!
And remember your true self is awareness so don’t judge yourself if you find you have allot of negative thoughts / actions, you are becoming aware, you are awakening and if we were perfect beings we’d have nothing to change but we’re not perfect so we will find things we don’t like, we might even offend or embarrass ourselves but let go of that, again that’s ego, it’s a story etc. just know what a great path you are on if you can begin to see yourself and how you really are.
“They know not what they do” is what Jesus said when being crucified and it’s the same idea when someone is having a pain body attack, they don’t realize but they will suffer the consequence of their unawareness. So people you inflict violence will get that back in some karmic way, from the universe or legal system but an energy field has been created and there is no escaping that unless of course you really awaken and evolve and change your energy. If we go into any deep suffering it is an opportunity to awaken so the pain body isn’t al bad when everything is taken into consideration.
The entire universe is heading towards awakening and humanity must embrace this new form of conscious or we won’t make it as a species. But as scary as that may sound remember we are al just apart of one consciousness so we will not be lost. But that said wouldn’t it be really cool if we could evolve now and create a new positive collective consciousness and have earth be a place of peace and the kind growth that does not require destruction / harm to others. Being apart of this is apart of the awakening – we should all feel great about that.
I love what Eckhart said about his realization in the English church. He saw the image of Jesus on the cross with new eyes of seeing a suffering human being. And then he looked to this other golden cross that did not have Jesus on it and realized that this torture instrument was also a symbol for the divine. He saw Jesus as a representation of a human form with complete / extreme form of limitations but at the same time he remembered the words “not my will but thy will be done” represented to Eckhart a complete acceptance of suffering and through this the transformation of this cross into the symbol for the divine. I’m not a traditionally religious person but I think that is so beautiful! And will look at that image differently from now on!
Conscious suffering is accepting the suffering and at that moment and then the ego dies and the divine comes through. So the worst thing that can ever happen to you becomes a doorway for the divine to come in. Like what Pema Chodren said in when things fall apart – surrender to the pain and it will transform you. Grace is behind every kind of suffering.
Breaking free…. it can take a moment or an eternity but that’s not the point. The real achievement is when you stop identifying with the pain body because this is where your freedom begins. The more awareness you can bring the more present you can be and the more the pain body will decrease. The pain body has a specific dense frequency and the more you are aware of it the more it lessons. Energy is all one just in different frequencies so when the pain body (who’s frequency is dense and rigid) is freed it helps contribute to the arising awareness of our world.
Other thoughts:
– Ego is the complete identification with form – the role, the thought etc.
– It’s the identification with the pain body that hurts you but if you just aware of it, it just becomes an uncomfortable feeling. You become the space, the awareness of the pain body and in that you have already broken your identification with it. Some pain bodies are denser than others so don’t get caught up in how long it takes you to let go.
– Don’t ever forget the past has no power of the present moment, no matter how bad it was.
– Again the way we get to all this through stillness because you go beyond the form of who you are or the stories that you think make you up. In presence there is no past or future.
– Don’t make yourself into the problem by worrying – “oh I have so much to let go of” or “what a head case I am”, etc. that just keeps the negative cycle going.
– Don’t personalize everything, like being cut off in traffic – it’s not about you.
– He says he’s not perfect, he is whole – I love that! It is just so real.
– Ego love is different from god / universe love.
Class Seven
Let’s start with a Moment of silence…become still and breath…. listen to the silence under the sounds you may be hearing…. feel the life energy inside your body…and move deeply into the now…
Finding who you truly are. The most fundamental question you can ask yourself is who you are. A good starting point is to ask who you are not. By seeing who you are not clears the way to who you are becoming clear on you really are.
Death, loss and destruction can prompt finding out who you are because something you have identified with is gone and you will begin to see what is left. You will probably feel very empty and sad when loss happens and you can fall into that story or you can see it as an opportunity to see your own light of consciousness – you have to not resist and accept the situation and through the empty space left by loss you will find your light.
The light does come through the form so we do feel the loss of loved ones in a profound way. When you loose a loved one and can accept that what has really happened is that the form has become the formless and in the formless that presence can come though easier. The mind wants back what it has lost but being able to connect with the formless will bring your closer to those we have lost.
