T.N.G. SIGNS
OF THE TIMES - N.M. September 3,
2005
(#148)
Greetings from
Russell's Remnant: www.oocities.org/dkone_us
STILLNESS
SPEAKS
BY Eckhart Tolle – Part 2
When you are unaware of your inner
essence, in the end you always create misery.
Time is useless for the most
essential thing that matters in life: self-realization. You don’t need time to be who you are.
The illusion of egoic identity arose
– because mentally you made yourself into an object. “That’s me,” you say. And
then you begin to have a relationship with yourself, and tell others and
yourself your story.
Become free of dependency on
phenomena. Recognize this world as a
cosmic dance, the dance of form – no more and no less.
When you perceive without
interpretation, you can then sense what it is that is perceiving.
Can you feel how painful it is to
internally stand in opposition to what is? Realize that you are now free to give up this futile conflict.
Do you really need to have a
reactive like/dislike relationship with life?
“Doing one thing at a time” –
giving it your complete attention - is the essence of Zen.
When you completely accept this
moment, the compulsion to think lessens and is replaced by an alert
stillness. Accept the “isness”
of this moment and not confuse it with a story the mind has created around 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 the world.
We need nature to show us the way
out of the prison of our own minds.
We got lost in doing, thinking, remembering, anticipating – lost in a
world of problems. We have forgotten
what rocks, plants, and animals still know.
We have forgotten how to be – to be still, to be where life is:
Here and Now.
To bring your attention to a stone
does not mean to think about it, but simply to perceive it, to hold it in your
awareness. You can sense how still it
is, and in doing so the same stillness arises within you. You sense how completely at one with what is
it is.
The playfulness and joy of a dog,
its unconditional love and readiness to celebrate life at any moment often
contrasts the depressed, anxious and burdened state of its owner.
You need nature as your teacher to
help you reconnect with Being.
When you recognize the sacredness,
the beauty, the incredible stillness and dignity in which a flower or a tree
exists, you add something to the flower or the tree. It comes to know its own beauty and sacredness through you.
Nature has been waiting for you,
as it were, for millions of years.
When you pronounce judgment upon
someone, you confuse those conditioned mind patterns with who they are.
As long as the ego runs you life,
most of your thoughts, emotions, and actions arise from desire and fear. In relationships you then either want or
fear something from the other person.
Most human interactions are confined
to the exchange of words – the realm of thought. It is essential to bring some stillness, particularly into your
close relationships. Meditate or spend
silent time in nature together. If
spacious stillness is missing, the relationship will be dominated by the mind
and can easily be taken over by problems and conflict.
At the root of disagreement
experiences lie the basic egoic patterns: the need to be right and, of course,
for someone to be wrong; that is to say, identification with mental positions. There is also the ego’s need for conflict in
order to strengthen the sense of separation without which ego cannot survive.
Beware of “past pain”.
Your “pain body” needs to experience
more emotional pain for it to feed on and replenish itself. It loves your negative thoughts and will
provoke negative emotional reactions in people close to you, especially your
partner, in order to feed on the ensuing drama and emotional pain.
To every accident and disaster there
is a potentially redemptive dimension that we are usually unaware of.
Nothing that happens is an
isolated event; it only appears to be.
The wholeness of life becomes fragmented through our thinking. Yet the totality of life has brought this
event about. This means: whatever is
could not be otherwise.
Suffering cracks open the shell of
ego, and then comes a point when it has served it purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it
is unnecessary.
Situations may cause you physical
pain, but they do not make you unhappy.
Your thoughts make you unhappy.
Little stories often in the form
of complaints enhance our always-deficient sense of self through being “right”
and making something or someone “wrong.”
Unhappiness or problems cannot
survive in the Now.
Start “not naming” small
things. If you miss the plane, drop and
break a cup, or slip and fall in the mud, can you refrain from naming the
experience as bad or painful? Can you
immediately accept the “isness” of that moment? When you let it be, without naming it, enormous power is suddenly
available to you.
They ate the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil.
If you are in the habit of creating
suffering for yourself, you are probably creating suffering for others too.
If you cannot accept truly what is
and say, “I am agitated and angry about this.”
Then accept what is. Accept that
I am agitated and angry. Accept that “I
cannot accept.” Yes. Bring acceptance into your
non-acceptance. Bring surrender into
your non-surrender. Then see what
happens.
The cross is a torture instrument.
It stands for the most extreme suffering, limitation, and helplessness
a human being can encounter. Then
suddenly that human being surrenders, suffers willingly, consciously, expressed
through the words, “Not my will but Thy will be done.” At that moment, the cross, the torture instrument, shows its hidden
face: it is also a sacred symbol, a symbol for the divine.