Discover the most powerful thoughts of one of the most modern spiritual leaders.
Whenever I feel lost, I read Eckhart Tolle.
Although sometimes he tells me things I don’t want to think about.
Things that scare me.
Things like this.
What’s inside you?
“In you, there is a dimension of consciousness much deeper than thought. We can call it presence. In the ancient teachings, it’s the inner Christ, or your Buddha nature.” — Eckhart Tolle.
It scares me to think that the real me is sequestered somewhere in the shithole I’ve turned my life into.
And it scares me because I have been able to get him out of that pit after decades of addictions.
And it scares me to lose him again: to lose myself again.
We all have an essence inside.
Some call it the soul; others call it the inner self.
Whatever it is, it’s who we are. Even if our ego makes us forget it, it is normal because the function of the ego is that we survive, even if it costs us to stop being who we are.
That’s why I examine my conscience every few weeks and try to be honest with myself so I don’t lock my essence in some corner of my mind.
It is so easy to let ourselves be seduced by the superficial and bury that luminous essence that loves us unconditionally that it is necessary to be alert.
I already lost myself once, and now that I have recovered myself (my essence), I don’t want to lose myself again, for anything, for anyone.
When your mind-manufactured “little self” directs your life.
“The thinking mind is a useful and powerful tool, but also very limiting when it completely takes over your life, when you don’t realize that it is only a small aspect of the consciousness that you are.” — Eckhart Tolle.
I am a very mental person. And that leads me to confuse a part with the whole.
The brain is an organ that governs the rest, but my heart doesn’t need me to think to beat. Neither do my lungs to breathe.
However, I assign more value to everything that comes from reason.
And, of course, when you think with your head, you tend not to listen to your heart and guts.
Which life has shown me is a mistake.
In my mind lives the vehicle’s driver, which is my body. But that driver is less wise than that part of me discussed in the previous point: my inner presence.
I have found that life goes better when I manage to relax (because it costs me a lot) and trust my instincts.
But of course, it is terrifying to be guided by that inner presence that makes you make decisions that you do not know how to intellectualize and are far from rational.
The secret of wisdom is the capacity for attention.
“Wisdom is not a product of thought. Deep knowing, which is wisdom, arises in the simple act of giving your full attention to someone or something. Attention is primordial intelligence, consciousness itself.” — Eckhart Tolle.
There is a very famous painter in my city, who in one of his exhibitions told me.
“People don’t buy a painting because it is beautiful, but because of the way the artist looks. Otherwise, instead of buying paintings, they would take photographs. That’s why the main thing in the art world is to have a lot of patience and pay a lot of attention.”
This reminded me of the great writer Amos Oz, who said that his working system was to go out on the street very early in the morning and watch people until someone caught his attention, then imagine their lives and write it down.
So, attention is the key to everything.
In the words of Eckhart Tolle, “Attention unites the perceiver with the perceived in a unified field of consciousness. Wisdom heals separation.”
That’s why everyone today wants our attention: to bind us.
And it’s a disturbing thought, for if Tolle is right, perceiver and perceived end up living in the same world.
In other words, what we pay attention to becomes our world. And we often don’t choose freely because so many people are in the business of stealing our attention.
And it scares me to think about it since so many people are trying to lock our world into their world.
A virtual hug
AG
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