“Knowing yourself is being rooted in being not in mind,” Eckhart says. We know you have to honor your human form by playing certain roles and/or function but you can do that and not become totally identified with it. We have to watch out and see that our mind creates thoughts rooted in our stories and concepts about who we are but who we are is beyond concepts, beyond mind…. it is consciousness.
Your reaction to a situation tells you allot about where you are. “If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small. That will be your unconscious belief. What are the small things? Ultimately all things are small because all things are transient” says Eckhart – beautiful and true!
Whatever matters to you will have the power to disturb you. This is another good way to discover who you are and more than likely, my experience is to see those “small” things that your pain body latches onto and prompts you to create a story around it thus leading you to be identified with something you probably don’t want in your life.
You can get deepening into “being” by being present, by finding that stillness and light inside yourself. You are more than your form, than your mind. You are a limitless essence with endless possibilities for who you can be. You get to this space through breadth and being in the present moment because you become aware, the observer of what is going on and that is the liberation from the form world we live in.
Stillness exists internally and externally – always! We just have to be open to being with it, connected to it.
I like one of his “exercises” in helping us to find stillness anywhere in our lives. He says to pick up an intimate object and just sit with it, or touch it and connect with its stillness. Remember nothing is inanimate, everything is alive. We are trying to see that the essence of our being is stillness. Our consciousness is not subject to live and death; it’s all a transformation.
1. What disturbs you – the triggering event
2. What is your reaction – emotions, physical and mental
3. Your awareness of both these levels – this is where find freedom from it. To have an awareness of what bothered you and how you react is the beginning of re-patterning our negative (or unnecessary) behaviors.
This is the beginning of freedom and you will begin to let go of concepts you label yourself or others with.
He’s not saying you never can get upset but it is when we are missing the awareness we get lost in the reaction, we become the reaction and since most reactionary behaviors are not good we don’t want that. That’s been a big challenge for me and from reading his first book the power of now I began to incorporate this idea of awareness into my behaviors. I would become very stressed at my old company T&T and I was aware I would react inappropriately towards the people around me – lack of patience or being abrupt and then I began to bring awareness and I would in my mind say a buzz word that would bring me out of reaction like “wait” or sop and breadth” and I found my behavior began to change and I didn’t feel like a slave to my reactions.
And catching yourself won’t change the situation immediately, maybe it begins with the lessoning of your reaction and eventually you will change your internal / external reaction (acceptance of the moment is key) and then I have found the situation that was a problem disappears because you are no longer engaging it and/or in the energetic field.
As a side note I want to add that I grew up with my father always saying to me that if I don’t like what someone else is doing or saying I should just say to myself “well I may not do it that way but it is interesting that he is”. The point is that you are not judging and you are taking yourself out of the story and just being an observer. I’ve always found this helpful.
Knowing yourself as opposed to knowing about yourself. The content of my mind and life is knowing about yourself but you can know all this and still not know who you are. Knowing who you are is only accessed in the present moment and it is a deeper place within you, a feeling place. And you really only find out which place you live in so to say by how you react to people and situations. Are you attached to your inner voice and stories or are you connected to stillness and consciousness?
People are afraid to know themselves because they are afraid of what they will find. Remember, we are going to find things we don’t like, things that are painful but we must push through that pain and accept ourselves totally. And then from this place of stillness, of consciousness we can make changes. How can we change ourselves, better ourselves if we don’t see what needs to change? Don’t be afraid, it is a bit disturbing but the positive changes that come out of facing these things are so worth it! Be alert to yourself not just a mental concept.
Knowing who you are is being yourself fully. Being in touch with the essence of yourself. Try saying “I am” and don’t fill in the blank…this is super powerful.
Also ask “who am I” but don’t answer yourself and you’ll find your essence will come up.
I am…
We all have a choice when a challenging situation happens, we can be reactive based on our past on our past conditioning or we can become alert and separate ourselves from the situation. To really not react you have to fully open yourself to the situation because that brings/gives an alertness to it, a consciousness and if an action is needed it will come from the center of your being, from presence, not the past and not from negativity.
