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31. <title>Helping Children Transcend</title>
32. <link>https://eckharttolle.com/helping-children-transcend/</link>
33. <comments>https://eckharttolle.com/helping-children-transcend/#respond</comments>
35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
36. <pubDate>Tue, 27 Sep 2022 20:12:39 +0000</pubDate>
37. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
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52. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Helping Children Transcend</h3>
53.  
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60. <h5><img decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
61. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Questioner: Can we help our children and others that we love to transcend their unconsciousness? Or is it necessary for them to go through it on their own?</span></p>
62. <p>ET: There are more children born nowadays who may not have to go through the deep unconsciousness that [adults] had to go through, certainly that I had to go through.</p>
63. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4305"></span></p>
64. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">ET: There are more children born nowadays who may not have to go through the deep unconsciousness that [adults] had to go through, certainly that I had to go through. And also there are more children born nowadays to parents who are in the awakening process, or relatively conscious parents. In my generation, I can’t think of any conscious parents. There might have been some, but it was rare. They are still rare now, but much less rare than before. I loved my parents, but they were deeply unconscious. So, the question is how to help the children stay relatively conscious, so that they do not get drawn into the mass unconsciousness that still pervades mass culture, and the technology that promotes unconsciousness and addictive behavior.<br />
65. </span></p>
66. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most powerful teaching is not what you say or do to them, but your state of consciousness at home. That’s the very foundation for teaching your children. It has nothing to do with teaching, the foundation for transmitting consciousness is not even wanting to transmit consciousness to them, but to hold the space of presence as you interact with them at home. Also, to hold presence as much as possible as you interact with your husband. There’s a relationship there that will infect them, with either presence or painbody.<br />
67. </span></p>
68. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most vital thing is, before even thinking of doing anything, is being conscious. They observe how you behave, and they take that on board to some extent. Of course, another influence is mass culture, as they spend more time at school. Occasionally there may be things that you can point out to them, so that they stay in touch with immediate experience, sensory experience. Don’t let them lose touch with nature. So many children these days are so involved in technological games, they don’t experience nature anymore. It’s something totally alien to them. That’s a very harmful thing. It’s a great deprivation, to be deprived of the immediate experience of the natural world, which puts you in touch with deeper levels of your own being. To have an animal at home is a great help. If children relate to the dog, it’s a non-conceptual relationship. You can touch the dog, look after the dog. Getting out into nature periodically, without the gadgets that [kids] usually have.<br />
69. </span></p>
70. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[Watching] television is a state of semi-comotose hypnosis. It may not be easy because everybody else is doing that kind of thing. It’s not that you have to eliminate that kind of activity completely, but discourage them from spending 100% of their free time with those things. Take them into nature, without the gadgets. Encourage them to direct sensory experience – to touch, to feel, to look at things. Encourage them to not confuse conceptual labeling with true knowledge or experience.<br />
71. </span></p>
72. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When [kids] are learning language, encourage them not to equate concepts with reality. When you teach them what something is, encourage them to touch it, to see it, to feel it, not just to say, “this is called such-and-such”. Continue to look at it. Otherwise, you stop experiencing – and all you have is a mental label.<br />
73. </span></p>
74. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Questioner: They label themselves, as well. I’ve noticed this with my daughter, she will come home and say “I’m stupid” at this or that.<br />
75. </span></p>
76. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">ET: That’s a good way to encourage her not to identify with her thoughts. So if you can point out that it’s just a thought, and that they don’t have to believe in every thought that comes. If you can somehow work with them to have them realize that they are not their thoughts, so that there’s a space between them and their thoughts, to observe their thoughts, and when thoughts come you can explain “it’s no more than a thought” and it may not be the reality, it may not be true.<br />
77. </span></p>
78. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most humans have painbody. Dis-identify from the painbody by pointing out that this is the painbody. I’ve often said not to call it “painbody” for the children. Give it a name, call it something, and mention it when occasionally they get taken over by it. Point it out to them afterwards, “what was that, that took you over?” so that an awareness develops. There’s the emotion, and there’s the awareness. Encourage that kind of thing, so that they are able to look at the emotion that takes them over from time to time. And after the event, not during the event initially, say to them, “What was it that took you over when you started screaming yesterday? What was that?” and say, “What does it feel like?” or invent some game, so that you can make it into something that they can be aware of. Then “let’s wait for next time it comes, and see how it feels”. If you have it, then you can point out after you’ve woken up from your painbody – “the same thing happened to me”. The key in education is to show the possibility of being aware, rather than always being identified with what arises in their mind.<br />
79. </span></p>
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115. <li>New video practices every month</li>
116. <li>Over 300 hours of additional teachings from Eckhart &amp; Kim</li>
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130. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com/helping-children-transcend/">Helping Children Transcend</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com">Eckhart Tolle | Official Site - Spiritual Teachings and Tools For Personal Growth and Happiness</a>.</p>
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137. </item>
138. <item>
139. <title>When your attention moves into the Now…</title>
140. <link>https://eckharttolle.com/when-your-attention-moves-into-the-now/</link>
141. <comments>https://eckharttolle.com/when-your-attention-moves-into-the-now/#respond</comments>
143. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
144. <pubDate>Fri, 23 Sep 2022 17:40:34 +0000</pubDate>
145. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
146. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://eckharttolle.com/?p=4294</guid>
147.  
148. <description><![CDATA[<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com/when-your-attention-moves-into-the-now/">When your attention moves into the Now…</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com">Eckhart Tolle | Official Site - Spiritual Teachings and Tools For Personal Growth and Happiness</a>.</p>
149. ]]></description>
150. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<section class="  light-wrapper normal-padding vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid light-wrapper normal-padding vc_custom_1518099880955"><div class="container "><div class="row "><div class="wpb_column vc_column_container col-md-12"><div class="vc_column-inner "><div class="wpb_wrapper">
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155. </figure>
156. </div>
157.  
158. <div class="wpb_text_column wpb_content_element  vc_custom_1663954537168" >
159. <div class="wpb_wrapper">
160. <h3 style="text-align: center;">When your attention moves into the Now…</h3>
161.  
