Eckhart Tolle's books - The Power of Now, A New Earth, & ...
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/ref=pd_dp_ts_b_1
Eckhart Tolle's books are now the topselling books #1, #2, #5, #10 and #22 in Amazon.com. And A New Earth has now entered Oprah's bookclub.
I highly recommend people reading it if you haven't. They're transformative and practical. You can start with The Power of Now, then read A New Earth. Found in all major bookstores.
Both The Power of Now (past) and A New Earth (current) have become New York Time Bestsellers #1.
http://eckharttolle.com/
BIOGRAPHY
Spiritual Teacher and author was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada.
Eckhart Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.
Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. An essential aspect of this awakening consists in transcending our ego-based state of consciousness. This is a prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.
Eckhart is a sought-after public speaker and teaches and travels extensively throughout the world. Many of his talks, intensives and retreats are published on CD and DVD. Most of the teachings are given in English, but occasionally Eckhart also gives talks in German and Spanish. In addition to The Power of Now and A New Earth, Eckhart has written a book designed for meditative reading entitled Stillness Speaks. A book consisting of selections from The Power of Now is also available, entitled Practicing the Power of Now.THE POWER OF NOW
A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
The Power of Now has been widely recognized as one of the most influential spiritual books of our time. A #1 New York Times bestseller, it has been translated into over 30 languages. The book has helped countless people around the globe awaken to the spiritual dimension in their lives, find inner peace, increased joy and more harmonious relationships
To make the journey into The Power of Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the beginning of the first chapter we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where one breathes a lighter air, the air of the spiritual. Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle offers simple language and a question and answer format to guide us. The words themselves are the signposts.
For many of us there are new discoveries to be made along the way: we are not our mind; we can find our way out of psychological pain; authentic human power is found by surrendering to the Now. We also find out that the body is actually one of the keys to entry into a state of inner peace, as are the silence and space all around us. Indeed, access is everywhere available. These access points, or portals, can all be used to bring us into the Now, the present moment, where problems do not exist. It is here we find our joy and are able to embrace our true selves. It is here we discover that we are already complete and perfect.
Many of us will find that our biggest obstacle to this realization is our relationships, especially our intimate relationships. But again, we are in new territory and all is not what it had seemed before. We come to see that our relationships are yet another doorway into spiritual enlightenment if we use them wisely, meaning if we use them to become more conscious and therefore more loving human beings. The result? Real communion between self and others.
If we are able to be fully present and take each step in the Now; if we are able to feel the reality of such things as the inner-body, surrender, forgiveness, and the Unmanifested, we will be opening ourselves to the transforming experience of The Power of Now.
Paperback Edition
ISBN: 1-57731-480-8
Pages: 256
Size: 5.5 X 8.5 inches
(click here to purchase)
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Hardcover Edition
ISBN: 1-57731-152-3
Pages: 224
Size: 6 X 9 inches
(click here to purchase)
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Audiobook on CD
ISBN: 1-57731-208-2
Audiobook read by Eckhart Tolle
Running time: 7 1/2 hours
Size: 7 CDs
(click here to purchase)
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Extracts from The Power of Now
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I have little use for the past and rarely think about it; however, I would briefly like to tell you how I came to be a spiritual teacher and how ‘The Power of Now’ came into existence.
Until my thirtieth year, I lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety interspersed with periods of suicidal depression. It feels now as if I am talking about some past lifetime or somebody else's life.
Awakening
One night not long after my twenty-ninth birthday, I woke up in the early hours with a feeling of absolute dread. I had woken up with such a feeling many times before, but this time it was more intense than it had ever been. The silence of the night, the vague outlines of the furniture in the dark room, the distant noise of a passing train – everything felt so alien, so hostile, and so utterly meaningless that it created in me a deep loathing of the world. The most loathsome thing of all, however, was my own existence. What was the point in continuing to live with this burden of misery? Why carry on with this continuous struggle? I could feel that a deep longing for annihilation, for nonexistence, was now becoming much stronger than the instinctive desire to continue to live.
‘I cannot live with myself any longer.’ This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. ‘Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.’ ‘Maybe,’ I thought, ‘only one of them is real.’
