Story:True Freedom and Enlightened Living

Non-resistance, non-judgment, and non-attachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.

"MAY BE" 
This is illustrated in the story of a wise man who won an expensive car in a lottery. His family and friends were very happy for him and came to celebrate. “Isn't it great!” they said. “You are so lucky.” The man smiled and said “Maybe.” For a few weeks he enjoyed driving the car. Then one day a drunken driver crashed into his new car at an intersection and he ended up in the hospital, with multiple injuries. His family and friends came to see him and said, “That was really unfortunate. “ Again the man smiled and said, “Maybe.” While he was still in the hospital, one night there was a landslide and his house fell into the sea. Again his friends came the next day and said, “Weren't you lucky to have been here in hospital.” Again he said, “Maybe.”  

The wise man's “maybe” signifies a refusal to judge anything that happens. Instead of judging what is, he accepts it and so enters into conscious alignment with the higher order. He knows that often it is impossible for the mind to understand what place or purpose a seemingly random event has in the tapestry of the whole. But there are no random events, nor are there events or things that exist by and for themselves, in isolation. The atoms that make up your body were once forged inside stars, and the causes of even the smallest event are virtually infinite and connected with the whole in incomprehensible ways. If you wanted to trace back the cause of any event, you would have to go back all the way to the beginning of creation. The cosmos is not chaotic. The very word cosmos means order. But this is not an order the human mind can ever comprehend, although it can sometimes glimpse it.

"IS THAT SO"
The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his nextdoor neighbor became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting and accusing that their daughter had confessed that he was the father. All he replied was, “Is that so?”

News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The Master lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. Nobody came to see him anymore. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the parents brought the baby to Hakuin. “You are the father, so you look after him.” The Master took loving care of the child. A year later, the mother remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was the young man who worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they went to see Hakuin to apologize and ask for forgiveness. “We are really sorry. We have come to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father.” “Is that so?” is all he would may as he handed the baby over to them. 

The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in exactly the same way: “Is that so?” He allows the form of the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a participant in human drama. To him there is only this moment, and this moment is as it is. Events are not personalized. He is nobody's victim. He is so completely at one with what happens that what happens has no power over him anymore. Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness and unhappiness.

The baby is looked after with loving care. Bad turns into good through the power of nonresistance. Always responding to what the present moment requires, he lets go of the baby when it is time to do so. Imagine briefly how the ego would have reacted during the various stages of the unfolding of these events. 

"THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS"
According to an ancient Sufi story, there lived a king in some Middle Eastern land who was continuously torn between happiness and despondency. The slightest thing would cause him great upset or provoke an intense reaction, and his happiness would quickly turn into disappointment and despair. A time came when the king finally got tired of himself and of life, and he began to seek a way out. He sent for a wise man who lived in his kingdom and who was reputed to be enlightened. When the wise man came, the king said to him, “I want to be like you. Can you give me something that will bring balance, serenity, and wisdom into my life? I will pay any price you ask.”

The wise man said, “I may be able to help you. But the price is so great that your entire kingdom would not be sufficient payment for it. Therefore it will be a gift to you if you will honor it.” The king gave his assurances, and the wise man left. 

This, too, will pass. What is it about these simple words that makes them so powerful? Looking at it superficially, it would seem while those words may provide some comfort in a bad situation, they would also diminish the enjoyment of the good things n life. “Don't be too happy, because it won't last.” This seems to be what they are saying when applied in a situation that is perceived as good.

The full import of these words becomes clear when we consider them in the context of two other stories that we encountered earlier. The story of the Zen Master whose only response was always “Is that so?” shows the good that comes through inner nonresistance to events, that is to say, being at one with what happens. The story of the man whose comment was invariably a laconic “Maybe” illustrates the wisdom of nonjudgment, and the story of the ring points to the fact of impermanence which, when recognized, leads to nonattachment. Nonresistance, nonjudgment, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.

Those words inscribed on the ring are not telling you that you should not enjoy the good in your life, nor are they merely meant to provide some comfort in times of suffering. They have a deeper purpose: to make you aware of the fleetingness of every situation, which is due to the transience of all forms – good or bad. When you become aware of the transience of all forms, your attachment to them lessens, and you disidentify from them to some extent. Being detached does not mean that you cannot enjoy the good that the world has to offer. In fact, you enjoy it more. Once you see and accept the transience of all things and the inevitability of change, you can enjoy the pleasures of the world while they last without fear of loss or anxiety about the future. When you are detached, you gain a higher vantage point from which to view the events in your life instead of being trapped inside them. You become like an astronaut who sees the planet Earth surrounded by the vastness of space and realizes a paradoxical truth: The earth is precious and at the same time insignificant. The recognition that This, too will pass brings detachment and with detachment another dimension comes into your lie inner space. Through detachment, as well as nonjudgment and inner nonresistance, you gain access to that dimension.

