REALIZING PURE CONSCIOUSNESS - раздел Образование, Acclaim for THE POWER OF NOW
Is Presence The Same As Being?
When You Become Consc...
Is presence the same as Being?
When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that
Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious of
itself — that’s presence. Since Being, consciousness, and life are
synonymous, we could say that presence means consciousness
becoming conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness. But
don’t get attached to the words, and don’t make an effort to
understand this. There is nothing that you need to understand before
you can become present.
I do understand what you just said, but it seems to imply that Being,
the ultimate transcendental reality, is not yet complete, that it is
undergoing a process of development. Does God need time for
personal growth?
Yes, but only as seen from the limited perspective of the manifested
universe. In the Bible, God declares: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,
and I am the living One.” In the timeless realm where God dwells,
which is also your home, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and
the Omega, are one, and the essence of everything that ever has
been and ever will be is eternally present in an unmanifested state of
oneness and perfection — totally beyond anything the human mind
can ever imagine or comprehend. In our world of seemingly separate
forms, however, timeless perfection is an inconceivable concept. Here
even consciousness, which is the light emanating from the eternal
Source, seems to be subject to a process of development, but this is
due to our limited perception. It is not so in absolute terms.
Nevertheless, let me continue to speak for a moment about the
evolution of consciousness in this world.
Everything that exists has Being, has God-essence, has some degree
of consciousness. Even a stone has rudimentary consciousness;
otherwise, it would not be, and its atoms and molecules would
disperse. Everything is alive. The sun, the earth, plants, animals,
humans — all are expressions of consciousness in varying degrees,
consciousness manifesting as form.
The world arises when consciousness takes on shapes and forms,
thought forms and material forms. Look at the millions of life forms on
this planet alone. In the sea, on land, in the air — and then each life
form is replicated millions of times. To what end? Is someone or
something playing a game, a game with form? This is what the
ancient seers of India asked themselves. They saw the world as lila, a
kind of divine game that God is playing. The individual life forms are
obviously not very important in this game. In the sea, most life forms
don’t survive for more than a few minutes after being born. The
human form turns to dust pretty quickly too, and when it is gone it is
as if it had never been. Is that tragic or cruel? Only if you create a
separate identity for each form, if you forget that its consciousness is
God-essence expressing itself in form. But you don’t truly know that
until you realize your own God-essence as pure consciousness.
If a fish is born in your aquarium and you call him John, write out a
birth certificate, tell him about his family history, and two minutes
later he gets eaten by another fish — that’s tragic. But it’s only tragic
because you projected a separate self where there was none. You got
hold of a fraction of a dynamic process, a molecular dance, and made
a separate entity out of it.
Consciousness takes on the disguise of forms until they reach such
complexity that it completely loses itself in them. In present-day
humans, consciousness is completely identified with its disguise. It
only knows itself as form and therefore lives in fear of the annihilation
of its physical or psychological form. This is the egoic mind, and this is
where considerable dysfunction sets in. It now looks as if something
had gone very wrong somewhere along the line of evolution. But even
this is part of lila, the divine game. Finally, the pressure of suffering
created by this apparent dysfunction forces consciousness to
disidentify from form and awakens it from its dream of form: It
regains self-consciousness, but it is at a far deeper level than when it
lost it.
This process is explained by Jesus in his parable of the lost son, who
leaves his father’s home, squanders his wealth, becomes destitute,
and is then forced by his suffering to return home. When he does, his
father loves him more than before. The son’s state is the same as it
was before, yet not the same. It has an added dimension of depth.
The parable describes a journey from unconscious perfection, through
apparent imperfection and “evil” to conscious perfection.
Can you now see the deeper and wider significance of becoming
present as the watcher of your mind? Whenever you watch the mind,
you withdraw consciousness from mind forms, and it then becomes
what we call the watcher or the witness. Consequently, the watcher
— pure consciousness beyond form — becomes stronger, and the
mental formations become weaker. When we talk about watching the
mind we are personalizing an event that is truly of cosmic
significance: Through you, consciousness is awakening out of its
dream of identification with form and withdrawing from form. This
foreshadows, but is already part of, an event that is probably still in
the distant future as far as chronological time is concerned. The event
is called — the end of the world.