162. </div>
163. </div>
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165. </div>
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167. <div class="wpb_wrapper">
168. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
169. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">”When you are present, when your attention is fully in the Now, Presence will flow into and transform what you do. There will be a quality and power in it.<br />
170. </span></p>
171. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4294"></span></p>
172. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You are present when what you are doing is not primarily a means to an end (money, prestige, winning) but fulfilling in itself, when there is joy and aliveness in what you do.”<br />
173. </span></p>
174. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When your attention moves into the Now, there is an alertness. It is as if you are waking from the dream of thought, the dream of past and future. Such clarity, such simplicity.”<br />
175. </span></p>
176. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence – your deeper self – behind or underneath the thought, as it were. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.”<br />
177. </span></p>
178.  
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209. <h2>Join Eckhart&#8217;s Private Community</h2>
210. <h4>Your free, 10-day trial comes with:</h4>
211. <ul>
212. <li>Access to a private online community</li>
213. <li>New video practices every month</li>
214. <li>Over 300 hours of additional teachings from Eckhart &amp; Kim</li>
215. <li>Member-only discounts, recorded Q&amp;A sessions, access to retreat recordings, and more.</li>
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237. <title>Finding Balance</title>
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241. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
242. <pubDate>Thu, 22 Sep 2022 22:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
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258. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Finding Balance</h3>
259.  
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266. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
267. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">By living aligned with the present moment, you also align your will with the universal will, which you could call “the will of God”. You don’t have a separate will. The separate will wants to enhance or strengthen one’s sense of self.<br />
268. </span></p>
269. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4286"></span></p>
270. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The separate will is concerned with the “me”, the “I”, the ego. But there is a divine Consciousness, the one Consciousness, there is an evolutionary impulse. What we are doing here at every moment, is to align ourselves with that.</span></p>
271. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Non-resistance is vital because as long as you are in resistance to the present moment, you will be trapped in the little egoic will. The egoic will needs to subside – that’s surrender to the present moment, and surrender to what is. When you align yourself with what is internally, it looks at first almost like a position of weakness, and it can be misinterpreted as something that prevents you from taking effective action. But the acceptance of what is, is totally compatible with responding to whatever the present moment requires. Whatever wants to be created, manifested, done, at this moment – to be aligned with that, you need to first accept whatever form this moment takes.</span></p>
272. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Single out this moment only. For example, when you are ill, you don’t say “I need to accept this illness, the fact that I am ill, that I am suffering from this” because that is a whole conceptual story. All you need to accept is this moment as it is. There is never actually an illness in this moment, there is only a physical condition. There may be pain, there may be weakness, disability, discomfort. Those things may be there, and that’s the only thing you accept. This moment is as it is now.</span></p>
273. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you are stuck in the mud somewhere, you don’t say, “Okay, I am in the mud, I have to accept it, and here I am – I’m not taking any action because I have to accept what is”. This moment is already always as it is, and there’s nothing you can do about that. That’s what you accept. Then, action that arises has a different energy to it. The will that flows into what you do is no longer egoic. When you have not accepted this moment, the will goes against the Universe – that is what the ego does. It is negative, it fights something that it says shouldn’t be there. If you use negativity, you are trapped in ego. The “little will” has to subside for the more powerful will to flow through and deal with the situation. It creates, it is not isolated from the totality. It is one with the totality. When that operates, another word for that universal will is intelligence. It’s only when you look at a situation, completely accept the is-ness of this moment, and then of course action may be required.<br />
274. </span></p>
275. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once the opening is there, through acceptance, the next step that you take will be much more powerful. There’s a Buddhist term “right action”, that can only arise out of the right state of Consciousness. You have to get out of the ego first before you can have right action. The Buddha was talking about that which flows from the awakened state of consciousness. To surrender the little will is to say ‘yes’ to the present moment. It’s not a big thing, just say yes to what is – because it already is anyway. Why complain about something that is? It’s insane, but normal.<br />
276. </span></p>
277. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To give up the egoic will, all you have to do is not complain about what is. Be aligned with the isness – people, situations, whatever – this is already as it is. It’s the inevitability of is. Become friendly with what is, and you become intelligent for the first time.<br />
278. </span></p>
279. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With the simple act of surrender to the inevitability of the present moment, another energy comes. You could call that universal will, you could call that intelligence, you could call that the creative solution to whatever the so-called “problem” is. You could call that power coming in, that is greater than the limited power of your mind. Or it may use your mind, and suddenly you say the right thing, if that’s what the situation requires. Suddenly the words come – where do the words come from? You don’t know what you’re going to say next. They come from a deeper level because that intelligence uses the mind.</span></p>
280. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You and the Universe become one, and as such it creates through you as this form. That’s the beauty of it. When the unmanifested flows into this world, it assumes form. Most thoughts that people have in the unawakened state are repetitive old thoughts, conditioned thinking, conditioned by the past. All you can rely on then is what you have accumulated in the past, you deal with things through conditioned thinking. When the simple act of surrender opens your mind, it can then be used as an instrument. Then, a thought may come in that is original and fresh and new. That is the birth of form. The birth of thought creates the birth of form. The Universe uses you as a vehicle or a channel through which to create. You are one. It can use your mind, and become thought, words, physical things. That’s the way in which the mind can actually be a helpful tool – alignment with the greater Intelligence, the One Consciousness.<br />
281. </span></p>
282. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It all starts with the present moment, and your relationship with the present moment. Friend or enemy? Are you allowing it, or are you fighting it, resisting it? That’s the end of ego – because the ego needs resistance. The ego survives through complaining, it survives through denying, or wanting something else.<br />
283. </span></p>
284. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The present moment is the teacher. Work with that – that’s all you need, really. That’s the end of the “little will”, which isn’t all that powerful anyway. Whatever it creates, creates more problems. It seems so simple, and it is simple. And yet, because of the many thousands of years of habit-patterns, often people tell me “It’s so difficult to be in the present moment and allow it to be”. Of course, the opposite is true. Life becomes difficult if you don’t. What you accept is the form of this moment. No more. Then, see what’s needed. You are not truly intelligent until that happens.<br />
285. </span></p>
286. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sometimes holding that space of simple Presence activates other factors that then come in, seemingly, from the outside to change the situation. You have activated the intelligence of the totality. It’s not necessarily coming through this form. That is why people speak of synchronistic things happening, suddenly a helpful factor comes in, suddenly the right person appears, the right thing happens. Almost miraculous when you don’t know that it’s natural, it seems like a miracle at first because most humans are not used to that.<br />
287. </span></p>
288. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you hold Presence, sometimes the change may not happen through your action. There are many situations where action at this moment is not possible. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, however you can continue to be present. Then, a greater intelligence is activated. Very often you will find change happening in the situation.<br />
289. </span></p>
290. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This greater intelligence is not the conceptual intelligence that you can measure with IQ tests. It is non-conceptual intelligence. Conceptual intelligence is the ability to retain information, analyze, compare, and so forth. It’s a tiny fragment of what intelligence is. There is a vastness of non-conceptual intelligence. Our destiny is to be in that way, so that our whole life is to become a work of art. Not just be confined to that state of consciousness when you do your creative work. Any creative thing has a spark, an aliveness, a quality, a newness, a freshness. You connect with non-conceptual intelligence in the alert Stillness within. Everybody has that, as their essence. That is true intelligence. To what extent you are connected with that could not possibly be measured through any IQ test. Ultimately, you cannot measure creativity.<br />
291. </span></p>
292. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Very often, the form of the present moment seems like a limitation on your life, something that is impinging on your freedom. The body could become ill, you may find it hard to move. When something drastic happens, if you can learn to accept it, a little bit of spaciousness comes into your life. You say, “this is what is”. A little bit of space just opened up, and you’re no longer just a resisting entity. Then, you realize that you are essentially formless space. In other words, you find inner peace. At first it is very gentle in the background, in the midst of any situation. That peace is powerful. It can become so powerful, that is obliterates almost anything. Peace is the formless in you. By accepting the form, the formless within you opens up. This is how something seemingly bad – a limitation – becomes an opening for realization of who you truly are.<br />
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357. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
358. <pubDate>Thu, 22 Sep 2022 22:07:15 +0000</pubDate>
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374. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Eckhart on Our Creative Universe</h3>
375.  
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382. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
383. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The awakening process has two aspects, or two dimensions, to it. One is the finding the Source within, as yourself. Then, [there is] bringing that into your life more and more – so that your daily life becomes interspersed with that Stillness. </span></p>
384. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4276"></span></p>
385. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As your life becomes interspersed with that Stillness, the ego then begins to fade. You embody a different energy field – as if something from another dimension were coming through you into this world.</span></p>
386. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most essential thing is the foundation for all subsequent “awakened doing”, as I sometimes call it. The world is full of people who are doing, but it’s mostly unawakened doing. This comes out of unhappy states, and creates more unhappy states. Our first task is to bring that dimension, the other dimension, into this world. With your normal everyday life, see if Presence can flow into the smallest things – listening to another person, walking from here to there, and so on. Presence implies acceptance of whatever is, in the Now, in alignment with the form of the Now, as a spiritual practice. The more you are aligned with the form of the Now, the more this energy comes through.</span></p>
387. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s vital for us to be grounded in the Presence of everyday life. The foundation is continuous acceptance of the is-ness of Now. Through that, Presence arises more and more. You work with the present moment, as your teacher so-to-speak. Bring a “yes” to it. With that, the Presence comes. You have to first come to an acceptance of the is-ness of things – not the world situation – just your limited reality. After a little while you will notice that there is another aspect to Presence. It’s not just still &#8211; there’s also a dynamic aspect to Presence. That’s where “awakened doing” comes in.<br />
388. </span></p>
389. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">First it changes the way in which you deal with others. One day, something else wants to be done that needs doing. You might perceive it as something that you need to do. Suddenly you know what it is that you need to do. It comes from within, or it comes from without – some situation in your life. Then, “awakened doing” begins to happen. That doing is not the egoic doing, where whatever you do is a means to an end. There is deep enjoyment in the doing. There is not an excessive desire to achieve, but you achieve actually more &#8211; because there’s so much enjoyment in the doing that the end result looks after itself. A very different kind of doing arises, that is not motivated by desire. The normal way is thinking “I need to achieve this”.</span></p>
390. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Presence moves through you, it’s not based on desire anymore, it’s based on enjoyment. It’s not based on wanting or needing anything, because you’re coming from fullness. The action is not designed to fulfill you. It’s not designed to add something to you. The action is coming out of the fullness in which you already dwell – so there’s no neediness in it.<br />
391. </span></p>
392. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Obstacles arise, as they will, especially if you do things that go against the conditioning of the world – you may find obstacles. You also may find enormous power helping you.</span></p>
393. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Obstacles may come in the form of uncooperative people, or situations, but enormous power will also flow into what you do and help you in many ways. Just the right thing, just at the right moment, just the right person. When obstacles do arise, they are not regarded as enemies. The ego regards any obstacle to its course of action as an enemy.</span></p>
394. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An obstacle is accepted for what it is, and you work with it – not against it. Or you work around it, or you take its energy and turn it around. It becomes incorporated into what you have to do. You don’t see any more enemies in the form of unhelpful situations, uncooperative people. Everything is embraced for what it is, accepted for what it is, and transformed. It’s not so much that you are doing it, you become a vehicle for the doing. It happens through you. The power comes when it wants to come.<br />
395. </span></p>
396. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For several years after the shift that happened to me, there was not much happening externally – and after that, gradually, people came to ask questions. There was some doing, some speaking happening. Answers were suddenly coming, and that lasted for several years. I knew somewhere that there was a power here, but it’s not reaching many people for some reason. It wasn’t happening yet. It was fine, people would come once or twice a week and ask questions. A workshop here, a workshop there, and then big spaces.<br />
397. </span></p>
398. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I was once in a country church in England, in a small village in Somerset, and the church was completely empty – and suddenly the words came out of me that said “Use me”, and “I’d like acceleration please”. I don’t know who I was talking to. The words, where they came from, I don’t know. The Consciousness was listening, it seems. At first nothing happened and I went back home. A few weeks later, I woke up knowing that I had to leave England and move to the west coast of North America. I did not know why. That was the beginning, and eventually the writing started there. That was the acceleration happening. I did not know [at the time] that it was part of the acceleration that I had asked for. And then things accelerated more and more. Be careful with what you ask for.<br />
399. </span></p>
400. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I don’t have the sense that I am “doing” any of this. I just go with it. Am I speaking as a person? No, its Consciousness speaking, using this mind, to express what is most helpful for this moment. So be in the service of that. You are in the service of that. Get rid of the idea that you have to “do” anything as a separate entity. Be open to what it is that wants to be done in this world, then conscious doing happens through you. Every so-called “individual” has a different function in this world. The more you get out of the way, you do it by bringing Presence into everyday life, then the answer of what it is that wants to be done comes through you.<br />
401. </span></p>
402. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a wonderful adventure to be aligned with that. There is a lot that wants to come through at this time. It doesn’t choose between people, it doesn’t say “You are special, I’m going to choose you”. Whenever a person becomes transparent to it, it comes through. It doesn’t ask “Who are you, what are your credentials?” It doesn’t ask, “What is your personal history? Are you worthy?” It’s timeless Presence. It’s not interested in your past history, whether you were the most virtuous person. Wherever the opening is, the light comes through.<br />
403. </span></p>
404. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inspirational Story<br />
405. </span></p>
406. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dear Eckhart,<br />
407. </span></p>
408. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The January [Eckhart Tolle TV] talk where you suggest a parallel story (the falsely accused Zen Master story) be written, where one person reacts unconsciously, and another responds consciously to the same situation, made me burst into laughter! In fact, I am visiting my daughter right now, who is living a true-life story similar to the Zen Master story, the conscious response version. I keep encouraging her to write it, but she is too busy living it! Here&#8217;s a brief summary:</span></p>
409. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ten years ago while she was three-years married to the man of her dreams, and pregnant with their second child, her husband came home one day and told her he had fallen in love with a student (they are both professors at university, and the student was a professor in training). She lost her temper, hit him, and broke his nose. He had to have surgery.<br />
410. </span></p>
411. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Then, she recovered. Within a few days, the three adults involved sat down, and decided to do the best thing for the children. The husband would live with his new love, and my daughter would live alone. They would divide all the parenting between two households. Now who would think this impossible, cumbersome, difficult plan would work? Everyone around her was encouraging her to be outraged, to get even, to take the kids away from him etc. All the usual reactions were available, and not taken.</span></p>
412. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Obstacles may come in the form of uncooperative people, or situations, but enormous power will also flow into what you do and help you in many ways. Just the right thing, just at the right moment, just the right person. When obstacles do arise, they are not regarded as enemies. The ego regards any obstacle to its course of action as an enemy.</span></p>
413. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My daughter has shared only recently with me, the enormous pain she endured, sitting alone in her house on the nights while her babies were at the other house, one of them drinking the breast milk that she pumped and packed to go along. Yet she did endure. That pain-body flavor (me, the abandoned woman) has dissolved through her, I believe. Maybe just a piece, but I see it as astonishing.<br />
414. </span></p>
415. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Her &#8216;baby&#8217;, now 9, has recently been shunned by her peer group at school. But she is safe. She has her mom&#8217;s precedent. Day by day, I see her enduring, silently, slowly becoming shiny and peaceful.<br />
416. </span></p>
417. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Blessings,<br />
418. </span></p>
419. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Elizabeth<br />
420. </span></p>
421. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inspirational Quotes<br />
422. </span></p>
423. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8220;If you were conscious, that is to say totally present in the Now, all negativity would dissolve almost instantly. It could not survive in your presence.&#8221;<br />
424. </span></p>
425. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8220;Almost every ego contains at least an element of what we might call victim identity. Some people have such a strong victim image that it becomes the central core of their ego. Resentment and grievances form an essential part of their sense of self.&#8221;</span></p>
426. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8220;The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. Each one represents a certain vibrational frequency of consciousness. You need to be vigilant to make sure that one of them operates whenever you are engaged in doing anything at all – from the most simple task to the most complex.&#8221;</span></p>
427. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8211; Eckhart Tolle</span></p>
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487. <title>Can art or music inform the ego of Presence?</title>
488. <link>https://eckharttolle.com/can-art-or-music-inform-the-ego-of-presence/</link>
489. <comments>https://eckharttolle.com/can-art-or-music-inform-the-ego-of-presence/#respond</comments>
491. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
492. <pubDate>Thu, 22 Sep 2022 20:30:01 +0000</pubDate>
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508. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Can art or music inform the ego of Presence?</h3>
509.  
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516. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
517. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On the one hand, you have the creative process – music, or art. And then you have the finished product – the piece of music that is played, or the work of art that somebody contemplates.<br />
518. <span id="more-4273"></span></span></p>
519. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you ask, “Can art or music inform the ego of Presence?” – the ego doesn’t know anything about Presence, so it can’t do that. There needs to be some opening in the ego in order for you to be receptive to the power that is latent in music or art, that was created from that deep place. There’s a lot of music and art that’s not necessarily created from that deep place, but the ego is trying to be clever. Let’s talk about some piece of music or work of art that comes out of connectedness with Stillness, or Presence. To some extent, the work of art or the piece of music still carries that energy field. It can put a person in touch with the deeper dimension within. A there’s a little bit of an opening is required. If there’s only the density of the ego, then the transformational possibilities of art or music are not realized. A little opening is required in the viewer, or the listener, and then it can be quite a wonderful thing to listen to music or to contemplate a work of art. You can be transported, if only for a moment, into that alert stillness out of which it originally came. That’s a beautiful thing.<br />
520. </span></p>
521. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another aspect is “losing oneself” – going too deep, almost losing oneself in the ground out of which creativity comes. In the creative process, there’s always a balance that’s needed, so that you don’t lose yourself in Being. It could happen to an artist, it can happen to some people who awaken spiritually – they suddenly plunge so deeply into Being that they lose all interest in doing. That happened to some spiritual masters, who spent several years being without doing anything.<br />
522. </span></p>
523. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For example, Ramana Maharshi in India had to be fed for several years because he would not even pick up food. He was so immersed in Being that he just sat there. People recognized something extraordinary about him – which they would not have done in the West – and they put food in his mouth. But there was certainly a loss of balance, he could no longer function in this world. This of course, is an extreme example. Gradually, after a few years he was beginning to function again, and he was able to regain a balance between dealing with things out here and connectedness with Being. In a slightly minor way it happened to me, when I lost interest completely in ‘doing’ and drifted around for two years. It wasn’t a “problem” to me, it was only a problem to people who were watching me, or who knew me. So there was a loss of balance for a while, but gradually the balance re-established itself. I didn’t have a teacher, as such, so it turned out to be a natural process.<br />