When you are no longer totally identified with forms, consciousness – who you are becomes freed form its imprisonment in form. This freedom is the arising of inner space. It comes as a stillness, a subtle peace deep within you, even in the face of something seemingly bad. This, too, will pass. Suddenly, there is space around the event. There is also space around the emotional highs and lows, even around pain. And above all, there is space between your thoughts. And from that space emanates a peace that is not “of this world,” because this world is form, and the peace is space. This is the peace of God.

Now you can enjoy and honor the things of this world without giving them an importance and significance they don't have. You can participate in the dance of creation and be active without attachment to outcome and without placing unreasonable demands upon the world: Fulfill me, make me happy, make me feel safe, tell me who I am. The world cannot give you those things, and when you no longer have such expectations, all selfcreated suffering comes to an end. All such suffering is due to an overvaluation of form and an unawareness of the dimension of inner space. When that dimension is present in your life, you can enjoy things, experiences, and the pleasures of the sense without losing yourself in them, without inner attachment to them, that is to say, without becoming addicted to the world. 

The words This, too, will pass are pointers toward reality. In pointing to the impermanence of all forms, by implication, they are also pointing to the eternal. Only the eternal in you can recognize the impermanent as impermanent.

When the dimension of space is lost or rather not known, the things of the world assume an absolute importance, a seriousness and heaviness that in truth they do not have. When the world is not viewed from the perspective of the formless, it becomes a threatening place, and ultimately a place of despair. The Old Testament prophet must have felt this when he wrote, “All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it.”

The Pain Body

· When the Pain Body arises, take the fullest advantage of it as possible to regain the energy and aliveness that is trapped there. Big Steps are possible here. This is where all the Heavy Shit is, Man – where “normal” negative emotions are magnified 20 or 50 or 100 times. Not just incremental brown stuff!

· Sit with the Pain Body – and notice it an as object. Observe its energy, its turbulence, its feeling, and give it a gentle embrace. Do not get caught up in the “thoughts”, the story, the mind stream that accompanies it. Notice it as it is happening (with great alertness) and just be the observer of the energy movement itself.

· The Pain Body will gradually subside, but may take a while. Accept the Pain Body. It Is As It Is. It is not “fun”, it is not pleasant, but it is worth completing it without getting “sucked in” by the thoughts, if you can.

· While the Pain Body is still active, and you are observing it – also feel the Inner Body in places where you still can – often the Pain Body has not occupied the hands or the feet and so you can still feel the aliveness in these areas. Feeling the Inner Body in this way is a part of letting Space arise around the Pain Body.

· Some Space and Stillness will arise around the Pain Body when you become the Witness. When this occurs you will feel a sense of Peace.

· Dealing with the Pain Body will need the increased Presence “generated” (not really generated) by the items in the first list. Being in the Body will help greatly in being able to notice the Pain Body when it arises. Be Prepared, and welcome the Pain Body when it comes – do not fight it – Say “YES” to the existence of the Pain Body. Accept the Pain Body fully, and feel the Inner aliveness of the Body at the same time (amazing that you can do both at the same time!)

https://arhivaspirituala.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/eckhart-tolle-spiritual-practices.pdf

Technique:The Breath - Eckhart Tolle

Discover inner space by creating gaps in the stream of thinking. Without those gaps, your thinking becomes repetitive, uninspired, devoid or any creative spark, which is how it still is for most people on the planet. You don't need to be concerned with the duration of those gaps. A few seconds is good enough. Gradually, they will lengthen by themselves, without any effort on your part. More important than their length is to bring them in frequently so that your daily activities and your stream of thinking become interspersed with space.

Someone recently showed me the annual prospectus of a large spiritual organization. When I looked through it, I was impressed by the wide choice of interesting seminars and workshops. It reminded me of a smorgasbord, on of those Scandinavian buffets where you can take your pick from a huge variety of enticing dishes. The person asked me whether I could recommend one or two courses. “I don't know,” I said. “They all look so interesting. But I do know this,” I added. “Be aware of your breathing as often as you are able, whenever you remember. Do that for one year, and it will be more powerfully transformative than attending all of these courses. And it's free.”

Being aware of your breathing takes attention away from thinking and creates space. It is one way of generating consciousness. Although the fullness of consciousness is already there as the unmanifested, we are here to bring consciousness into this dimension.

Be aware of your breathing. Notice the sensation of the breath. Feel the air moving in and out of your body. Notice how the chest and abdomen expand and contract slightly with the in and out breath. One conscious breath is enough to make some space where before there was the uninterrupted succession of one thought after another. One conscious breath (two or three would be even better), taken many times a day, is an excellent way of bringing space into your life. Even if you meditated on your breathing for two hours or more, which some people do, one breath is all you ever need to be aware of, indeed ever can be aware of. The rest is memory or anticipation, which is to say, thought. Breathing isn't really something that you do but something that you witness as it happens. Breathing happens by itself. The intelligence within the body is doing it. All you have to do is watch it happening. There is no strain or effort involved. Also, notice the brief cessation of the breath, particularly the still point at the end of the outbreath, before you start breathing in again.

Many people's breath is unnaturally shallow. The more you are aware of the breath, the more its natural depth will reestablish itself.