When consciousness frees itself from its identification with physical
and mental forms, it becomes what we may call pure or enlightened
consciousness, or presence. This has already happened in a few
individuals, and it seems destined to happen soon on a much larger
scale, although there is no absolute guarantee that it will happen.
Most humans are still in the grip of the egoic mode of consciousness:
identified with their mind and run by their mind. If they do not free
themselves from their mind in time, they will be destroyed by it. They
will experience increasing confusion, conflict, violence, illness, despair,
madness. Egoic mind has become like a sinking ship. If you don’t get
off, you will go down with it. The collective egoic mind is the most
dangerously insane and destructive entity ever to inhabit this planet.
What do you think will happen on this planet if human consciousness
remains unchanged?
Already for most humans, the only respite they find from their own
minds is to occasionally revert to a level of consciousness below
thought. Everyone does that every night during sleep. But this also
happens to some extent through sex, alcohol, and other drugs that
suppress excessive mind activity. If it weren’t for alcohol,
tranquilizers, antidepressants, as well as the illegal drugs, which are
all consumed in vast quantities, the insanity of the human mind would
become even more glaringly obvious than it is already. I believe that,
if deprived of their drugs, a large part of the population would become
a danger to themselves and others. These drugs, of course, simply
keep you stuck in dysfunction. Their widespread use only delays the
breakdown of the old mind structures and the emergence of higher
consciousness. While individual users may get some relief from the
daily torture inflicted on them by their minds, they are prevented from
generating enough conscious presence to rise above thought and so
find true liberation.
Falling back to a level of consciousness below mind, which is the pre-
thinking level of our distant ancestors and of animals and plants, is
not an option for us. There is no way back. If the human race is to
survive, it will have to go on to the next stage. Consciousness is
evolving throughout the universe in billions of forms. So even if we
didn’t make it, this wouldn’t matter on a cosmic scale. No gain in
consciousness is ever lost, so it would simply express itself through
some other form. But the very fact that I am speaking here and you
are listening or reading this is a clear sign that the new consciousness
is gaining a foothold on the planet.
There is nothing personal in this: I am not teaching you. You are
consciousness, and you are listening to yourself. There is an Eastern
saying: “The teacher and the taught together create the teaching.” In
any case, the words in themselves are not important. They are not
the Truth; they only point to it. I speak from presence, and as I speak,
you may be able to join me in that state. Although every word that I
use has a history, of course, and comes from the past, as all language
does, the words that I speak to you now are carriers of the high-
energy frequency of presence, quite apart from the meaning they
convey as words.
Silence is an even more potent carrier of presence, so when you read
this or listen to me speak, be aware of the silence between and
underneath the words. Be aware of the gaps. To listen to the silence,
wherever you are, is an easy and direct way of becoming present.
Even if there is noise, there is always some silence underneath and in
between the sounds. Listening to the silence immediately creates
stillness inside you. Only the stillness in you can perceive the silence
outside. And what is stillness other than presence, consciousness
freed from thought forms? Here is the living realization of what we
have been talking about.
Все темы данного раздела:
A GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
Eckhart Tolle
NAMASTE PUBLISHING
and
NEW WORLD LIBRARY
NOVATO, CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER THREE: Moving Deeply into the Now
Don’t Seek Your Self in the Mind
End the Delusion of Time
Nothing Exists Outside the Now
The Key to the Spiritual Dimension
Accessing the Power of the Now
CHAPTER SIX: The Inner Body
Being Is Your Deepest Self
Look beyond the Words
Finding Your Invisible and Indestructible Reality
Connecting with the Inner Body
Transformation through the Body
About the Author
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO
THE PAPERBACK EDITION
Six years after it was first published, The Power of Now continues to
play its part in the urgent task of the tr
THE ORIGIN OF THIS BOOK
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 this book came int
THE TRUTH THAT IS WITHIN YOU
This book represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be
conveyed in words, with individuals and small groups of spiritual
seekers during the past ten year
THE GREATEST OBSTACLE TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Enlightenment — what is that?
A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years.
One day a stranger walked by. “Spare some change?” mumbled the
FREEING YOURSELF FROM YOUR MIND
What exactly do you mean by “watching the thinker”?
