Eckhart Tolle, has been one of my biggest mentors over the last 5 years. I read both of his books, The Power of Now and A New Earth, over 10 times each. They’ve been that helpful to me.
A couple years ago, I went to one of his live discussions with about 75 other people, in a theater setting.
Here are my notes:
Spaciousness, stillness, presence . “Be still, and know that I am God” – Bible
Wakeful state – the spaciousness state (mindful state)
4 states of consciousness: Dreaming sleep, dreamless sleep, dreaming while awake, dreamlessness wakefulness (presence)
Complete absence of spaciousness (absence of mindfulness) leads to insanity, or lower levels of unhappiness.
Aim: To deepen the realization of our spaciousness within; our joy, our inner peace is the spaciousness within.
- Person is the ripple, spaciousness is the ocean.
- Trust = faith = absence of fear = natural state
- Be the ocean behind the ripple. Transcend the person. Dissolve the Ego.
- A person that loses his or her density becomes an opening and opened to another dimension. That is evolution! Rid yourself of Egoistic density. Become lighter.
- Socrates – when asked about being a master knower, He said, “I only know, that I know nothing.”
- Meditating helps tremendously, but it isn’t the answer. Practice moment to moment consciousness/presence. Be the ripple physically and the ocean at the same time. Be one with the whole.
- Disappear sometimes. Dreamless sleep we disappear – we go back to the void. 1 foot in the world, 1 foot in the void beyond the world – in everyday life try to practice this.
- If you argue with what is, you suffer. There is the situation, and your reaction. You accept the situation, and also have your own viewpoint. Then, you have no viewpoint at all. That’s advanced consciousness, LOL
- Eckhart’s story when he was unhappy. The traffic, he couldn’t cross the street and he’d curse the traffic, it was symbolism of his life. Then when there was a break in the traffic, he still didn’t cross. Self fulfilling prophecy. In retrospect, he wasn’t ready to get out of the rut, he wasn’t ready to be aware. He wanted to remain unhappy. Then he joked he would have sent a text or tweet, the traffic is horrible. Haha
Eckhart Continued:
-Different areas of life of the world, pull us back from higher consciousness. For Eckhart’s father, it was women. (For me too)..
-Clouds are thoughts, and our true essence is the vast sky. Clouds come into our space of awareness. Sometimes the clouds get bigger and multiply. Entire sky could be cloudy. But there is still a sky behind it. There is still the light of consciousness within us.
-Heaven and sky are the same word in Spanish. In multiple languages. Jesus referred to sky. The vast expanse of sky. Equivalent is that spaciousness, inner Buddha, the emptiness.
-Buddhism and Christianity have the same message, they are so similar.
-Incorporate the thoughts I have in my meditations. Be aware of my thoughts, don’t run away from them.
-Our challenges deepen us. They awaken us. They awaken the spaciousness within us. THIS!!!
-Jesus’s Kingdom of Heaven is inner spaciousness or presence, or inner peace.
-Love your neighbor is misinterpreted. It’s know your self and your inner self first, and “Love your neighbor like yourself. I love myself is an intermediate stage in the sense of duality. But next stage is just I am myself and I emanate love and kindness.
-I hate myself / I love myself – world of duality…. Then there is I am myself. Love your neighbor as yourself, not same as yourself. Interconnectedness with all others – with the whole.
-Recognize the other as one’s self through love. But not through the framework of the mind. Love and then do as you’d like. St. Paul… All you need is love. John Lennon.
-Time is the horizontal dimension. Now is the vertical dimension. We need the vertical dimension in our lives because we get lost in the past and in the future with our mind. The vertical dimension, true presence is eternal. It’s eternity.
-Time is past and future, the horizontal dimension, this is thought in our minds. Yes we need it to function, but it’s secondary. The Now, the vertical dimension is what needs to be primary. The Now is the space of happening, of things coming into aliveness. This is when you really appreciate the people and the moments. When moments and people don’t become a means to an end. When you are fully present.
- Dalai Lama – “My religion is kindness.”
- I don’t know – the starting point of wisdom
- Einstein quote, “I want to find the meaning of God, everything else is only details.”
- Ripple – is the life situation. The details. Ocean is Life, is the real thing, the vertical dimension. Ripple identifies. People with strong ripple, people with beautiful ripple, they work for it, or born with it, but and it lasts just a while. It will pass. That’s ego, when live your whole life based on or attached to that ripple. It could be a superior or inferior ego (ripple) – it’s all ego to be aware of – and it’s important to be aware that all ripples are fleeting.
-The one thing that matters is our depth, find that place that you can’t know. This is our interconnectedness. Know who you are, non-conceptually – We are soul. We are spirit. THIS!
-AWE – some – awe what awe really means –puts you in awe, puts you in immediate awakening, presence.
-Would I judge myself for that? This is asked in A Course in Miracles.
-Apply the awareness in the present moment. Do you know after or in the moment of low self-esteem arising?
- Old patterns come again and again, but you no longer renew them because you are aware now. (like my challenge of self esteem I’ve had. I know when I get joked at, it used to hurt, or give me a sensation of embarrassment. Because I’m aware of my emotions, and I can laugh at myself now, and someone can laugh at me and I can realize it just doesn’t matter and it’s a cool challenge to laugh heartedly about my self without a self conscious fear or self impression projected in my mind from others).
- Are you identified or attached with always being right? Depends on how you answer. Illusion is identifying with a thought. My mental position. Differences in opinion can be conflict, when you are attached to your opinions.
-Wilko Johnson, British singer – diagnosed and survived cancer – said he was happy when he was diagnosed because all his other problems were no longer problems – they were all meaningless now. Ego couldn’t survive without a future. He noticed the beauty of the world when he stepped outside the doctor’s office, for the first time. Aliveness can be found with life threatening illness.
-Extraordinary abilities lead to ego lots of the time. You cannot put too much importance on the ability because the consciousness is what it’s about. The inner, deeper level underneath the ability.
-Plan, of course, but plan in the now, but don’t be living in a projected future.
Relapse 2 Recovery, memoirs of a recovering alcoholic talks about incorporating Eckhart s teachings into the recovery program. Hi Jules! Oh I just love your last sentence about presence coming through with a quiet ripple turning into a big wonderful wave ! Love it! I live by the ocean so your words made me smile
Great notes!