Because breath has no form as such, it has since ancient times been equated with spirit the formless one Life. “God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.”5 The German word for breathing – atmen – is derived from the ancient Indian (Sanskrit) word Atman, meaning the indwelling divine spirit or God within.

The fact that breath has no form is one of the reasons why breath awareness is an extremely effective way of bringing space into your life, of generating consciousness. It is an excellent meditation object precisely because it is not an object; has no shape or form. The other reason is that breath is one of the most subtle and seemingly insignificant phenomena, the “least thing” that according to Nietzsche makes up the “best happiness.” Whether or not you practice breath awareness as an actual formal meditation is up to you. Formal meditation, however, is no substitute for bringing space consciousness into everyday life.

Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment – the key to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may also notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind. But far from being in a trance or half asleep, you are fully awake and highly alert. You are not falling below thinking, but rising above it. And if you look more closely, you will find that those two things – coming fully into the present moment and ceasing thinking without loss of consciousness – are actually one and the same: the arising of space consciousness.

http://res.allpdftools.com/allpdftools/pdf-download-resources/A_New_Earth.pdf

Technique:Object Consciousness And Space Consciousness

Most people's lives are cluttered up with things: material things, things to do, things to think about. Their lives are like the history of humanity, which Winston Churchill defined as “one damn thing after another.” Their minds are filled up with the clutter of thoughts one thought after another. This is the dimension of object consciousness that is many people's predominant reality, and that is why their lives are so out of balance. Object consciousness needs to be balanced by space consciousness for sanity to return to our planet and for humanity to fulfill its destiny. The arising of space consciousness is the next stage in the evolution of humanity.

Space consciousness mans that in addition to being conscious of things – which always comes down to sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions – there is an undercurrent of awareness. Awareness implies that you are not only conscious of things (objects), but you are also conscious of being conscious. If you can sense an alert inner stillness in the background while things happen in the foreground – that's it! This dimension is there in everyone, but most people are completely unaware of it. Sometimes I point to it by saying, “Can you feel your own Presence?”

Space consciousness represents not only freedom from ego, but also from dependency on the things of this world, from materialism and materiality. It is the spiritual dimension which alone can give transcendent and true meaning to this world.

Whenever you are upset about an event, a person, or a situation, the real cause is not the event, person, or situation but a loss of true perspective that only space can provide. You are trapped in object consciousness, unaware of the timeless inner space of consciousness itself. The words This, too, will pass when used as a pointer can restore awareness of that dimension to you. 

Another pointer to the truth in you is contained in he following statement: “I am never upset for the reason I think.”

http://res.allpdftools.com/allpdftools/pdf-download-resources/A_New_Earth.pdf

Technique:Allowing the diminishment of the Ego

The ego is always on guard against any kind of perceived diminishment. Automatic ego-repair mechanisms come into effect to restore the mental form of “me.” When someone blames or criticizes me, that to the ego is a diminishment of self, and it will immediately attempt to repair its diminished sense of self through self-justification, defense, or blaming. Whether the other person is right or wrong is irrelevant to the ego. It is much more interested in self-preservation than in the truth. This is the preservation of the psychological form of “me.” Even such a normal thing as shouting something back when another driver calls you “idiot” is an automatic and unconscious ego-repair mechanism. One of the most common ego-repair mechanisms is anger, which causes a temporary but huge ego inflation. All repair mechanisms make perfect sense to the ego but are actually dysfunctional. Those that are most extreme in their dysfunction are physical violence and self-delusion in the form of grandiose fantasies.

A powerful spiritual practice is consciously to allow the diminishment of ego when it happens without attempting to restore it. I recommend that you experiment with this from time to time. For example, when someone criticizes you, blames you, or calls you names, instead of immediately retaliating or defending yourself – do nothing. Allow the self-image to remain diminished and become alert to what that feels like deep inside you. For a few seconds, it may feel uncomfortable, as if you had shrunk in size. Then you may sense an inner spaciousness that feels intensely alive. You haven't been diminished at all. In fact, you have expanded. You may then come to an amazing realization: When you are seemingly diminished in some way and remain in absolute non-reaction, not just externally but also internally, you realize that nothing real has been diminished, that through becoming “less,” you become more. When you no longer defend or attempt to strengthen the form of yourself, you step out of identification with form, with mental self-image. Through becoming less (in the ego's perception), you in fact undergo an expansion and make room for Being to come forward. True power, who you are beyond form, can then shine through the apparently weakened form. this is what Jesus means when he says, “Deny yourself” or “Turn the other cheek.” 

This does not mean, of course, that you invite abuse or turn yourself into a victim of unconscious people. Sometimes a situation may demand that you tell someone to “back off” in no uncertain terms. Without egoic defensiveness, there will be power behind your words, yet no reactive force. If necessary, you can also say not to someone firmly and clearly, and it will be what I call a “high-quality no” that is free of all negativity.

If you are content with being nobody in particular, content not to stand out, you align yourself with the power of the universe. What looks like weakness to the ego is in fact the only true strength. This spiritual truth is diametrically opposed to the values of our contemporary culture and the way it conditions people to behave.