When someone goes to the doctor and says, “I hear a voice in my
head,” he or she will most likely be sent to a
ENLIGHTENMENT: RISING ABOVE THOUGHT
Isn’t thinking essential in order to survive in this world?
Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific
task, and when the task is co
EMOTION: THE BODY’S REACTION TO YOUR MIND
What about emotions? I get caught up in my emotions more than I do
in my mind.
Mind, in the way I use the word, is not just thought. It includes your
emot
CREATE NO MORE PAIN IN THE PRESENT
Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of
learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?
The greater part of human pa
PAST PAIN: 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
EGO IDENTIFICATION WITH THE PAIN-BODY
The process that I have just described is profoundly powerful yet
simple. It could be taught to a child, and hopefully one day it will be
one of the first things c
THE ORIGIN OF FEAR
You mentioned fear as being part of our basic underlying emotional
pain. How does fear arise, and why is there so much of it in people’s
lives? And isn’t a certain
THE EGO’S SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS
Another aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the
egoic mind is a deep-seated sense of lack or incompleteness, of not
being whole. In some peop
DON’T SEEK YOUR SELF IN THE MIND
I feel that there is still a great deal I need to learn about the workings
of my mind before I can get anywhere near full consciousness or
spiritual enlightenment.
END THE DELUSION OF TIME
It seems almost impossible to disidentify from the mind. We are all
immersed in it. How do you teach a fish to fly?
Here is the key: End the delusion of time. Time
NOTHING EXISTS OUTSIDE THE NOW
Aren’t past and future just as real, sometimes even more real, than
the present? After all, the past determines who we are, as well as
how we perceive and behave i
THE KEY TO THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
In life-threatening emergency situations, the shift in consciousness
from time to presence sometimes happens naturally. The personality
that has a past and a futur
ACCESSING THE POWER OF THE NOW
A moment ago, when you talked about the eternal present and the
unreality of past and future, I found myself looking at that tree
outside the window. I had looked
LETTING GO OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
Learn to use time in the practical aspects of your life — we may call
this “clock time” — but immediately return to present-moment
awareness when those practical m
THE INSANITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental
disease if you look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for
example, in the form of ideol
NEGATIVITY AND SUFFERING HAVE THEIR ROOTS IN TIME
But the belief that the future will be better than the present is not
always an illusion. The present can be dreadful, and things can get
better in the future, and
FINDING THE LIFE UNDERNEATH YOUR LIFE SITUATION
I don’t see how I can be free now. As it happens, I am extremely
unhappy with my life at the moment. This is a fact, and I would be
deluding myself if I tried to c
ALL PROBLEMS ARE ILLUSIONS OF THE MIND
It feels as if a heavy burden has been lifted. A sense of lightness. I
feel clear. . . but my problems are still there waiting for me, aren’t
they? They haven’t be
A QUANTUM LEAP IN THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
I have had glimpses of this state of freedom from mind and time that
you describe, but past and future are so overwhelmingly strong that I
cannot keep them out for
THE JOY OF BEING
To alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by
psychological time, you can use a simple criterion. Ask yourself: Is
there joy, ease, and lightness
LOSS OF NOW: THE CORE DELUSION
Even if I completely accept that ultimately time is an illusion, what
difference is that going to make in my life? I still have to live in a
world that is complete
AND DEEP UNCONSCIOUSNESS
What do you mean by different levels of unconsciousness?
As you probably know, in sleep you constantly move between the
phases of dreamless sleep and the dream sta
WHAT ARE THEY SEEKING?
Carl Jung tells in one of his books of a conversation he had with a
Native American chief who pointed out to him that in his perception
most white people have tens
DISSOLVING ORDINARY UNCONSCIOUSNESS
So how can we be free of this affliction?
Make it conscious. Observe the many ways in which unease,
discontent, and tension arise within you through unnecessary
FREEDOM FROM UNHAPPINESS
Do you resent doing what you are doing? It may be your job, or you
may have agreed to do something and are doing it, but part of you
resents and resists it. Are yo
WHEREVER YOU ARE, BE THERE TOTALLY
Can you give some more examples of ordinary unconsciousness?