I was so stunned by this strange realization that my mind stopped. I was fully conscious, but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words ‘resist nothing,’ as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. It felt as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that.
I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never heard such a sound before. My eyes were still closed, and I saw the image of a precious diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it would be like. I opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtains. Without any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself. Tears came into my eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marvelling at the beauty and aliveness of it all. That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world.
Bliss
For the next five months, I lived in a state of uninterrupted deep peace and bliss. After that, it diminished somewhat in intensity, or perhaps it just seemed to because it became my natural state. I could still function in the world, although I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.
Understanding
I knew, of course, that something profoundly significant had happened to me, but I didn't understand it at all. It wasn't until several years later, after I had read spiritual texts and spent time with spiritual teachers, that I realized that what everybody was looking for had already happened to me. I understood that the intense pressure of suffering that night must have forced my consciousness to withdraw from its identification with the unhappy and deeply fearful self, which is ultimately a fiction of the mind. This withdrawal must have been so complete that this false, suffering self immediately collapsed, just as if a plug had been pulled out of an inflatable toy. What was left then was my true nature as the ever-present I am: consciousness in its pure state prior to identification with form. Later I also learned to go into that inner timeless and deathless realm that I had originally perceived as a void and remain fully conscious. I dwelt in states of such indescribable bliss and sacredness that even the original experience I just described pales in comparison. A time came when, for a while, I was left with nothing on the physical plane. I had no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined identity. I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy.
But even the most beautiful experiences come and go. More fundamental, perhaps, than any experience is the undercurrent of peace that has never left me since then. Sometimes it is very strong, almost palpable, and others can feel it too. At other times, it is somewhere in the background, like a distant melody.
Sharing
Later, people would occasionally come up to me and say: ‘I want what you have. Can you give it to me, or show me how to get it?’ And I would say: ‘You have it already. You just can’t feel it because your mind is making too much noise.’ That answer later grew into my book, ‘The Power of Now’.
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A NEW EARTH
Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
Building on the astonishing success of The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity: He implores us to see and accept that this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity.
Tolle tells us there is good news, however. There is an alternative to this potentially dire situation. Humanity now, perhaps more than in any previous time, has an opportunity to create a new, saner, more loving world. This will involve a radical inner leap from the current egoic consciousness to an entirely new one.
In illuminating the nature of this shift in consciousness, Tolle describes in detail how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. Then gently, and in very practical terms, he leads us into this new consciousness. We will come to experience who we truly are—which is something infinitely greater than anything we currently think we are—and learn to live and breathe freely.
ISBN: 1-45228-758-8
Paperback Edition
Pages: 336
Size: 8 x 5.4 inches
(click here to purchase)
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ISBN: 0-525948-02-3
Hardcover Edition
Pages: 309
Size: 6 X 9 inches
(click here to purchase)
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ISBN: 0-14-305737-5
AUDIOBOOK on CD
Audiobook read by Eckhart Tolle
Running time: 7 hours
Size: 8 CDs
(click here to purchase)
."The One Thing”
by Eckhart Tolle
In the Gospel story of Mary and Martha, Jesus says to Martha, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needful.” (Luke 10:41)
As I was writing A New Earth, people would sometimes ask me, “What is the new book about?” And invariably, my answer would be, “I only ever write or speak about one thing.” What is that one thing? Spiritual awakening. Can a person be awakened spiritually by a book? Yes, if three conditions are met:
Firstly, there must be a readiness on the part of the reader, an openness, a receptivity to spiritual truth, which is to say, a readiness to awaken. For the first time in history of humanity, large numbers of people have reached that point of readiness, which explains why millions have responded so deeply to The Power of Now.
Secondly, the text must have transformative power. This means the words must have come out of the awakened consciousness rather than the accumulated knowledge of a person’s mind. Only then will a text be charged with that power, a power that goes far beyond the informational value of the words. That is why such a book can be read again and again and lose none of its aliveness.
Thirdly, the terminology used needs to be as neutral as possible so that it transcends the confines of any one culture, religion, or spiritual tradition. Only then will it be accessible to a broad range of readers world-wide, regardless of cultural background.
All these conditions were met in The Power of Now, which is why the book has had such an impact on the collective consciousness.
Why write another book?