Instead of trying to be the mountain, teaches the ancient Tao Te Ching, “Be the valley of the universe.” In this way, you are restored to wholeness and so “All things will come to you.”

Similarly, Jesus, in one of his parables, teaches that “When you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Another aspect of this practice is to refrain from attempting to strengthen the self by showing off, wanting to stand out, be special, make an impression, or demand attention. It may include occasionally refraining from expressing your opinion when everybody is expressing his or hers, and seeing what that feels like.

http://res.allpdftools.com/allpdftools/pdf-download-resources/A_New_Earth.pdf

Inner and Outer Space - Eckhart Tolle

Your inner body is not solid but spacious. It is not your physical form but the life that animates the physical form. It is the intelligence that created and sustains the body, simultaneously coordinating hundreds of different functions of such extraordinary complexity that the human mind can only understand a tiny fraction of it. When you become aware of it, what is really happening is that the intelligence is becoming aware of itself. It is the elusive “life” that no scientist has ever found because the consciousness that is looking for it is it.

Physicists have discovered that the apparent solidity of matter is an illusion created by our senses. this includes the physical body, which we perceive and think of as form, but 99.99% of which is actually empty space. This is how vast the space is between the atoms compared to their size,and there is as much space again within each atom. The physical body is no more than a misperception of who you are. In many ways, it is a microcosmic version of outer space. To give you an idea of how vast the space ins between celestial bodies, consider this: light traveling at a constant speed of 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second takes just over one second to travel between the earth and the moon; light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach the earth. Light from our nearest neighbor in space, a star called Proxima Centauri, which is the sun that is closest to our own sun, travels for 4.5 years before it reaches the earth. This is how vast the space is that surrounds us. And then there is the intergalactic space, whose vastness defies all comprehension. Light from the galaxy closest to our own, the Andromeda Galaxy, takes 2.4 million years to reach us. Isn't it amazing that your body is just as spacious as the universe? So your physical body, which is form reveals itself as essentially formless when you go deeper into it. It becomes a doorway into inner space. Although inner space has no form, it is intensely alive. That “empty space” is life in its fullness, the unmanifested Source out of which all manifestation flows. The traditional word for that Source is God. 

Thoughts and words belong to the world of form; they cannot express the formless. So when you say, “I can feel my inner body” that is a misperception created by thought. What is really happening is hat the consciousness that appears as the body – the consciousness that I Am – is becoming conscious of itself. When I no longer confuse who I am with a temporary form of “me,” then the dimension of the limitless and the eternal – God can express itself through “me” and guide “me.” it also fees me from dependency on form. However, a purely intellectual recognition or belief “I am not this form” does not help. The all important question is: At this moment, can I sense the presence of inner space, which really means, can I sense my own Presence, or rather, the Presence that I Am?

As much as possible in everyday life, use awareness of the inner body to create space. When waiting, when listening to someone, when pausing to look at the sky, a tree, a flower, your partner, or child, feel the aliveness within at the same time. This means part of your attention or consciousness remains formless, an the rest is available for the outer world of form. Whenever you “inhabit” your body in this way, it serves as an anchor for staying present in the Now. It prevents you from losing yourself in thinking, in emotions, or in external situations.

http://res.allpdftools.com/allpdftools/pdf-download-resources/A_New_Earth.pdf

Abundance - Eckhart Tolle

Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance. The fact is: Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.

Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality: Whatever you think people are withholding from you praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on – give it to them. You don't have it? Just act as if you had it, and it will come. Then, soon after you start giving, you will start receiving. You cannot receive what you don't give. Outflow determines inflow. Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow out, you won't even know that you have it. This includes abundance. The law that outflow determines inflow is expressed by Jesus in this powerful image: "Give and it will be given to you."

The source of all abundance is not outside you. It is part of who you are. However, start by acknowledging and recognizing abundance without. See the fullness of life all around you. The warmth of the sun on your skin, the display of magnificent flowers outside a florist's shop, biting into a succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from the sky. The fullness of life is there at every step. The acknowledgment of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance within. Then let it flow out. When you smile at a a stranger, there is already a minute outflow of energy. You become a giver. Ask yourself often: “What can I give here; how can I be of service to this person, this situation.” You don't need to own anything to feel abundant, although if you feel abundant consistently things will almost certainly come to you. Abundance comes only to those who already have it. It sounds almost unfair, but of course it isn't. It is a universal law. Both abundance and scarcity are inner states that manifest as your reality. Jesus puts it like this: “For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

http://res.allpdftools.com/allpdftools/pdf-download-resources/A_New_Earth.pdf

Feeling the Inner Body

Although body identification is one of the most basic forms of ego, the good news is that it is also the one that you can most easily go beyond. This is done not by trying to convince yourself that you are not your body,but by shifting your attention from the external form of your body and from thoughts about your body – beautiful, ugly, strong, weak, too fat, too thin – to the feeling of aliveness inside it. No matter what your body's appearance is on the outer level, beyond the outer form it is an intensely alive energy field.