524. </span></p>
525. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As long as you go within, and give form to that which is resting in the formless, be used by it – so that through you it can come into this world of form. Don’t stay down there and lose yourself in it – that’s not necessary.</span></p>
526. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Music is a wonderful way of getting in touch with the stillness within.</span></p>
527. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the listener, it is important not to become dependent, however, on anything external to enter the state of Presence. Whereas music can be a help, there too needs to be a balance. If the only time you can become still is when you listen to a certain kind of music, then that’s not quite it, because you are depending on something external to get in touch with that. Use it as a help, and this is the same as a spiritual teacher or spiritual teaching – it can be a great help to listen to a tape or see a video, but don’t become totally dependent on that. Every good spiritual teacher will tell you, when the time comes “enough is enough”. The true teacher is within you. What you see in me, that which you find so precious in me, must be in you – otherwise you wouldn’t see it. A good teacher will always direct you back to yourself, and not foster any kind of dependency.<br />
528. </span></p>
529. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Knowing what is a help, using it, but not becoming dependent. Eventually it is necessary for you to go there without any help. You can still appreciate teachers, and teachings. I love listening to other spiritual teachers if they come from a deep place, I have great joy, and I think “Wow, this is so wonderful”. Or reading a spiritual book that comes from the deepest place – there’s still great joy in that. It has nothing to do with needing, it’s enjoying a slightly different expression of the same deep truth. It’s wonderful.<br />
530. </span></p>
531. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sometimes holding that space of simple Presence activates other factors that then come in, seemingly, from the outside to change the situation. You have activated the intelligence of the totality. It’s not necessarily coming through this form. That is why people speak of synchronistic things happening, suddenly a helpful factor comes in, suddenly the right person appears, the right thing happens. Almost miraculous when you don’t know that it’s natural, it seems like a miracle at first because most humans are not used to that.<br />
532. </span></p>
533. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Also, you can see it wherever it is – no matter in what form it is hiding. You can see the truth shining through wherever it is hiding. It might be hiding in some ancient religion, very deeply. There you see it, shining through – there may be a lot of mythology around it, a lot of cultural beliefs around it, and yet deep down there you can see this is the truth, shining through all the mythology around it and so on. It is who you are.<br />
534. </span></p>
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598. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
599. <pubDate>Wed, 21 Sep 2022 22:34:26 +0000</pubDate>
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615. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Death and Dying</h3>
616.  
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623. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
624. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Death is a great opportunity because death is one way in which the formless dimension comes into this life. It’s precisely at the moment of the fading of the form, that the formless comes into this life. But if that is not accepted, and the fading of form is denied, then it’s a missed opportunity.<br />
625. </span></p>
626. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4269"></span></p>
627. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As people around you pass away, you become increasingly aware of your own mortality. The body will dissolve. Many people still, in our civilization, they deny death. They don’t want to think about it, don’t want to give it any attention.</span></p>
628. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There is enormous potential there for spiritual flowering. Even in people who, up to the point of the beginning of the fading of the form, were completely identified with the form. It’s your last chance in this incarnation, as your body begins to fade – or you are becoming aware of this limited lifespan. It’s your last chance to go beyond identification with form. This is true whether it’s to do with your body, or somebody else’s body.<br />
629. </span></p>
630. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the proximity of death, there is always that grace hiding underneath the seemingly negative event. Death in our civilization is seen as entirely negative, as if it shouldn’t be happening. Because it’s denied, people are so shocked when somebody dies – as if it’s not possible. We don’t live with the familiarity of death, as some more ancient cultures still do. The familiarity of death isn’t there. Everything is hidden, the dead body is hidden. In India you can see the dead bodies being carried through the streets, and being burned in public. To the Westerners, it’s terrible.</span></p>
631. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the consciousness is changing, I feel that more and more death will become an important part of the evolutionary process, the process of the arising consciousness on our planet.</span></p>
632. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At any age, the form can dissolve. Even if you are very young, you may encounter death close to you. At any age, it is extremely helpful to become familiar with, or comfortable with, the impermanence of the physical form.<br />
633. </span></p>
634. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I recommend to everybody, to occasionally visit the cemetery. If it’s a nice cemetery, that makes it more pleasant. Some cemeteries are like beautiful parks, you can walk around and feel extremely peaceful. But even if it’s not nice, spiritually it is just as helpful to walk around the cemetery and contemplate the fact of death. I still do that, quite often, whenever I have a chance.</span></p>
635. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Europe, in the villages and so on, you have a cemetery next to the church very often. I love walking around there. My favorite thing is reading the names on the gravestones. Sometimes if the gravestones are very old, you’ll see that the name is not there anymore – it got eroded by the weather.</span></p>
636. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s the contemplation of death and the acceptance of the impermanent nature of the human form that opens up, if you accept it. Don’t intellectualize it. Don’t come to some kind of conclusion about it. Just stay with the simple “isness” of the fact of the impermanence of the human form, and accept that for what it is without going any further. If you go further, you get into comforting beliefs, that’s very nice too. But what I am driving at is something deeper than comforting beliefs – instead of going to some kind of conclusion, stay with the fact of the impermanence of the human form, and contemplate this fact.</span></p>
637. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With the contemplation of the impermanence of the human form, something very deep and peaceful opens up inside you. That is why I enjoy going to cemeteries. When you accept the impermanence, out of that comes an opening within, which is beyond form. That which is not touched by death, the formless, comes forward as you completely accept the impermanence of all forms. That’s why it is so deeply peaceful to contemplate death.</span></p>
638. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If someone close to you dies, then there is an added dimension. You may find there is deep sadness. The form also was precious, although what you loved in the form was the formless. And yet, you weep because of the fading form. There too, you come to an acceptance – especially if you are already familiar with death, you already know that everything dies – then you can accept it more easily when it happens to somebody close to you. There is still deep sadness, but then you can have the two dimensions simultaneously – the outer you weeps, the inner and most essential is deeply at peace. It comes forward almost as if it were saying “there is no death”. It’s peace.<br />
639. </span></p>
640. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inspirational Story<br />
641. </span></p>
642. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My whole life I was interested in spiritual teachings. I did yoga classes and meditation exercises. Ten years ago my husband (who is now my ex-husband) started to listen to videos from Eckhart Tolle. At that time, I could not really grasp the content and was not interested.<br />