Reactions are conditioned thoughts from your past and takes you out of the now and this desensitizes us. The ego is acting out. True sensitivity and intuition comes when we surrender to the present moment.
“I am never upset for the reason I think” from a course of miracles, how true.
Unfortunately there are allot of things to be upset about in our world and things always creep into our personal daily lives that challenge us but we must remember that worrying about it does not help it. My mother is in ill health mentally and physically and I have really worried about her and I always have to remind myself that I cam actually adding to her suffering by being worried or scared or feeling guilt – the best way I can help her is to send her love and healing energy. I close my eyes and do this and I feel better because I know we are all connected so I choose to feed her positive energy rather than the negative.
He says whatever we think the world is withholding from us is actually what we are withholding from the world and that we think we are small and have nothing to give. Try giving to other people what you yourself want. Give what you most want.
For instance external abundance – see it, you don’t have to buy it by see it and recognize it because the abundance is always around us. It’s very much about having gratitude. Gratitude is the base for abundance. Be grateful for everything.
Abundance comes from within you, it flows out of you and as we know what you give out comes back. Gratitude is its own energy field and if you can see this it changes your reality.
When you become so trapped I your thoughts you cannot see the abundance. We find the gratitude in the present moment because you have to stop and be conscious and say ok, what am I grateful for now. I will say that I personally try to this as much as I can and it really makes me feel better. It can be as simple as looking around my room and appreciating how beautiful I think it is or looking at the sky and seeing the clear beauty and when I do this I really feel better inside. I feel like the world is there for me in whatever I need it.
Being able to be grateful from where you are. I really like what Oprah said about having a happy time sick in bed. She accepted she was sick and let go of the story of oh I should be fulfilling my obligations and then began to appreciate her clean sheets, the sun coming through the window – so even though she was physically ill she still felt happy and was appreciating, having gratitude for other things. This is such am important way to be.
If you do not resist negative situations can become positive. Stress is about not wanting the moment to be what it is.
Bring an inner yes to whatever situation is happening or whatever emotion you are feeling and when you allow an emotion to fully “be” it will not feed on your thoughts and become apart of ego. Also important to realize that when you sit with emotion, really allow it, it will pass more quickly.
Other ideas I liked:
Unhappiness and negativity are a disease in our world.
Suffering is caused by not accepting the now.
The joy of being can only come from the formless dimension within yourself, it never comes from external sources!
Have you found the right relationship with the present moment. Are you awake from the dream. You must be to find the joy.
Try doing nothing when you are attacked – verbal name calling for instance. Just allow it, don’t re-act, and don’t let the ego “repair” itself by you retaliating with a negative comment about them. These are great times to practice non-reaction.
High quality no is not reactive (the borrowing money story), its just honest statement about what you will or will not do.
We have become so consumed with time and form; we forget we are eternal and formless. We are so much more than our form.
Class Eight
Let’s start with going inside into silence and connect with life, the part of us that is eternal, timeless – this is the life beyond the form…as you go into stillness connect with the idea that you are life….and breadth….
Inner space. Our minds are a continuous stream of thoughts and the external a continuous stream of “things” we have to deal with and Eckhart says this leaves us no room for space. We have sensory thoughts or experiences that become objects in our mind, he calls it “object consciousness” and this leads us to making ourselves a mental object, which becomes ego.
If you do not have “space consciousness” between thoughts we can’t access the spiritual, the connection to source. We need to be conscious of being conscious and you really have to experience this to understand it. For example, if you are looking at a flower and experiencing it can you also become aware that you consciously perceive it? Can you sense the part of yourself that is conscious? If you can this gives you space and gives you peace. If you do not have this you lose yourself in the world and in your own mind, that “voice” that keeps us living in the past and future.
He is not saying that there are two parts of us, that we are dualistic; this is a great example of the limitations of language. Becoming conscious of being conscious is where the awakening begins. When you are able to observe yourself and your actions you will find you are actually present, you find space. For instance if you are super angry and a part of you is thinking ‘hey, I’m out of control, I need to calm down’ you are experiencing presence because you are aware of it and can then change your behavior. Oprah brought up parents being angry and having the awareness to say ‘ok, I’m too angry to discipline my child now, I have to calm down’. These are the benefits of awareness and consciousness because you begin to control and/or change your negative behaviors. If you do not have the “space” you do not have the power to step back and see you are acting negatively. And again, awareness is the first step but the positive action may take a bit of time to happen. Just be accepting, don’t judge yourself and keep at it.