If you are not familiar with “inner body” awareness, close your eyes for a moment and find out if there is life inside your hands. Don't ask your mind. It will say, “ I can't feel anything.” Probably it will also say, “Give me something more interesting to think about.” So instead of asking your mind, go to the hands directly. By this I mean become aware of the subtle feeling of aliveness inside them. It is there. You just have to go there with your attention to notice it. you may get a slight tingling sensation at first, then a feeling of energy or aliveness. If you hold your attention in your hands for a while, the sense of aliveness will intensify. Some people won't even have to close their eyes. They will be able to feel their “inner hands” at the same times as they read this. Then go to your feet, keep your attention there for a minute or so, and begin to feel your hands and feet at the same time. Then incorporate other parts of the body – legs, arms, abdomen, chest, and so on – into that feeling until you are aware of the inner body as a global sense of aliveness.

What I call the “inner body” isn't really the body anymore but life energy, the bridge between form and formlessness. Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can. After a while, you won't need to close your eyes anymore to feel it. For example, see if you can feel the inner body whenever you listen to someone. It almost seems like a paradox: When you are in touch with the inner body, you are not identified with your body anymore, nor are you identified with your mind. This is to say, you are no longer identified with form but moving away from form identification toward formlessness, which we may also call Being. It is your essence identity. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body's ability to heal itself.

http://res.allpdftools.com/allpdftools/pdf-download-resources/A_New_Earth.pdf

ECKHART TOLLE QUOTES

'On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a joyous energy behind what you do.'

'Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.'

“Stop looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love – you have a treasure within that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.”

When you complain you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation or accept it, all else is madness.

Nonresistance, non-judgment, and non-attachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.

"When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you're waiting for the elevator - instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence."

Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.

You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.

Authentic human interactions become impossible when you lose yourself in a role.

The actual experience of awakening can only be in the present moment.

'All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.'

'Being must be felt. It can't be thought.'

'Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind.'

Be aware of your breathing. Notice how this takes attention away from your thinking and creates space.

'Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.'

When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.

Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures.

Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.

The more you live in the present moment, the more the fear of death disappears.

'Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to die before you die --- and find that there is no death.'

The decision to make the present moment into your friend is the end of the ego.

Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life.

“The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist.”

Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.

Every thought pretends that it matters so much. It wants to draw your attention in completely. Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously.

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”

To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness.

“Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.”

Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary.

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.

Instead of asking, “what do I want from life?,” a more powerful question is, “what does life want from me?"

You don't have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.

When listening to another person, don't just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body. Feel the energy field of your inner body as you listen.That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering. You are giving the other person space - space to be. It is the most precious gift you can give.

I emanate love and joy,complete presence and openness, toward all beings.

"Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness."

“All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present.
Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not enough presence.
Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.”

There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One with Life. Being one with life is being one with Now.

The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.

The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form ofunconscious resistance to what is.

The past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whaterver form. Both are illusions.

The power is in you. The answer is in you. And you are the answer to all your searches: you are the goal. You are the answer. It's never outside.

'The past has no power over the present moment.'

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

All problems are illusions of the mind.

'You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.'

“To love is to recognize yourself in another.”

"Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you."

'Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be.'

“This Too Shall Pass”

Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there'

“The ego says, ‘I shouldn’t have to suffer,’ and that thought makes you suffer so much more. It is a distortion of the truth, which is always paradoxical. The truth is that you need to say yes to suffering before you can transcend it.”

If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion.

When you surrender to what is and so become fully present, the past ceases to have any power. You do not need it anymore. Presence is the key. Now is the key.

"You get there by realizing you are already there."

"The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp. When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are."

Strictly speaking, you don't think: Thinking happens to you.

'Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.'

The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking.

Spiritual seekers look for self-realization or enlightenment in the future. To be a seeker implies that you need the future. If this is what you believe, it becomes true for you: you will need time until you realize that you don't need time to be who you are.

'In today's rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.'

There's something in everybody that longs for that awakening to be more true to yourself.

Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.

You will be free to let go of your unhappiness the moment you recognize it as unintelligent. Negativity is not intelligent. It is always of the ego.

You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now.

You are the universe, expressing itself as a human for a little while.

Life is always and only here and now. To live spiritually is to live in the state of openness to what is.

'What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.'

“Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.”

The world can only change from within.

'Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose'

Do not resist the pain. Allow it to be there. Surrender to the grief, despair, fear, loneliness, or whatever form the suffering takes. Witness it without labeling it mentally. Embrace it. Then see how the miracle of surrender transmutes deep suffering into deep peace. This is your crucifixion. Let it become your resurrection and ascension.

'You are here to enable the divine purpose of the Universe to unfold. That is how important you are!'

Technique:Entering the Now

BREAK THE OLD PATTERN of present-moment denial and present moment resistance. Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and future whenever they are not needed. Step out of the time dimension as much as possible in everyday life.

PRESENCE IS THE KEY to freedom, so you can only be free now.

FORGET ABOUT YOUR LIFE SITUATION and pay attention to your life. 
Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now. 
Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real.”
Find the "narrow gate that leads to life." It is called the Now. Narrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems - most life situations are - but find out if you have any problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now. Do you have a problem now?