Since the publication of The Power of Now, I have given hundreds of talks and teaching sessions all over the world, and in the course of those seven years, the teaching evolved. While the essence remained the same (The Truth is timeless.), new perspectives arose, new signposts, alternative approaches to the Truth, as well as an added sense of urgency. A New Earth reflects this evolution and this urgency.
If The Power of Now worked for you and changed your life – as it did for countless people all over the world – there is no need for you to read A New Earth (although you may enjoy reading it and may find some of it helpful in recognizing the ego and thus sustaining the state of Presence).
My feeling is that A New Earth will make the teaching (the one thing) accessible to an even wider audience, including people who perhaps would not have dreamt of reading a “spiritual” book but have within them a hitherto unrecognized longing for spiritual awakening.
A New Earth will also be extremely helpful for those who read The Power of Now, found it interesting, but somehow missed the essence of it. It presents them with new perspectives on the same truth, new signposts, pointers towards Presence. Different pointers work for different people.
Millions are now ready to awaken because spiritual awakening is not an option anymore, but a necessity if humanity and the planet are to survive. Everything is speeding up – the madness, the collective egoic dysfunction, as well as the arising of the new consciousness, the awakening.
We are running out of time. From the perspective of the ego, that’s bad news and will give rise to fear. From a higher perspective, the running out of time is exactly what is needed for the new consciousness to come into this world. -
I have also signed up for this -- http://www.boomboxradio.com/soundstrue/Modules/ShoppingCart/Video.aspx?stwid=WEBTOLLE&yaid=4kt
"Discovering Your True Purpose"
Friday March 7, 2008 from 8:00-9:30 p.m. (PST)"Living Your True Purpose"
Saturday March 8, 2008 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. (PST)
$39.95 
Video and Audio BundleThis package includes: • Access to both the 90- and 180-minute online video broadcasts of Discovering Your True Purpose and Living your True Purpose with Eckhart Tolle live as they happen in San Rafael, California. • 30-day access to the archived online video recording of the events. • 90- and 180-minute MP3 audio downloads of the events. and this --
http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webevent_registration.jsp
Are You Ready to Be Awakened?For the first time ever, you can join Oprah and Eckhart Tolle, the best-selling author of The Power of Now, as they teach A New Earth in Oprah's worldwide classroom live Monday nights on Oprah.com.
By reserving your seat for this 10-week interactive webinar, you'll be able to:- Watch and participate in the live classroom webcasts
- Ask Oprah and Eckhart Tolle questions before and during class
- Connect with others who are seeking to become more aware of themselves—and the world around them
- Download and save your thoughts in an exclusive workbook
- Access the classroom video archives…and more!
You’ll need to be a member of Oprah.com and Oprah’s Book Club.
If you're not already a member of Oprah.com, you'll need to join now. During the registration process, you'll have the opportunity to become a part of Oprah's Book Club. Once you've done that, your seat will be reserved for the 10-week webcast. Click on the "Join Oprah.com" button to get going!
If you're already a member of Oprah.com or Oprah's Book Club, click on the "reserve your seat" button and you'll be signed up for the event (once you log in).
The first class starts Monday night, March 3, at 9/8c.
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I recommend also. :)
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Yes they're good and highly recommendable.
One thing that can be faulted is that there is a lack of insights into Buddhism's Non-Duality/No-Self and Emptiness, and the author mistakes our true nature to be a 'I AM'/'Eternal Witness'/'Pure Observer'/'I AM Everything', as reflected in the writings. (Stage 1 & 2 of http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html) But these books are not meant to be a sutra on ultimate reality, and I think they are all very practical and worthy of reading. Life and spiritually transforming.
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There's another book by him I like:
STILLNESS SPEAKS
A book designed for meditative reading
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.The essence of Eckhart Tolle's message is easy to grasp: If we connect to the stillness within, we move beyond our active minds and emotions and discover great depths of lasting peace, contentment, and serenity. With his bestselling first book, The Power of Now, his message has reached millions of people worldwide. Now, in his much anticipated new book, Tolle gives us the essence of his teaching in short, simple pieces that anyone can easily understand.