This part of the conversation I found very timely and important! How can you be at peace when in a war zone? Eckhart asks can you accept the unacceptable and if you can you can go very deep very quickly. These people have a harder road I think but many have still surrendered and found peace. Why should you accept it – because it is. And if you can accept the unacceptable you become free! Accepting is not condoning it.
Accept the moment as is and don’t fight the obstacle, face the situation and through the acceptance you go into stillness and then through the acceptance you find a solution, an action. The world doesn’t always do what you want it to – don’t fight the obstacle, don’t complain to yourself and everyone, that’s a big waist of time and it will sabotage you.
These ideas about stillness and presence do not mean you should be passive. It means you are aligning yourself with what you want from a place of peace. Your energetic frequency is aligned with your higher consciousness and you will be in vibration with what you want – you will begin to take action from this positive place.
Unless you are rooted in a peaceful place within you cannot be a true agent for change. Your state of conscious is primary and if you are in a state of peace you will reflect that. You can be a bringer of peace into this crazy and violent world through your state of consciousness b/c everything you do will be empowered by the peace state of consciousness. It doesn’t mean you can’t take action but it is a more powerful action when it comes from your inner peace rather than your inner anger or “fight”.
When you are present you do not generate suffering for yourself or others! You can help others but you will create a “re-action” if you are not coming from presence and peace. It’s a real spiritual practice to balance being active in creating change while being rooted in presence and peace.
Daily life can really pull you out of consciousness – you have to invite a state of presence into your life everyday – do this during your daily activities, meaning be present and alert and don’t label things that you may do and see everyday. I think this is super helpful and brings us back to what Eckhart talked about in the beginning of this book, that we should have the eyes of a beginner. Routine things can bring you “wow” moments when you are open and present. When you really practice this everything becomes beautiful and amazing because you are experiencing “being”
Addictions – awareness has to be brought to the pattern in order for it to change. It may not happen immediately as with the guy who smoked cigarettes but it might be a process. By bringing presence into the moment when you feel the craving is how to begin. The urge may still be there but just keep practicing bringing awareness to the old patterns and eventually the old patterns cannot exist. Remember not to judge! Just keep going and the negative pattern will lesson bit by bit.
I love the guy who called in about quitting smoking because he “sat’ with the craving, did the three deep breadths Eckhart suggests.
One conscious breadth is a meditation!
When watching TV he says not to become possessed by it. It is another addiction. TV can pull energy out of you because of the rapidly changing images – it decreases your ability to have prolonged attention to something. TV can cause loss of consciousness, that’s what it is essentially designed to do. It brings us below thinking not rising above it. When you rise above thinking you are present.
*** Don’t fall asleep with TV on or go to bed right after (I’m so guilty of this) because you have just spent allot of time in unawareness and it can cause you to wake up less refreshed and the quality of your sleep will be better if you do not go straight from TV. Before you sleep lie there and bring your attention into your body, to all your parts and let yourself feel your aliveness with no thought and you create a nice energy.
This too shall pass. This is a pointer, a teaching phrase for some 12-step programs. Remember that everything is temporary, it will pass. If you do not realize “it” will pass, even the good things, you become attached to it and cling to it so even with the good things you will take away some of the joy b/c you are worries “it” will pass. Just be alert and awake to make sure that you are detached so that ego does not come back in.
This too shall pass – Allow change to happen: being / practicing non-resistance – non-judgmental and non-attachment are the true elements for freedom and enlightened living. Once you see the inevitability of change you can enjoy the present without fear of the future. You know whatever is happening will finish but then something new will come into your life. Being able to accept this allows you to actually enjoy the present more.
Fear is very tricky! People will overcome one fear and then create a new fear about the old fear coming back – these are our wonderful mind games. Coming back to presence and acceptance is good. Find enjoyment in the present moment and the fear can’t come back in and don’t get caught up in “is the fear going to come back” if you stay in the now the fear cannot exist. Fear comes from past or future.