643. </span></p>
644. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Years later, in Africa, I saw a boy offering different books for sale to car drivers in the street. He showed me &#8220;A New Earth&#8221; and I knew I must have it and read it. I got this book at a time when I was going through a tough life situation. I was far from home, I had difficulties in my relationship with a new partner and my work conditions were stressful.</span></p>
645. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I started to read and was fascinated. I enjoyed each sentence and was fully alert. From this time on, I remembered myself regularly to be in the moment. I introduced on a voluntary basis &#8220;stops&#8221; in the flow of my thoughts. In long meetings I observed the spaces between the words, which allowed me to follow and intervene without any effort.<br />
646. </span></p>
647. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I noticed rapidly, that this knowledge is life changing.</span></p>
648. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since then I have read all the books Eckhart has written and I find I am reading them over and over. It never gets boring and there is always something new in it.</span></p>
649. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I can confirm from my own experience that to bring presence and non-resistance into daily life changes the quality of life and helps to overcome even very difficult obstacles.<br />
650. </span></p>
651. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">-Charlotte<br />
652. </span></p>
653. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inspirational Quotes<br />
654. </span></p>
655. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">”When you are present, when your attention is fully in the Now, Presence will flow into and transform what you do. There will be a quality and power in it. You are present when what you are doing is not primarily a means to an end (money, prestige, winning) but fulfilling in itself, when there is joy and aliveness in what you do.”</span></p>
656. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When your attention moves into the Now, there is an alertness. It is as if you are waking from the dream of thought, the dream of past and future. Such clarity, such simplicity.”<br />
657. </span></p>
658. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence – your deeper self – behind or underneath the thought, as it were. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.”<br />
659. </span></p>
660. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8211; Eckhart Tolle</span></p>
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719. <item>
720. <title>Presence in Conversation</title>
721. <link>https://eckharttolle.com/presence-in-conversation/</link>
722. <comments>https://eckharttolle.com/presence-in-conversation/#respond</comments>
724. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
725. <pubDate>Tue, 20 Sep 2022 20:31:44 +0000</pubDate>
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741. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Presence in Conversation</h3>
742.  
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749. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
750. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Question: How do I maintain a sense of presence when I’m in the company of another person? How do I bring presence into conversation?</span></p>
751. <p>Eckhart Tolle: It’s not easy. The moment you start talking, the two minds come together and so they strengthen each other. A flow starts, a stream of thought. A moment ago you were present, and then somebody starts talking.</p>
752. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4262"></span></p>
753. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What applies here is the loss of space during the conversation. Both participants of the conversation have lost any sense of space. There are only the words, the mind, the verbalization, the stream of thinking that becomes sounds. They are taken over by that. It has its own momentum – almost a little entity, a stream, that doesn’t want to end.<br />
754. </span></p>
755. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Often, it generates emotions in the body. That strengthens it, amplifies it. If the mental stream triggers emotions, which it often does, especially when talking about other people, what they did, failed to do, did to you, did to others, criticisms, gossip, all kinds of emotional things, the ego comes in. When you can criticize another, the ego feels a little bit stronger. By diminishing another, in the delusional system of the ego, you have enhanced your own self-image a little bit. Any criticism of another is a part of that energy stream. And then emotions come, and they amplify the thoughts. It’s the loss of space.<br />
756. </span></p>
757. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For you to regain space, without saying “I’m not talking anymore”, one thing is necessary for you – which is the realization that you’ve lost space. Without that, there’s nothing you can do – when you’re so taken over by a stream of thought, that you don’t even know you’ve been taken over by a stream of thought – there’s nothing you can do. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”. They are unconscious. They are the stream of thought. And as the stream of thought, you don’t want it to end – because you don’t want your own end. Every entity wants to remain in form for as long as possible.<br />
758. </span></p>
759. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If there’s the slightest realization that you’ve lost space, at that moment you have a choice. What is your choice? Your choice is to bring some presence, some space, into the stream of thought. But how do you do that?<br />
760. </span></p>
761. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s coming at you not only from within your own mind, but it’s coming at you from the other person too. The awareness is there, and it may only last three seconds, and then it’s gone again. So you have to use those two or three seconds, where you realize the loss of space, and do something in that space where you have some freedom to act. By a conscious choice, you take your attention out of thinking – but you have to anchor it somewhere else, otherwise it won’t work. So you choose your breath, or your body, or some other sense perception around you that you become aware of. When you are actually talking to another person, it’s probably easiest to either use your breath or your inner body.<br />
762. </span></p>
763. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Practice this beforehand, when conditions are easier, so that you can do it once it’s necessary. Go into your inner body, feel that your energy field is alive. And you’ll notice, you’re not thinking anymore. You can still listen. The amazing thing is that you can listen to another person, without thinking, easily, beautifully.<br />
764. </span></p>
765. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You are listening, but part of your attention is on your energy field – so you’ve taken attention away from your thoughts. There is a sense of aliveness in the background.</span></p>
766. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s ultimately formless; it’s already the doorway into the formless. Feel that while you sit there and listen, and you’ve stepped out of the stream of thinking. Then, the quality of the interaction immediately changes. The other person may not consciously notice what’s happening, and may carry on for a while. It also does not mean that you cannot respond anymore. But how you respond and the quality of your response changes, too. You are no longer contributing to the negative nature, which is often the case, in conversations.<br />
767. </span></p>
768. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A certain amount of stillness, then, will also be a part of the words that you speak. It’s so subtle that the other person probably will not notice it, consciously. So hang on to the inner body, let it be the anchor, and then you become present. If you lose it again, if the other person says something challenging, then after a little while you remember – and you go back into the inner body. That’s a powerful anchor, and then everything changes from there. It takes continuous practice.<br />
769. </span></p>
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829. <title>Personal Differences</title>
830. <link>https://eckharttolle.com/personal-differences/</link>
831. <comments>https://eckharttolle.com/personal-differences/#respond</comments>
833. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
834. <pubDate>Mon, 19 Sep 2022 22:16:20 +0000</pubDate>
835. <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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850. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Personal Differences</h3>
851.  