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Stillness Speaks is organized into ten chapters whose subjects range from "Beyond the Thinking Mind" to "Suffering and the End of Suffering." Each chapter is a mosaic of individual entries, concise and complete in themselves, but profoundly transformative when read as a whole.
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Eckhart Tolle understands the spiritual needs of our time. He draws from the essence of all spiritual traditions, expressing these truths in startlingly fresh new ways. The result is a book that is paradoxically both ancient and contemporary, filled with timely and powerful messages. Stillness Speaks can be no less than an awakening for readers willing to give the words a chance to work their quiet magic.
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Eckhart Tolle is a contemporary spiritual teacher who is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. In his writing and seminars, he conveys a simple yet profound message with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters: There is a way out of suffering and into peace. Eckhart travels extensively, taking his teachings throughout the world. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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Hardcover Edition
ISBN: 1-57731-400-XPages: 224Size: 4 X 7.25 inches
Audiobook read by Eckhart Tolle
Audiobook on CD
ISBN: 1-57731-419-0
Running time: 2 1/2 hours
Size: 3 CDs
(click here to purchase).
.Extracts from Stillness Speaks
The transformation of human consciousness is no longer a luxury, so to speak, available only to a few isolated individuals, but a necessity if humankind is not to destroy itself.
At the present time, the dysfunction of the old consciousness and the arising of the new are both accelerating. Paradoxically, things are getting worse and better at the same time, although the worse is more apparent because it makes so much ‘noise’.
The book Stillness Speaks, of course, uses words that in the act of reading become thoughts in your mind. But those are not ordinary thoughts – repetitive, noisy, self-serving, clamouring for attention. Just like every true spiritual teacher, just like the ancient sutras, the thoughts within this book don't say, ‘'Look at me',’ but ‘'Look beyond me'.’ Because the thoughts came out of stillness, they have power – the power to take you back into the same stillness from which they arose. That stillness is also inner peace, and that stillness and peace is the essence of your Being. It is inner stillness that will save and transform the world.
Silence and stillness
When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.
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Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without the awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world.
You are that awareness, disguised as a person.
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The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.
Whenever there is some silence around you – listen to it. That means just notice it. Pay attention to it. Listening to silence awakens the dimension of stillness within yourself, because it is only through stillness that you can be aware of silence.
See that in the moment of noticing the silence around you, you are not thinking. You are aware, but not thinking.
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When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.
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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.
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When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness, you become still yourself. You connect with it at a very deep level. You feel a oneness with whatever you perceive in and through stillness. Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.
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Silence is helpful, but you don't need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.
You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.
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Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence. How? By dropping your inner resistance to the noise, by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness.
Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is - no matter what form it takes - you are still, you are at peace.
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Pay attention to the gap - the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, or the gap between the in-breath and the out-breath.
When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of ‘'something' becomes - just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.
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True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.
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Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself - the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are?
The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it.
It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and all other forms.
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Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.
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When you look at a tree or a human being in stillness, who is looking? Something deeper than the person. Consciousness is looking at its creation.
In the Bible, it says that God created the world and saw that it was good. That is what you see when you look from stillness without thought.
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Do you need more knowledge? Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity needs most at this time?
But what is wisdom and where is it to be found? 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.
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From Stillness Speaks, copyright 2003 by Eckhart Tolle. -
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Can bring you to the palpable alive presence that is complete silence... ever present but not noticed. :)
the conscious "center" of our being
It's good also to learn about our egoic patterns of thinking and negative emotions and how it takes us away from Presence.... any unconscious patterns once brought to light of consciousness... dissolves.
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If anyone wishes to watch the Live webcast with Oprah and Eckhart Tolle, go here: http://event.oprah.com/videochannel/event/preempt_a.html It is starting in 20 minutes. (10 a.m.) If you're late, register and you should be able to watch the archived video.
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Too slow... will have to download tomorrow instead.
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More than half a million attended the webcast and jammed the whole network... amazing.
And it was one of the largest single online events in the history of the internet.