We find allot of fear in relationships. Many people cling in relationships but all relationships change – we need to be comfortable with change b/c change is constant. When people in relationships expect things to stay the same it will cause trouble. If you do not cling you have no fear, fear keeps you stuck where you are. If you accept change you can have two things happen in the relationship, it may dissolve or it can deepen but it cannot deepen if you are caught up in fear and clinging.
Other ideas I loved:
– Observing and inner space is the same thing, it is a mirror. But, the observer is not judging, once you start to judge you are dealing with the ego.
Field to fall asleep to.
– If you want something but it doesn’t satisfy you know it is ego. If you are doing something from true passion the world will respond – I’m talking about the rock star question. b/c if you want to be a rock star and can’t or it’s not working, your not finding the success you want you are not satisfied and that is ego. Oprah was saying people who really become rock stars do so b/c they had no choice, they had to and they didn’t care whether they were singing for one person or a thousand. I will add that I personally know allot of people who pursue being musicians and do put everything into it and don’t find monetary success and this bothers then but they keep going.
– One women asked how do I know the difference between a conscious decision or an ego decision – if it comes out of stillness / peace it comes from consciousness. If it comes from anger or worry it is ego. I liked what Oprah said that if you are making a decision from consciousness / inner space you do not have to ask everyone in your life, ‘what should I do” when you are quiet and peaceful you know what to do.
– What is primary in your life is your inner state. Ask yourself what is your inner state at this moment, this is the first thing to deal with before you can deal with the external. The price you pay is loosing your false self, the “I”
– Living in the now does not mean you don’t have to pay your bills you do but you do not have to worry about it. You can deal with the daily functions without worry, worry is your choice. Yes, you need to take action and get things done but you can do it from a more powerful place by not worrying. Be present, effective and powerful. If you have bills to pay and don’t have the money in the bank, take action not the emotion of worry. Action is good and productive and a solution will usually arise out of action.
– Some Christians are very threatened by this book and it’s ideas, they felt it was an attack on their faith. And one person brought up the point that this book actually helps you deepen your experience of what Jesus is talking about. This person had once left the church and this book actually helped him back to the church because he had a deeper understanding of how to really practice and live what the church preaches. I find this interesting and hopeful. I really wish for more Christians to be open to exploring these ideas and other ideas – it doesn’t take away from your faith I think it adds to it.
Class Nine
Start with a moment of silence. We touch God when we go into stillness – from the new testament “be still and know that I am God”, meaning God is found within us so with that thought lets take a breadth and go inside….
Our inner purpose. The goal is to align the inner and outer purpose. To find it we have to weed through life and it’s daily stresses and distractions. Many people live in a state of dissatisfaction and are caught up in “doing”. When people think of purpose people usually think of the future and the things you should “do” and this is the external purpose. First though you need to be inside yourself, asking “what is my inner purpose?” and that begins with being in touch with the present moment. You must go beyond the state of dissatisfaction that is common to us all and stop thinking about the future and how happy you’ll be if this or that happens. Be in total acceptance and alignment with the now. Be true to this very moment and give it your full attention. This step you take now is what he calls primary and the next step is secondary.
The purpose of your life cannot be found on the outer / external level. It’s not what you do but who you are. The primary purpose is the inner, the secondary falls into place based on your inner purpose. We all have an inner purpose and it begins with being aligned with the now, and our outer / secondary purpose comes from a place of clarity found in the primary – that almost sounds like a math equation. But what he is saying is this…
If you give each moment your best then everything comes from that. The destination, the end is not as important as the means – the journey and being in the now is the important part. Success is not a future event and the end result will carry the energy of the journey that took you there – it’s all about the journey. If the journey did not have happiness in it neither will the end. It is your consciousness now that will determine what will be in the future. This idea is really sinking in and I find that everyday I am making adjustments so to say to where my awareness is and its amazing how much I find it’s focused on the external, which does indeed cause me grief and coming back into myself and the present moment helps. And, the surrendering to the present is key, things are what they are and go from there. When I focus outside I notice ego flaring up. Ego will see it as me against the world but that will lead to suffering. When you feel negative emotions you are going against the flow or worse yet the more negative you are the more the world will reflect that back to you. We want our inner light to come through, we want our consciousness to flower and this will be allow whatever you do to be fueled by this energy.