See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought,
about a situation you find you
THE INNER PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE’S JOURNEY
I can see the truth of what you are saying, but I still think that we
THE PAST CANNOT SURVIVE IN YOUR PRESENCE
You mentioned that thinking or talking about the past unnecessarily is
one of the ways in which we avoid the present. But apart from the
past that we remember and
IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS
You keep talking about the state of presence as the key. I think I
understand it intellectually, but I don’t know if I have ever truly
experienced it. I wonder — i
BEAUTY ARISES IN THE STILLNESS OF YOUR PRESENCE
What you have just described is something that I occasionally
experience for brief moments when I am alone and surrounded by
nature.
Yes. Zen masters use
CHRIST: THE REALITY OF YOUR DIVINE PRESENCE
Don’t get attached to any one word. You can substitute “Christ” for
presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-
essence or the Self, as it is
BEING IS YOUR DEEPEST SELF
You spoke earlier about the importance of having deep roots within or
inhabiting the body. Can you explain what you meant by that?
The body can become a point of a
LOOK BEYOND THE WORDS
I don’t like the word sin. It implies that I am being judged and found
guilty.
I can understand that. Over the centuries, many erroneous views and
interpr
FINDING YOUR INVISIBLE AND INDESTRUCTIBLE REALITY
You said that identification with our physical form is part of the
illusion, so how can the body, the physical form, bring you to a
realization of Being?
CONNECTING WITH THE INNER BODY
Please try it now. You may find it helpful to close your eyes for this
practice. Later on, when “being in the body” has become natural and
easy, this will no longe
TRANSFORMATION THROUGH THE BODY
Why have most religions condemned or denied the body? It seems
that spiritual seekers have always regarded the body as a hindrance
or even as sinful.
Why
SERMON ON THE BODY
What you perceive as a dense physical structure called the body,
which is subject to disease, old age, and death, is not ultimately real
— is not you. It is a misp
HAVE DEEP ROOTS WITHIN
The key is to be in a state of permanent connectedness with your
inner body — to feel it at all times. This will rapidly deepen and
transform your life. The more c
BEFORE YOU ENTER THE BODY, FORGIVE
I felt very uncomfortable when I tried to put my attention on the inner
body. There was a feeling of agitation and some nausea. So I haven’t
been able to experienc
YOUR LINK WITH THE UNMANIFESTED
What is the relationship between presence and the inner body?
Presence is pure consciousness — consciousness that has been
reclaimed from the mind, from the world
SLOWING DOWN THE AGING PROCESS
In the meantime, awareness of the inner body has other benefits in
the physical realm. One of them is a significant slowing down of the
aging of the physical body.
STRENGTHENING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Another benefit of this practice in the physical realm is a great
strengthening of the immune system, which occurs when you inhabit
the body. The more consciousnes
LET THE BREATH TAKE YOU INTO THE BODY
At times, when my mind has been very active, it has acquired such
momentum that I find it impossible to take my attention away from it
and feel the inner body. Thi
CREATIVE USE OF MIND
If you need to use your mind for a specific purpose, use it in
conjunction with your inner body. Only if you are able to be conscious
without thought can you use y
THE ART OF LISTENING
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
GOING DEEPLY INTO THE BODY
I can feel the energy inside my body, especially in my arms and legs,
but I don’t seem to be able to go more deeply, as you suggested
earlier.
Make it int
THE SOURCE OF CHI
Is the Unmanifested what in the East is called chi, a kind of universal
life energy?
No, it isn’t. The Unmanifested is the source of chi. Chi is the inner
DREAMLESS SLEEP
You take a journey into the Unmanifested every night when you enter
the phase of deep dreamless sleep. You merge with the Source. You
draw from it the vital energy
OTHER PORTALS
The Now can be seen as the main portal. It is an essential aspect of
every other portal, including the inner body. You cannot be in your
body without being intense
SILENCE
Are there any other portals apart from those you just mentioned?