--------- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, March 4, 2008 STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF HARPO PRODUCTIONS, INC., MOVE NETWORKS, AND LIMELIGHT NETWORKS Chicago, IL— Monday night's webcast was one of the largest single online events in the history of the Internet. More than 500,000 people simultaneously logged on to watch Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle live, resulting in 242 Gbps of information moving through the Internet. Unfortunately, some of our users experienced delays in viewing the webcast. We are working to identify the specific causes for the problems experienced and will work diligently to rectify them. Harpo Productions, Inc., Move Networks and Limelight Networks recognize that interactive Internet broadcasting to a mass audience is still an emerging medium, and we're proud to have been pioneers in pushing the industry forward. We deeply regret that some of our audience did not have an optimal viewing experience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. The first session of the webinar will be available in its entirety for viewing on Oprah.com or for downloading as a podcast on Oprah.com or iTunes on Tuesday, March 4. To access the on-demand version of Monday night's class, please visit http://www.oprah.com/ondemand
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Download the MP4 (Video, 1gb total), MP3, Transcript, etc etc at http://event.oprah.com/videochannel/ondemand/od_main.html?promocode=021
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Hi AEN,
What's interesting about spiritual awakening is that's it's simply another aspect of the dream.
Who is it who can awaken?
Does anything really need to change from the way things are now?
If you could no longer think and interpret what you see in the world, what would that be like?
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My favourite abstract so far are:
Words no matter whether they are vocalized and made into sounds or remain unspoken as thoughts, can cast almost hypnotic spell upon you. You can easily lose yourself in them, become hypnotized into implicity believing that when u have attached a word to something, you know what it is. The fact is that
you don't know what it is. You have only covered up the mystery with a label. Everything,a bird, a tree, even a simple stone, and certainly a human being is ultimately unknowable. This is becos it has unfathomable depth. All we can perceive, experience, think about is the surface layer of reality, less than the tip of an iceberg. -
Presence is a non-attainment.
The more knowledge we gather, the more books about it that we read, the further we goes away from it. The egoic mind is constantly interpreting these knowledges (gathered) and sadly this 'covers' the recognition of Presence.
After the reading of these books, there must be a phase of discharging 'them'.
This is just one layer of covering of Presence. There are many more layers that cover Presence and a large part of our journey is about 'uncovering'. Some of these covering are at the mental level. Some of them are also at a bodily and biological level. There are many kinds of grasping ...mental, emotional and bodily level. Many of these impact on us constantly drawing us away from the recognition of Presence... hijacking 'it' with the experience that is collectively known as the egoic mind.
I am still uncovering more and more of these 'transparent' coverings. What i meant as transparent covering is that these 'grasping' and pulling into subject/object split is very subtle and automatic that they go unnoticed most of the time. These can be consider our unconscious and subconscious aspects....part of our karmic conditioning.
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Hi Longchen,
I agree wholeheartedly with what you wrote and disagree vehemently also!!!
I agree because this is certainly the appearance of a story unfolding, of someone who needs to let go at various levels.
But I disagree because who is this story attached to? Who is the person who needs to let go at emotional and other levels???
Once that is seen clearly, who's unfolding is it after that???
Who cares????
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Seriously though, what Isis wrote above is correct. "We" are constantly interpreting and making up the reality of this world through our grasping with the mind.
What if the referencing to the mind were to stop except when necessary to do something?
Even what I've written above is still just more story about an apparent someone who apparently sees something and has something to say about it.
What if I don't believe a word I say???
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What if my perspective is seen to be just a perspective?
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Hi Jon,
What you wrote is very true. Thanks for the sharing.
Isis's post is very true too.
The doing is not done by anyone. The '|' is simply the process of the doing. It is not the doer.
One interesting thing that i have experienced is that even when there is no 'I' there is still transparent layer of grasping that are at a bodily level. For example, when there is no 'i', the body still automatically responds to something or a sensation. This is bodily level conditioning that is below the layer of the mental 'I'.
For example if you are male, a pretty girl walks by... the body instinctly notice it. This is happening largely at a biological level... because the same woman that walk by will get a different response from say another women. The response of attraction is happening at a biological level that has been conditioned for eons for the survival of the species and is not cognited at the level of the mental 'I'. Perhaps, this is why, sexual desire is one of the last pattern to be resolved.
These layer appears to constantly pull the awareness back towards the mental interpretation layer... which in turn will create the mental 'I'.
BTW, Jon..