USE YOUR SENSES FULLY. Be where you are. Look around. Just look, don’t interpret. See the light, shapes, colors, textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be. Listen to the sounds; don’t judge them. Listen to the silence underneath the sounds. Touch something - anything - and feel and acknowledge its Being. Observe the rhythm of your breathing; feel the air flowing in and out, feel the life energy inside your body. Allow everything to be, within and without. Allow the “isness” of all things. Move deeply into the Now.

FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION ON THE NOW and tell me what problem you have at this moment.

WHEN YOU CREATE A PROBLEM, you create pain. All it takes is a simple choice, a simple decision: No matter what happens, I will create no more pain for myself. I will create no more problems.

ASK YOURSELF: Is there joy, ease, and lightness in what I am doing? If there isn't, then time is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle,

If there is no joy, ease, or lightness in what you are doing, it does not necessarily mean that you need to change what you are doing. It may be sufficient to change the how. "How" is always more important than "what." See if you can give much more attention to the doing than to the result that you want to achieve through it. Give your fullest attention to whatever the moment presents. This implies that you also completely accept what is, because you cannot give your full attention to something and at the same time resist it. 

DO NOT BE CONCERNED WITH THE FRUIT OF YOUR ACTION - just give attention to the action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord. This is a powerful spiritual practice.

WHEN YOU HAVE HAD YOUR FIRST FEW GLIMPSES OF THE TIMELESS STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS, you begin to move back and forth between the dimensions of time and presence. First you become aware of just how rarely your attention is truly in the Now. But to know that you are not present is a great success. That knowing the presence - even if initially it only lasts for a couple of seconds of clock time before it is lost again.

Then with increasing frequency, you choose to have the focus of your consciousness in the present moment rather than in the past or future, and whenever you realize that you had lost the Now, you are able to stay in it not just for a couple of seconds, but for longer periods as perceived from the external perspective of clock time.

So before you are firmly established in the state of presence, before you are fully conscious, you shift back and forth for a while between consciousness and unconsciousness, between the state of presence and the state of mind identification. You lose the Now, and you return to it, again and again. Eventually presence becomes your predominant state.

http://library.worldtracker.org/Metaphysics%20&%20Spirituality/Eckhart%20Tolle%20PRACTICING%20THE%20POWER%20OF%20NOW.pdf

Stillness Speaks

Silence and Stillness

• The Equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.
• Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.
• Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. Become aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.
• Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is - no matter what form it takes - you are still, you are at peace.
• True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.
• It is the intelligence itself -  the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born.
• Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you.

Beyond The Thinking Mind 

• If you can witness your own mental-emotional reactive patterns as they happen, then the unconditioned dimension of consciousness is already emerging in you.
• Spiritual Practice: Don't take your thoughts too seriously.
• The thinking mind is a useful and powerful too, but it is also very limiting when it takes over your life completely.
• Wisdom is not a product of thought. The deep knowing that arises through the simple act of giving someone or something your full attention.
• The next step in human evolution is to transcend thought. It doesn't mean not to think anymore, but simply not to be completely identified with thought, possessed by thought.
• Become at ease with the state of "not knowing."

The Egoic Self

• When you say "I", it is conditioned by the past and seeking to find its fulfillment in the future.
• Complaining and reactivity are favorite mind patterns through which the ego strengthens itself.
• Envy is a by-product of the ego, which feels diminished if something good happens to someone esle, or someone has more, knows more, or can do more than you.
• Guilt is another attempt by the ego to create an identity, a sense of self. The ego, however personalizes it and says, "I did that," and so you carry a mental image of yourself as "bad."
• Set goals, but know that the arriving is not all that important. The doing is fulfilling in itself every moment.

The Now

• The present moment is as it is. Always. Can you let it be?
• Since the future never arrives, except as the present, it is a dysfunctional way to live. It generates a constant undercurrent of unease, tension, and discontent.
• Now is the only place where life can be found.
• I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.

Who You Truly Are?

• It matters whether you succeed for fail in the eyes of the world. It matters whether you are healthy or not healthy, whether you are educated or not educated. It matters whether you are richr or poor -it certainly makes a difference in you life. Yes, all these things matter, relatively speaking, but they don't matter absolutely.
• Reincarnation doesn't help you if in your next incarnation you still don't know who you are.
• The truth is: you don;t have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a store or a blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
• Time is useless, however, for the most essential thing in life. the one thing that really matters: self-realization, which means knowing who you are beyond the surface self - beyond your name, your physical form, your history, your story.
• As you go about your life, can you be aware of yourself as the awareness in which the entire content of your life unfolds?
• By knowing yourself, playfulness comes into your life. You recognize this world as a cosmic dance, the dance of form - no more and no less.
• Through "you," formless consciousness has become aware of itself.