Yes, there are. The Unmanifested is not separate from the
manifested. It pervades this world, but
THE TRUE NATURE OF SPACE AND TIME
Now consider this: If there were nothing but silence, it wouldn’t exist
for you; you wouldn’t know what it is. Only when sound appears does
silence come into being
CONSCIOUS DEATH
Apart from dreamless sleep, which I mentioned already, there is one
other involuntary portal. It opens up briefly at the time of physical
death. Even if you have m
ENTER THE NOW FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE
I always thought that true enlightenment is not possible except
through love in a relationship between a man and a woman. Isn’t this
what makes us whole again? How
LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIPS
Unless and until you access the consciousness frequency of presence,
all relationships, and particularly intimate relationships, are deeply
flawed and ultimately d
ADDICTION AND THE SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS
Why should we become addicted to another person?
The reason why the romantic love relationship is such an intense and
universally sought-after experience is that i
FROM ADDICTIVE TO ENLIGHTENED RELATIONSHIPS
Can we change an addictive relationship into a true one?
Yes. Being present and intensifying your presence by taking your
attention ever more deeply into the Now:
RELATIONSHIPS AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
As the egoic mode of consciousness and all the social, political, and
economic structures that it created enter the final stage of collapse,
the relationships betw
WHY WOMEN ARE CLOSER TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Are the obstacles to enlightenment the same for a man as for a
woman?
Yes, but the emphasis is different. Generally speaking, it is easier for
a woman to
DISSOLVING THE COLLECTIVE FEMALE PAIN-BODY
Why is the pain-body more of an obstacle for women?
The pain-body usually has a collective as well as a personal aspect.
The personal aspect is the accumulated res
GIVE UP THE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOURSELF
When one is fully conscious, would one still have a need for a
relationship? Would a man still feel drawn to a woman? Would a
woman still feel incomplete without a
THE HIGHER GOOD BEYOND GOOD AND BAD
Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace?
Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive;
inner peace does not.
Is it not
THE END OF YOUR LIFE DRAMA
In that state of acceptance and inner peace, even though you may not
call it “bad,” can anything still come into your life that would be called
“bad” from a perspe
IMPERMANENCE AND THE CYCLES OF LIFE
However, as long as you are in the physical dimension and linked to
the collective human psyche, physical pain — although rare — is still
possible. This is not to
USING AND RELINQUISHING NEGATIVITY
All inner resistance is experienced as negativity in one form or
another. All negativity is resistance. In this context, the two words are
almost synonymous. Negat
THE NATURE OF COMPASSION
Having gone beyond the mind-made opposites, you become like a
deep lake. The outer situation of your life and whatever happens
there is the surface of the lake. So
TOWARD A DIFFERENT ORDER OF REALITY
I don’t agree that the body needs to die. I am convinced that we can
achieve physical immortality. We believe in death and that’s why the
body dies.
The b
ACCEPTANCE OF THE NOW
You mentioned “surrender” a few times. I don’t like that idea. It
sounds somewhat fatalistic. If we always accept the way things are,
we are not going to make any
FROM MIND ENERGY TO SPIRITUAL ENERGY
Letting go of resistance is easier said than done. I still don’t see
clearly how to let go. If you say it is by surrendering, the question
remains: “How?”
SURRENDER IN PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
What about people who want to use me, manipulate or control me?
Am I to surrender to them?
They are cut off from Being, so they unconsciously attempt to get
TRANSFORMING ILLNESS INTO ENLIGHTENMENT
If someone is seriously ill and completely accepts their condition and
surrenders to the illness, would they not have given up their will to
get back to health? Th
WHEN DISASTER STRIKES
As far as the still unconscious majority of the population is concerned,
only a critical limit-situation has the potential to crack the hard shell
of the ego and f
TRANSFORMING SUFFERING INTO PEACE
I read about a stoic philosopher in ancient Greece who, when he was
told that his son had died in an accident, replied, “I knew he was not
immortal.” Is that surre
THE WAY OF THE CROSS
There are many accounts of people who say they have found God
through their deep suffering, and there is the Christian expression
“the way of the cross,” which I s
THE POWER TO CHOOSE
What about all those people who, it seems, actually want to suffer? I
have a friend whose partner is physically abusive toward her, and her
previous relationship w
Document Outline
Author’s Preface to the Paperback Edition Introduction The Origin of This Book The Truth That Is Within You CHAPTER ONE : You Are Not Your Mind The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment Freeing Yourse
Новости и инфо для студентов