"who cares' may be a type of grasping too. The very effort of 'can't care less' is the arising of the 'sense of self'. . As long as there is a 'pull', there is some kind of transparent grasping. The tricky part is that the 'pull' envelops an experience in it entirety... so much so that we believe it to be natural. But I am sure, you can tell the difference. 'Who care' that is the trick of the ego-mind feels like indifference. It is the 'desire' to reject the 'concept of self'. True presence is not indiferent but is a vivid spacious aliveness.
Ha ha... i write like a pro... but seriously there are large gaps of non-presence 'in me'. :)
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Hi Longchen,
Yes, I know what you mean when a pretty lady goes by, the eyes focus there, eye candy.
This action or reaction is before thought, it's automatic, but it is always noticed now, watched, I'm always aware it is happening and having a good laugh when it does.
As for who cares... caring is happening but no one doing it. Conditioning still arises but it seen for what it is, simply conditioning.
Sometimes, the little voice in the head arises and is very angry at not being taken seriously anymore.
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I offer another view to confuse further...ehehe
Originally posted by JonLS:If you could no longer think and interpret what you see in the world, what would that be like?
First is the insight and awareness that we continue to “interpret and think” unknowingly and without noticing that we are ‘interpreting and is still very much affected by the ‘inherent and dualistic’ views. The working of these propensities is so subtle that it normally goes unnoticed.
For example the comment u made in another post:
Originally posted by JonLS:So we never really react to other people, what we react to is our idea of other people.
Personally to me is too part of the mechanism. The conclusion is still very much based on a subject/object duality. What if there is another perspective that is not based on such subject/object duality. That there is no ‘I’ from beginning and all moments of manifestation be it thought, form, emotion, perception…manifests is neither ‘I’ nor ‘mine’ nor ‘yours’; What if a person practices and is ‘oriented’ from start a viewless view free from dualistic and inherent views, free from a who-subject, what-essence, where-space and when-time? How will the experience be like?
The idea that “we never really react to other people, what we react to is our idea of other people” may be deemed irrelevant and does not apply both in terms of views and experience. We are so deeply rooted to inherent view “that attributes belonging to object” almost always goes unexamined.
Like a red flower that is so vivid, clear and right in front of an observer, the “redness” only appears to “belong” to the flower, it is in actuality not so. Vision of red does not arise in all animal species (dogs cannot perceive colours) nor is the “redness” an attribute of the mind. If given a “quantum eyesight” to look into the atomic structure, there is similarly no attribute “redness” anywhere found, only almost complete space/void with no perceivable shapes and forms. Whatever appearances are dependently arisen, and hence is empty of any inherent existence or fixed attributes, or “redness” -- merely luminous yet empty.
In the luminous-emptiness view of Buddhism, there is no problem even with multi-dimensions. Invisible beings can also exist right here, now, right where we are standing, sitting and breathing. They are not seen, not interfered because there is no the common karmic connections that would produce mutual perception.
This luminous empty nature,
Requires no who-subject.
Needless for a where-place.
No when-time.
Completely needless of a what-essence.
Although wondrous manifestation is empty of essence,
Still it is as vivid as it can be.No denial of anything,
Nothing lost,
Nothing gain.
But not to mistaken that Buddhism is denying anything and is nihilistic. Buddhism merely replaces inherent and dualistic views with anatta (no-self) and sunyata (emptiness)” without compromising the experience of Presence. Nothing is lost; but it becomes most vivid and clear experientially without being “bonded” by inherent views. There is no denial of the experience, only understanding the true nature of that experience not 'obscured' by inherent/dualistic views.
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Originally posted by longchen:
Hi Jon,
What you wrote is very true. Thanks for the sharing.
Isis's post is very true too.
The doing is not done by anyone. The '|' is simply the process of the doing. It is not the doer.
One interesting thing that i have experienced is that even when there is no 'I' there is still transparent layer of grasping that are at a bodily level. For example, when there is no 'i', the body still automatically responds to something or a sensation. This is bodily level conditioning that is below the layer of the mental 'I'.
For example if you are male, a pretty girl walks by... the body instinctly notice it. This is happening largely at a biological level... because the same woman that walk by will get a different response from say another women. The response of attraction is happening at a biological level that has been conditioned for eons for the survival of the species and is not cognited at the level of the mental 'I'. Perhaps, this is why, sexual desire is one of the last pattern to be resolved.