Instead of being lost in your thinking let awareness take over – let thinking be the servant of consciousness and then the mind can be used in wonderful ways.
If you can become comfortable with uncertainty you will be happier. Accepting uncertainty will allow your journey to be more joyful and adventurous.
And be ok with mistakes because they teach us what we do not want and what actually is right for us. And sometimes displeasure will help you identify what it is you do want. You have to know what you don’t like in order to appreciate what you do.
Once you find this inner purpose you still may not know the exact form it will take externally but you will know the next step – for example I very much related to Eckhart and Oprah both talking about being in a promising career but hated with and left it and their families didn’t understand and became upset. The same thing happened to me. I had my first corporate job in retail and kept getting promoted and I was just unhappy there, I felt restricted and confined to rules and regulations I didn’t believe in. I quit and my family was extremely upset and felt I was giving up “my only chance” but the reality I was beginning to find my inner purpose and if I had not followed that I would have missed out on some very amazing things in my life. And it was hard at first, it didn’t just come but I loved the journey. And my journey gave me opportunities I could have never imagined so I really relate to being comfortable with the uncertainly – fear blocks the inner journey because you are too concerned with what your future will be. I get this but what I get more is that I have to love the where I am, what I am doing and the rest will come, it just does.
When you are aligned with inner purpose you will begin to see the universe coming to meet you and present you with opportunities. You will attract what you are in vibration with! And you have to be open and alert to these things.
If you are having a hard time finding this inner purpose you cannot think it up – it has to come from inside, a feeling and from consciousness – this is key! And remember if you are in a state of dissatisfaction you cannot find that inner purpose because it is clouded / blocked.
If you are unaware of being you will seek meaning only in “doing” and this is temporary!
Being obsessed with what you do and working like a horse doesn’t mean you love what you do. But when you are aligned with your inner purpose and the external falls into place you will find you will end up doing something you really love. And in this state you will be in the present, the present is sacred. When you do things in a state of presence different things will come out of that, a different energy. I think a healthier energy.
If you ignore your inner purpose, no matter what you do the ego will creep in. you want to bring a level of consciousness to what you do. Inspiration and enthusiasm are important.
The ego keeps accounts – you owe me this or that (emotional or material). Seeing this – being aware is a great opportunity to see your ego in action and becoming aware of it of course takes away its power.
Fulfilling your inner purpose fills you and lays the foundation for a new reality and you become charged with an inner power and aligned with the evolutionary impulse of the universe. He means that the evolutionary impulse of the universe is the growth of consciousness. ”As above, so below” meaning what happens here will also be reflected in the universe. The impulse of the universe is to support you and by letting consciousness come through you, you connect with all that is, the collective consciousness and out limitless potential.
Eckhart says our inner purpose is to awaken. To awaken you must have inner silence first otherwise you won’t be able to see the external beauty and peace. You need a quiet mind to be aware of silence. The separation between thinking and awareness is the awakening.
Remember allot of these ideas, such as inner space, come from feeling and language just doesn’t do it justice. I have gotten into many debates where at the end we realized we really were talking about the same thing but our verbology was different. I think taking a step back, becoming aware and trying to express the broader idea can sometimes help get you out of the language details that can cause confusion and/or frustration.
Things fall into place when you are in alignment! Something good comes to you because that goodness is already within you. Whatever you are is what you will manifest. These are such important ideas to me and I find inspire me to be in the present and to align with my inner purpose and not to “think” so much about what comes next because I really believe that my energy creates my reality.
If you have an awakening and realize you are doing something you don’t want to do surrender to it, accept it so that you are ok with the present moment and have clarity. You do not want to be in opposition to the present. You can accept the moment and still come to the conclusion that this is not what you want and then you make a change. Remember he said change should come from the stillness within us, the acceptance of our lives as is because this is the clarity needed to see and feel our inner purpose. Also sometimes just bringing a new energy to what you do can make it better or lead you to attracting something better. Stir your own pot so to say.