Acceptance & Surrender

• Can you detect even the slightest element within yourself of not wanting to be doing what you are doing? That is a denial of life, and so a truly successful outcome is not possible.
• Doing one thing at a time means to be total in what your do, to give it your complete attention. This is surrendered action - empowered action.
• The "yes" to what is reveals a dimension of depth within you that is dependent neither on external conditions nor on the internal conditions of constantly fluctuating thoughts and emotions.
• Surrender is surrender to this moment, not to a story through which you interpret this moment and then try to resign yourself to it.
• Surrender comes when you no longer ask, "Why is this happening to me?"
• Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.
• Do you know of someone whose main function in life seems to be to make themselves and others miserable, to spread unhappiness? Forgive them,
• There is nothing personal in all this. It is not who they are.
• When you surrender, your sense of self shifts from identifcation with form-  the thought or the emotion -  to being and recognizing yourself as that which has no form - spacious awareness.
• Leave Life alone. Let it be.

Nature

• You didn't create your body, nor are you able to control the body's functions. An intelligence greater than the human mind is at work. It is the same intelligence that sustains all of nature. You cannot get any closer to that intelligence than by being aware of your own inner energy field - by feeling the aliveness, the animating presence within your body.
• Watch an animal, a flower, a tree and see how it rests in Being. It is itself. It has enormous dignity, innocence, and holiness. Have you notice how deeply peaceful they are.
• Only when your noisy mind subsides can you connect with nature at a deep level and go beyond the sense of separation created by excessive thinking.

Relationships

• What you want from them may be pleasure or material gain, recognition, praise or attention, or a strengthening of your sense of self thought comparison and through establishing that you are, have, or know more than they. What you fear is that the opposite may be the case, and they may diminish your sense of self in some way.
• When you give your fullest attention to whoever you are interacting with, you take past and future out of the relationship, except for practical matters.
• Love does not want or fear anything.
• If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your level of consciousness, you would think and act exactly as she does.
• With this realization comes forgiveness, compassion, peace.
• When you receive whoever comes into the space of Now as a noble guest, when you allow each person to be as they are, they begin to change.
• Knowing about and knowing are totally different modalities. One is concerned with form, the other with formless. One operates through thought, the other through stillness.
• Meditate or spend silent time in nature together. When going for a walk or sitting in the car or at home, become comfortable with being in stillness together.
• When your unconscious identification with your pain-body is broken, who you are able to observe it within yourself, you don't feed it anymore, and it will gradually lose its energy charge.
• Through selfless appreciation of the realm of things, the world around your will come alive in ways that you cannot even being to comprehend with the mind.
• Ultimately, of course, there is no other, and you are always meeting yourself.

Death and The Eternal

• Death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms.
• Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.
• At the hour of your death, the story of your life may, indeed appear to you like a dream that is coming to an end. There must be a consciousness in which the dream happens; otherwise, it would not be.
• Why have most of those who went through a near-death experience lost their fear of death? Reflect upon this.
• When you see and accept the impermanent nature of all life forms, a strange sense of peace comes upon you.
• Through facing death, your consciousness is freed to some extent from identification with form. This why in some Buddhist traditions, the monks
• regularly visit the morgue to sit and meditate among the dead bodies.
• Whenever an experience comes to an end - a  gathering of friends, a vacation,  your children leaving home. You die a little death... By learning to die daily in this way, you open yourself to Life.
• The peace of God can come to you through the contemplation and acceptance of death.
• Death is recognized as ultimately illusory - as illusory as the form you had identified with as yourself.
• It is a great privilege and a sacred act to be present at the person's death as a witness and companion.
• With the stillness comes the benediction: peace.

Suffering  & The End of Suffering

• Whatever is could not be otherwise.
• The inner alignment with Now is the nd of suffering.
• Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.
• What a miserable day. She let me down.. Yes, The ego needs enemies to define its boundary, and even the weather can serve that function.
• Start pracitcing "not naming" with small things. Can you refrain from naming the experience as bad or painful? Can you immediatly accept the "isness" of that moment?
• Habit of creating suffering for yourself and others can come to an end simply by becoming aware of them as they happen.
• You cannot be conscious and create suffering for yourself.
• Accept what is. Accept that I'm agitated and angry? Accept that I cannot accept?
• Bring acceptance into your nonacceptance. Bring surrender into you nonsurrender. Then see what happens
• Suffer consciously, willingly. Then the physical pain can quickly burn up the ego in you, since ego consists largely of resistance.

http://www.happierabroad.com/StillnessSpeaks.pdf

Where do our thoughts come from?

http://www.youtube.com/EckhartTeachings

Stay sane during a period of joblessness

http://www.youtube.com/EckhartTeachings

Transmuting Collective Female Pain Body (PMS)

Apart from her personal pain-body, every woman has her share in what could be described as the collective female pain-body - unless she is fully conscious. This consists of accumulated pain suffered by women partly through male subjugation of the female, through slavery, exploitation, rape, childbirth, child loss, and so on, over thousands of years. 

Often a woman is "taken over" by the pain-body at that time. It has an extremely powerful energetic charge that can easily pull you into unconscious identification with it. You are then actively possessed by an energy field that occupies your inner space and pretends to be you - but, of course, is not you at all. It speaks through you, acts through you, thinks through you. It will create negative situations in your life so that it can feed on the energy. It wants more pain, in whatever form. I have described this process already. It can be vicious and destructive. It is pure pain, past pain - and it is not you.