These layer appears to constantly pull the awareness back towards the mental interpretation layer... which in turn will create the mental 'I'.
BTW, Jon..
"who cares' may be a type of grasping too. The very effort of 'can't care less' is the arising of the 'sense of self'. . As long as there is a 'pull', there is some kind of transparent grasping. The tricky part is that the 'pull' envelops an experience in it entirety... so much so that we believe it to be natural. But I am sure, you can tell the difference. 'Who care' that is the trick of the ego-mind feels like indifference. It is the 'desire' to reject the 'concept of self'. True presence is not indiferent but is a vivid spacious aliveness.
Ha ha... i write like a pro... but seriously there are large gaps of non-presence 'in me'. :)
Indeed! The bodily reaction will subside gradually if there is total willingness to give up the 'conscious portion'. Drop drop and drop even that 'knowingness'. 'Fearlessly' enters total cessation! That will help the bodily 'cells' from contracting and grasping. :)
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Originally posted by Thusness:
Indeed! The bodily reaction will subside gradually if there is total willingness to give up the 'conscious portion'. Drop drop and drop even that 'knowingness'. 'Fearlessly' enters total cessation! That will help the bodily 'cells' from contracting and grasping. :)
Hi Thusness,
The way you write really ' yi zhen jian xue' (hit the target on the bull's eye)
Sexual desire is one aspect that i really hope to resolve eventually. I will honestly say that it is quite a problem for me. If anybody want to judge me for that is really their own problem..but it is really a problem for me.
Contrary to popular notion, sexual desire actually increase with spiritual development. This is due to the body becoming more energised. Especially if one practice something like qi qong, the full qi will enhance desire and seek to find a release.
The 'sense of self' fighting with the desire never really work. The solution, i feel lies with the dropping of the conscious portion in day to day interactions. But first one must 'enter' non-dual, and continue to 'drop' in all environments and situations. I have experience of the desire dissolving due to this dropping and i think this is the solution. I really hope to resolve this aspect soon. It does take a lot of practice and the willingness to 'enter' into more deconstructed 'level' even amidst interaction with the environment.
At times now, experiences feels like rising and falling waves. The grasping/contracting sensation rise and if it does get caught up into deep engagement, it falls off on it own accord. I don't think this is self-liberation yet... but i hope it is getting closer!!
Just a sharing.
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Originally posted by longchen:
Hi Thusness,
The way you write really ' yi zhen jian xue' (hit the target on the bull's eye)
Sexual desire is one aspect that i really hope to resolve eventually. I will honestly say that it is quite a problem for me. If anybody want to judge me for that is really their own problem..but it is really a problem for me.
Contrary to popular notion, sexual desire actually increase with spiritual development. This is due to the body becoming more energised. Especially if one practice something like qi qong, the full qi will enhance desire and seek to find a release.
The 'sense of self' fighting with the desire never really work. The solution, i feel lies with the dropping of the conscious portion in day to day interactions. But first one must 'enter' non-dual, and continue to 'drop' in all environments and situations. I have experience of the desire dissolving due to this dropping and i think this is the solution. I really hope to resolve this aspect soon. It does take a lot of practice and the willingness to 'enter' into more deconstructed 'level' even amidst interaction with the environment.
At times now, experiences feels like rising and falling waves. The grasping/contracting sensation rise and if it does get caught up into deep engagement, it falls off on it own accord. I don't think this is self-liberation yet... but i hope it is getting closer!!
Just a sharing.
ahha...It's alright and usual, so do not feel bad. If you feel bad, it stays. Though it may sound ironical but whatever done should not stay. If possible, try to make it a habit to un-wind through meditating daily with non-dual crystal clear bare sensation. Staying in naked awareness will prevent the deepening of imprints created.
In seeing, there is always just the seen.
In hearing, there is always only sound.
In thinking, there is always only thoughts.
This is the most profound wisdom and the profundity is not in words. We need many cycles of refining our insights of this truth. Non-dual becomes effortless when the insight of this truth sinks into our inmost consciousness.
Just a sharing. :)
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Hi Thusness,
Thanks for the tips. :)
regards