I loved him saying it is the small steps in each moment that lead us to greatness / success. When you are true to the present moment many amazing things can happen. We can find consciousness in small moments. An awakening can happen in a moment but only in the present moment because that is really all that exists. It’s where we find ourselves.
And one of my favorite points he makes is one of my favorite ideas in the world….
What you put out is what you get back – the law of attraction! My goal is to be in vibration with what I want and whom I want to be in every moment and then I know the rest will follow. I just need to stay alert and connected to my inner space with no judgments attached. Easy, ha!
Class Ten
Begin with silence, a moment of stillness. To find the stillness you have to move out of thinking and move the attention on our consciousness, the awareness – be aware that we are aware and become still…and breadth…
The end of this book is the beginning of our own journey. We want to take consciousness into our daily life in all our thoughts, actions and energy.
We are all manifestations of the universe. To me this means we have the limitless potential of the universe. It doesn’t matter what word you use, god in place of the universe perhaps but the point is we are the expression of this higher source.
As the earth and the universe is constantly expanding and contracting and so are we. We live and then we start to diminish through age or illness. And during this time of letting go of this world is a time when there is a great potential for spiritual awakening. You can see this in some older people because they become luminescent but others resist and negative inner states arise. Old age should be honored and unfortunately is not and that means we lose a deep spiritually.
There are three components that are very important – acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. There is great beauty in old age you go from doing to being and in our society that can be extremely valuable at this stage in your life. And you don’t have to wait for old age for this to happen – bring your being into your doing.
Acceptance = what it is and try and change your mindset, if you cannot stop the behavior or situation. Maybe you have to pay the rent and have to put up with the crappy job and if that’s the case your spiritual practice is to change your inner energy and find peace and stillness in the way you approach your day and once you change that it is inevitable that the situation will get better because you are in vibration with harmony.
Enjoyment = this is a higher energetic frequency. Doing things because we enjoy it not because we want something. Joy does not come from what you, it flows from you and then flows into what you are doing – I love that!!!!!! It comes from within you.
– Pleasure is different because pleasure comes from outside you – it is something that pleases the ego.
Enthusiasm = an even more vibration for awakening because it is connected to the source, it is born from our spirit (different from excitement over a ball game). There is an energy field that is creative.
These ideas can lead you to finding the other, like if you accept what is going on you might find enjoyment and that might lead to enthusiasm. It’s a beautiful interaction, which is facilitated by presence.
Intelligent stupidity – I love this. The example he uses is that we have the intelligence to split the atom but instead of using that for something good we build a bomb. This is because a dimension of spirit / of being is missing. And if missing destructive things happen at the micro and macro level.
“The only actions that do not cause opposing reactions are those that are aimed at the good of all” – think about how your thoughts and actions affect everything and everyone.
What you do is secondary – who you are is primary! – It’s what you do but how you do it, meaning the amount of presence and consciousness you bring to whatever you are doing. Allot of us are so concerned with the end result we don’t bring presence to the journey and that greatly affects your outcome.
Acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm we must have in everything we do and if we do not stop what you are doing and get aligned with life. When you love without those things you are living dysfunctional and that energy will spread to those around you through psychic disharmony.
A big challenge is that once you master this at home you then have to go outside and deal with people who may not be on your path and then you start another part of the spiritual journey and that is to stay peaceful and still in situations that are challenging. He reminds us to stop waiting and be present and free. This isn’t an immediate fix, its gradual so don’t give yourself a hard time (that’s apart of the negative cycle).
A bad situation is only temporary and its your choice how to deal with it. This applies to our own demons and challenges as well. Watch out for things you can immediately change like cutting down on your availability by turning off your computer and PDA. PDA’s take us away from presence.
Acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm…I need to say this one again because I have found myself in what I call a “looping” of thoughts about what I have or haven’t done and what I have or don’t have. I catch myself but I really notice this pattern in me and it has blocked exactly these three ides/words and I have felt uninspired. This is a real ah ha moment for me because I have to get back into alignment as he says and to stop creating a negative energetic field or psychic disharmony as he says. Man, as humans this is such important work for us to do in order to truly be happy and bring light into this world. We must stop our own suffering and the rest will follow…
So not only do we have this inner journey to follow / the inner journey but we also have to deal with the external world. I wrote about “dancing with your day” and it basically says to go with the flow whilst the phone is ringing, the pile on your desk is screaming at you and the boss is asking for more or being difficult, people coming from ego. This is where your tolls come in very handy and the tools are stillness, presence, awareness and taking a breath to bring you back to these feelings during hard situations. The tools on this website, energy exercises, are great tools to help you along your journey!
Remember to start one step of a time. Start with the inner journey inside your house by bringing awareness to everything you do, like watering your plants. Then slowly as your inner strength builds and you feel more comfortable in this still space, then take it out into the world.
When trying to find your purpose it is an inner vision, don’t keep thinking of the “things” you have to do. Yes, you have to function but you can do that while staying in tune with your purpose in the present. Inside believe that what you are striving for exists already, visualize the goal is a reality and the reality will manifest in you, in the present moment and then the manifestation happen externally. This is where I think it is very important to visualize in the present, not I want, it’s I have. This puts you in vibration with what you want and you act in ways that represent that, you come from fullness, not neediness. You are empowered because what you want already exists.
Always honor what you are doing, even if it doesn’t fit into your vision because it later may make sense why this experience is apart of your vision. But again there is power in your inner purpose and your belief in it and you being in vibration with it. Life’s timing isn’t always convenient but it’s our journey so we accept and enjoy. So ask yourself “am I ok with the present moment” and if it’s no you want to change that mind / energy state. Whatever you do can have deep meaning to the world if you approach it with presence, even a waiter or toll both person – we al have something to give!
The greatest purpose for us is to change yourself because if we all do that and generate stillness and peace into the world. Just as every time you are angry you feed that energy into the world and your immediate environment will reflect that.
World horrors – he isn’t saying not to care. Acceptance isn’t condoning. – I like to send people and areas in strife white light and love.
We always have to start with ourselves. Stepping back from your own mind, finding that space between thought and awareness can be hard to recognize if you are really doing it because at first it will be brief moments but just wondering about it means that you have it, if only for a moment and say to yourself I intend to recognize this space and be there more.
Once you recognize a thought as a thought it cannot own you – don’t resist the thought or thinking pattern just have an awareness of it, take a breadth and then let it float away – don’t give every thought importance because then it will draw you in, it’s the minds habit pattern and you want to take your attention away from thought and into feeling and/or stillness. Also look around and see what the world is reflecting back at you and this will give you a clue as to what energy is flowing through you. It’s so important honor what you are doing, no matter what it is and that will affect your day into a more positive experience.
When we are aligned with our inner purpose and we are aware the universe will rise to meet us and things just start falling into place but you have to see it and not be in denial of the present because that will stop you from seeing the opportunities coming to you. You never know how your inner purpose will manifest, you may have an idea but usually we don’t realize what we want may not look like we thought (immediately).
Acceptance needs to flow into the doing. Because with acceptance you have let go of anger or some other negative emotion so you bring something positive to any situation if you accept, even if you have to accept your life is a mess or just did something wrong. So then you go into that inner space and say oh – what am I doing and this aware you will act and feel differently and you might change the situation but most importantly you will change your inner state.
Alert attention is the key! Find space and presence and ask what do I do but ask it from a place of openness, alertness, acceptance and presence.
The mind will always tell you negative things or that you don’t have time to be present because it does not want you to be present because that is the end of mind in a way.
Always ask yourself am I friendly with the present, if no that energy will manifest, if yes it things will manifest in a positive way.
Life is not here to make you happy, it is here to make you conscious. You want to be connected to source energy and that will flow through you. Source energy encourages creative energy to flow through you.
With all these thoughts put into action we are evolving into a new species in a way, a conscious species.
An approximate quote that is perfect to end this series with – “we are the hole in the flute through which gods breadth flows through” Eckhart Tolle
***The aging process slows down when you let go of the past – you have less stress and less of a burden. Eckhart is 60 and looks like he’s 45. Look at other yogi, meditation and any kind of energy masters; they all look amazing!!!!