The first thing to remember is this: 
* As long as you make an identity for yourself out of the pain, you cannot become free of it. 
* To suddenly see that you are or have been attached to your pain can be quite a shocking realization. The moment you realize this, you have broken the attachment.
* A victim identity is the belief that the past is more powerful than the present, which is the opposite of the truth. The truth is that the only power there is, is contained within this moment: It is the power of your presence. Once you know that, you also realize that you are responsible for your inner space now - nobody else is - and that the past cannot prevail against the power of the Now.

So do not use the pain-body to give you an identity. Use it for enlightenment instead. Transmute it into consciousness. One of the best tunes for this is during menses. I believe that, in the years to come, many women will enter the fully conscious state during that time. 

When you know that the menstrual flow is approaching, before you feel the first signs of what is commonly called premenstrual tension, the awakening of the collective female pain-body, become very alert and inhabit your body as fully as possible. The first sign may be a sudden strong irritation or a flash of anger, or it may be a purely physical symptom. Catch it before it can take over your thinking or behavior. Continue to be alert. Watch the turbulence inside you. Feel its energy directly, inside your body. As you know, full attention means full acceptance.

Through sustained attention and thus acceptance, there comes transmutation. The pain-body becomes transformed into radiant consciousness, just as a piece of wood, when placed in or near a fire, itself is transformed into fire. Menstruation will then become not only a joyful and fulfilling expression of your womanhood but also a sacred time of transmutation, when you give birth to a new consciousness. Your true nature then shines forth, both in its female aspect as the Goddess and in its transcendental aspect as the divine Being that you are beyond male and female duality.

If your male partner is conscious enough, he can help you with the practice I have just described by holding the frequency of intense presence particularly at this time. If he stays present whenever you fall back into unconscious identification with the pain-body, which can and will happen at first, you will be able to quickly rejoin him in that state. This means that whenever the pain-body temporarily takes over, whether during menses or at other times, your partner will not mistake it for who you are. Even if the pain-body attacks him, as it probably will, he will not react to it as if it were "you," withdraw, or put up some kind of defense. He will hold the space of intense presence. Nothing else is needed for transformation. At other times, you will be able to do the same for him or help him reclaim consciousness from the mind by drawing his attention into the here and now whenever he becomes identified with his thinking.

In this way, a permanent energy field of a pure and high frequency will arise between you. No illusion, no pain, no conflict, nothing that is not you, and nothing that is not love can survive in it. This represents the fulfillment of the divine, transpersonal purpose of your relationship. It becomes a vortex of consciousness that will draw in many others.
-Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

http://www.baytallaah.com/bookspdf/51.pdf

What is Pain-Body? Dissolving the Pain-Body

As long as you are unable to access the power of the Now, every emotional pain that you experience leaves behind a residue of pain that lives on in you. It merges with the pain from the past, which was already there, and becomes lodged in your mind and body. This, of course, includes the pain you suffered as a child, caused by the unconsciousness of the world into which you were born.

This accumulated pain is a negative energy field that occupies your body and mind. If you look on it as an invisible entity in its own right, you are getting quite close to the truth. Its the emotional pain-body. It has two modes of being: dormant and active. A pain-body may be dormant 90 percent of the time; in a deeply unhappy person, though, it may be active up to 100 percent of the time. Anything can trigger it, particularly if it resonates with a pain pattern from your past. When it is ready to awaken from its dormant stage, even a thought or an innocent remark made by someone close to you can activate it.

The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it. It can then rise up, take you over, "become you," and live through you. It needs to get its "food" through you. It will feed on any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness. So the pain-body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on. Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.

Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain. You become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you want to suffer pain, or both. There isn't really much difference between the two. You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others. If youweretruly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane.

The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don't face it, if you don' t bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again.

Some spiritual teachings state that all pain is ultimately an illusion, and this is true. The question is: Is it true for you? A mere belief doesn't make it true. Do you want to experience pain for the rest of your life and keep saying that it is an illusion? Does that free you from the pain? What we are concerned with here is how you can realize this truth - that is, make it real in your own experience.

Dissolving / Transcending the Pain-Body

The pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly. The moment you observe the pain-body, feel its energy field within you and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness comes in. It is called Presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body.

Here are three ways to observe and dissolve the pain-body:

• Watch out for any sign of unhappiness in yourself in whatever form—it may be the awakening pain-body. This can take the form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger, rage, depression, a need to have some drama in your relationship and so on. Catch the pain-body the moment it awakens from its dormant stage.
• Observe the resistance within yourself. Observe the attachment to your pain. Be very alert. Observe the peculiar pleasure you derive from being unhappy. Observe the compulsion to talk or think about it. The resistance will cease if you make it conscious.
• Focus attention on the negative feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think about it—don’t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’t judge yourself out of it. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you.

- Eckhart Tolle, Power of Now

http://www.baytallaah.com/bookspdf/51.pdf