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858. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
859. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Viewpoints, opinions, and mental positions are all thoughts – the thought says “this is how it is”, it is some kind of judgment or perspective on things. To be identified with a mental position is to derive your sense of self from that mental position. It’s a substitute identity, form identity, ego – a substitute for your true identity which is formless and has nothing to do with any thought – but is consciousness itself.</span></p>
860. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4245"></span></p>
861. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is a good opportunity for not giving up your thoughts – you are not required to watch Fox News, but if he is there watching Fox News, and the sound is there filling the house, you can either ask him to turn it down, or close the door, or surrender to what is, or walk out, or ask him to walk out. There are many choices, other than negativity. The main thing is mental positions – to withdraw your identification. You can still have your position, but there’s no ‘self’ in it anymore – it does not supply your sense of identity. Then you can allow somebody else to have their mental position. Perhaps you can then discover that beyond both your and your husband’s mental positions – there is something beyond, where you are not in conflict. Beyond his thoughts and your thoughts – maybe you can find that place.<br />
862. </span></p>
863. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your first responsibility is not to identify with a position. Everybody has to practice that one way or another. It’s a beautiful practice. It’s expressed in Zen. I don’t remember who said it, some Zen master said, “Don’t seek for the truth – just cease cherishing opinions”. And that’s enough. Many spiritually inclined people look for the ‘truth’ – hopefully at some point within, but first it starts outside. But don’t look for the truth, not even within, just stop cherishing opinions. Cherishing, not having. It doesn’t say stop having opinions, because that would be difficult – maybe a very advanced practice. Even I have some opinions, about Fox News, and so on – but cherishing means to identify with the opinion, to be in the thought. And then it gives you your sense of “I”. Then anybody who has a different or conflicting position becomes a kind of enemy. Then you’re trapped in form. This is a very common human condition. Most humans on the planet derive their identity from their thoughts. So the thought is invested with self. Maybe this is another way of speaking about the essential truth of the Buddha, who discovered that this sense of ‘self’ is an illusion. You derive your sense of self from form – because every thought is a thought-form. It’s an energy field.</span></p>
864. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If this were your only spiritual practice, it would be enough. If you can try, for example, talking to the questioner, your husband can then become your spiritual teacher because he can continuously remind you not to be identified with mental positions. Then, you don’t resist the other person’s mental position, because you don’t need to – you allow it to be. You can even allow your own mental position to be. If you resist someone else’s mental position, you only strengthen it. Try arguing with him about Fox News or Sarah Palin, and you’ll see what I mean.</span></p>
865. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You may find the miracle that it can happen quite easily, that somebody’s mental position either weakens or it may even dissolve when it’s not resisted – because it needs resistance to strengthen itself, and to gain energy through fighting another. It’s quite miraculous to see how it can happen when it’s not resisted, when it is allowed: “I know that’s what you think, and that’s okay”.</span></p>
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916. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com/personal-differences/">Personal Differences</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com">Eckhart Tolle | Official Site - Spiritual Teachings and Tools For Personal Growth and Happiness</a>.</p>
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925. <title>The Painbody: Endure it or Walk Away?</title>
926. <link>https://eckharttolle.com/the-painbody-endure-it-or-walk-away-2/</link>
927. <comments>https://eckharttolle.com/the-painbody-endure-it-or-walk-away-2/#respond</comments>
929. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
930. <pubDate>Tue, 13 Sep 2022 22:39:10 +0000</pubDate>
931. <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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933.  
934. <description><![CDATA[<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com/the-painbody-endure-it-or-walk-away-2/">The Painbody: Endure it or Walk Away?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://eckharttolle.com">Eckhart Tolle | Official Site - Spiritual Teachings and Tools For Personal Growth and Happiness</a>.</p>
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946. <h3 style="text-align: center;">The Painbody: Endure it or Walk Away?</h3>
947.  
948. </div>
949. </div>
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954. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
955. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Question: When you know a certain person or situation is likely to trigger your Painbody, is it better to avoid them altogether or is it helpful to the development of Consciousness to stay with them and observe your Painbodies?</span></p>
956. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4232"></span></p>
957. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eckhart Tolle: There is no clear answer to that – it depends on the situation. In some situations you cannot even walk away. There may be a situation at work, or wherever, that may require you to be there at that moment, and all you can do is be present with your Painbody. In other situations it may be better to walk out instead of being engaged in useless argumentation or conflict; sometimes it may be better to walk out of a situation and let someone else’s Painbody exhaust itself rather than stay with that person. Nobody can give you a clear guideline of whether this is right or that is right, you have to take individual situations and feel what is right to do.</span></p>
958. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There is no way of avoiding the Painbody altogether. If you live in this world, there will always be situations in your life that trigger it, unless you are a complete hermit. Even if you are a complete hermit, it may happen because your own Painbody may arise as a result of certain thoughts that may trigger it. There is no way to avoid encountering Painbodies. And certainly you cannot run away every time you encounter someone else’s Painbody. Your spiritual practice will have to be a heightening of presence as soon as you notice somebody close to you who is being drawn into that deep unconsciousness that is the identification with the Painbody.</span></p>
959. <p>The intensity of Presence needs to arise so that you can counteract the deep, powerful pull of unconsciousness of the other person’s Painbody, that wants your Painbody to react – it wants an emotional reaction from you. It’s like a dimmer switch, you need to turn the dimmer switch up so that you become intensely present while the other person’s Painbody is trying to get some kind of reaction from you. It’s a very subtle thing, it can easily be confused with closing down or shutting yourself off from the other person.</p>
960. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When I talk about intense Presence, it has nothing to do with closing yourself to the other person, shutting down – this is energetically completely different. If you close down and you say “nothing can touch me now, I am not going to react”, then you shut off. You might fool yourself into believing that you are so present that nothing can touch you. You have created a barrier between yourself and the other person. That’s not what I mean by intensification of Presence. With intensification of Presence, there is a complete openness toward your surroundings, toward the Other, but there is that high degree of alertness, and that alertness is open towards what is. After a while you will find that you do that automatically, it’s not a decision-making process.</span></p>
961. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Whenever there is a pull of unconsciousness in a situation, you find yourself becoming more alert and awake. When you find yourself being challenged, you will find yourself becoming more alert – like the light is being turned up. That’s wonderful, because then it means that whatever the challenge may be, its function is to push you into intensified Presence. That’s the only way you can not be drawn into somebody else’s Painbody.</span></p>
962. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once you realize that this is possible, you will find in situations the intensity of Presence inside you will vary. It becomes very intense the moment you are challenged by a difficult situation. Immediately you find, rather than being pulled into unconsciousness by a challenge, which is the case for most people, you intensify your presence.</span></p>
963. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to Eckhart Tolle, the pain body is a product of the ego, and the way to separate your true self from the ego is to observe it, learn more about how to <a href="https://shop.eckharttolle.com/products/living-the-liberated-life-and-dealing-with-the-pain-body"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">dissolve the pain-body here</span></a>.</span></p>
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1023. <title>Gratitude</title>
1024. <link>https://eckharttolle.com/gratitude/</link>
1025. <comments>https://eckharttolle.com/gratitude/#respond</comments>
1027. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julie Gunnarson]]></dc:creator>
1028. <pubDate>Fri, 09 Sep 2022 22:15:48 +0000</pubDate>
1029. <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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1044. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Gratitude</h3>
1045.  
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1052. <h5><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-1875 size-thumbnail" src="http://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-150x150.png 150w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-60x60.png 60w, https://eckharttolle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eckhart_bio-1-403x400.png 403w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />By Eckhart Tolle</h5>
1053. <p>We are talking about a deeper gratitude. There are more superficial forms of gratitude, and that is not what we are talking about. By that I mean, to be grateful that someone else is worse off than you are…sometimes that is a source of gratitude.</p>
1054. <p class="lead"><span id="more-4221"></span></p>
1055. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">People say “Oh I really should be grateful, because look at this person – they are worse off than I am, so I should be grateful.” That’s not the true gratitude, that’s the gratitude that is arrived at through thinking, where you compare yourself to others.</span></p>
1056. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The deeper gratitude is not arrived at through some conceptual process, where you explain to yourself why you should be grateful. That’s a superficial form of gratitude, that’s not really what it is, that’s ultimately to do with ego.</span></p>
1057. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">More fundamental than the true form of gratitude is the deep sense of appreciation. It’s not to do with what you are telling yourself in your head, it’s something that you sense in the present moment, it’s an appreciation of the “is-ness” of this moment.</span></p>
1058. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We are using words as pointers. When I say “appreciation”, some people might ask “What do you mean by appreciation?” It’s to feel that the world around you is alive, and you share in the aliveness of the world that surrounds you. There’s the outer aliveness, in other human beings, even in your surroundings – whether it’s nature, or even in a room, you sense the aliveness of what’s around you at this moment, through your own aliveness. And with that comes the feeling, “it’s good to be alive”. You appreciate the many forms of life that are arising at this moment. You don’t impose judgment on the form that life takes at this moment, because the form that life takes changes continuously around you – one moment you’re here, the next moment you’re somewhere else.</span></p>
1059. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a deep sense of Being-ness, or aliveness, and through that you appreciate what is, in your life. And by saying “in your life”, it always means in the present moment, because apart from the present moment, there is no such thing as “your life”. If there’s something else there that’s not the present moment that you call “your life”, it’s a mental construct.</span></p>
1060. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You have formed an image of “me” and “my life”, it’s a story, and you mistake that for your life. Fundamentally your life is whatever form this moment takes. Your life is always what is now. That’s your life. Not some story you’re telling yourself in your head.<br />
1061. </span><i></i></p>
1062. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Through that appreciation, you are sensing a sense of Oneness with what’s outside and what’s inside. There is no longer a separation that is created by excessive conceptual thinking between other people and the self, the separation is created by judgment. There is a sense of allowing the present moment to be as it is. All these are fundamental aspects of gratitude. It’s that openness to the ‘is-ness’ of this moment. With that openness, comes an appreciation for the “is-ness” of this moment. There is no longer a denial or a rejection of what is, because you have some story in your mind that clashes with what is around you at this moment. And that’s how many people live, so they go through life continuously, there’s a clash between their ideas of what should be now, and what is ‘now’.</span><i></i></p>
1063. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The greatest form of suffering and frustration and non-fulfillment is the clash between the mental story of what “should” be and what is. That’s really the root of the madness. There cannot be gratitude when that operates in your life.</span></p>
1064. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When something seemingly negative happens, people may find it very hard to say “Okay, I should be grateful, even for this”. I’m not saying you should do that, because even that is an idea in your head. It’s better to forget about trying to be grateful when something seemingly negative happens, and simply let go of the mental judgment of it, and say “This is what is, this is what happened, and this is the situation now”. If you can be free of mental judgment and denial or projection, complaining, and so on… just allow what is, and then something deeper emerges, even in a seemingly negative situation.</span></p>
1065. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">By coming into this place of acceptance, of the inevitable ‘is-ness’ of now, your inner state is no longer ultimately dependent on what is happening or not happening outside. That is a vital transformation of consciousness, where the external world no longer determines your state of consciousness.</span></p>
1066. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So when something seemingly bad happens, say “this is”. Whether it is a small thing or a large thing, be open to that. If you’re open to the ‘is-ness’ of what is, something within you which we could call “peace” arises. Sometimes it’s very subtle, and you can’t notice it at first.<br />
1067. You’re not grateful for the seemingly bad thing, but you’re grateful that you can still be at peace, even in this situation. Internally you feel that by accepting, peace arises. Even in seemingly bad circumstances. And what is that peace? It’s an inner sense of aliveness, being-ness, presence. It’s the source of all gratitude.<br />
1068. </span></p>
1069. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There can be gratitude even when something bad happens. Not for the bad, but for the fact that even in the face of something seemingly negative, there is still peace in the background. But you won’t find that until you first accept what is.</span></p>
1070. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gratitude is very important. It transforms your whole life, if you can remember the importance of being grateful for life. As you go through your day, every day, you can even have little reminders – of the importance of being appreciative of life.</span></p>
1071. <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every person has to verify for themselves, what can I be grateful for at this moment?<br />
1072. Sense the being that you are – not just the physical, but the sense of your own presence. That’s a great source of joy, to feel your own presence, it cannot really be defined. That’s the ultimate gratitude.<br />
1073. </span></p>
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