IMPERMANENCE AND THE CYCLES OF LIFE - раздел Образование, Acclaim for THE POWER OF NOW
However, As Long As You Are In The Physical Dimension And Lin...
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 be confused with suffering, with mental-
emotional pain. All suffering is ego-created and is due to resistance.
Also, as long as you are in this dimension, you are still subject to its
cyclical nature and to the law of impermanence of all things, but you
no longer perceive this as “bad” — it just is.
Through allowing the “isness” of all things, a deeper dimension
underneath the play of opposites reveals itself to you as an abiding
presence, an unchanging deep stillness, an uncaused joy beyond good
and bad. This is the joy of Being, the peace of God.
On the level of form, there is birth and death, creation and
destruction, growth and dissolution, of seemingly separate forms. This
is reflected everywhere: in the life cycle of a star or a planet, a
physical body, a tree, a flower; in the rise and fall of nations, political
systems, civilizations; and in the inevitable cycles of gain and loss in
the life of an individual.
There are cycles of success, when things come to you and thrive, and
cycles of failure, when they wither or disintegrate and you have to let
them go in order to make room for new things to arise, or for
transformation to happen. If you cling and resist at that point, it
means you are refusing to go with the flow of life, and you will suffer.
It is not true that the up cycle is good and the down cycle bad, except
in the mind’s judgment. Growth is usually considered positive, but
nothing can grow forever. If growth, of whatever kind, were to go on
and on, it would eventually become monstrous and destructive.
Dissolution is needed for new growth to happen. One cannot exist
without the other.
The down cycle is absolutely essential for spiritual realization. You
must have failed deeply on some level or experienced some deep loss
or pain to be drawn to the spiritual dimension. Or perhaps your very
success became empty and meaningless and so turned out to be
failure. Failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every
failure. In this world, which is to say on the level of form, everybody
“fails” sooner or later, of course, and every achievement eventually
comes to naught. All forms are impermanent.
You can still be active and enjoy manifesting and creating new forms
and circumstances, but you won’t be identified with them. You do not
need them to give you a sense of self. They are not your life — only
your life situation.
Your physical energy is also subject to cycles. It cannot always be at a
peak. There will be times of low as well as high energy. There will be
periods when you are highly active and creative, but there may also
be times when everything seems stagnant, when it seems that you
are not getting anywhere, not achieving anything. A cycle can last for
anything from a few hours to a few years. There are large cycles and
small cycles within these large ones. Many illnesses are created
through fighting against the cycles of low energy, which are vital for
regeneration. The compulsion to do, and the tendency to derive your
sense of self-worth and identity from external factors such as
achievement, is an inevitable illusion as long as you are identified
with the mind. This makes it hard or impossible for you to accept the
low cycles and allow them to be. Thus, the intelligence of the
organism may take over as a self-protective measure and create an
illness in order to force you to stop, so that the necessary
regeneration can take place.
The cyclical nature of the universe is closely linked with the
impermanence of all things and situations. The Buddha made this a
central part of his teaching. All conditions are highly unstable and in
constant flux, or, as he put it, impermanence is a characteristic of
every condition, every situation you will ever encounter in your life. It
will change, disappear, or no longer satisfy you. Impermanence is also
central to Jesus’s teaching: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and
steal. . . .”
As long as a condition is judged as “good” by your mind, whether it be
a relationship, a possession, a social role, a place, or your physical
body, the mind attaches itself to it and identifies with it. It makes you
happy, makes you feel good about yourself, and it may become part
of who you are or think you are. But nothing lasts in this dimension
where moth and rust consume. Either it ends or it changes, or it may
undergo a polarity shift: The same condition that was good yesterday
or last year has suddenly or gradually turned into bad. The same
condition that made you happy then makes you unhappy. The
prosperity of today becomes the empty consumerism of tomorrow.
The happy wedding and honeymoon become the unhappy divorce or
the unhappy coexistence. Or a condition disappears, so its absence
makes you unhappy. When a condition or situation that the mind has
attached itself to and identified with changes or disappears, the mind
cannot accept it. It will cling to the disappearing condition and resist
the change. It is almost as if a limb were being torn off your body.
We sometimes hear of people who have lost all their money or whose
reputations have been ruined committing suicide. Those are the
extreme cases. Others, whenever a major loss of one kind or another
occurs, just become deeply unhappy or make themselves ill. They
cannot distinguish between their life and their life situation. I recently
read about a famous actress who died in her eighties. As her beauty
started to fade and became ravaged by old age, she grew desperately
unhappy and became a recluse. She, too, had identified with a
condition: her external appearance. First, the condition gave her a
happy sense of self, then an unhappy one. If she had been able to
connect with the formless and timeless life within, she could have
watched and allowed the fading of her external form from a place of
serenity and peace. Moreover, her external form would have become
increasingly transparent to the light shining through from her ageless
true nature, so her beauty would not really have faded but simply
become transformed into spiritual beauty. However, nobody told her
that this is possible. The most essential kind of knowledge is not yet
widely accessible.
The Buddha taught that even your happiness is dukkha — a Pali word
meaning “suffering” or “unsatisfactoriness.” It is inseparable from its
opposite. This means that your happiness and unhappiness are in fact
one. Only the illusion of time separates them.
This is not being negative. It is simply recognizing the nature of
things, so that you don’t pursue an illusion for the rest of your life. Nor
is it saying that you should no longer appreciate pleasant or beautiful
things or conditions. But to seek something through them that they
cannot give — an identity, a sense of permanency and fulfillment — is
a recipe for frustration and suffering. The whole advertising industry
a nd consumer society would collapse if people became enlightened
and no longer sought to find their identity through things. The more
you seek happiness in this way, the more it will elude you. Nothing
out there will ever satisfy you except temporarily and superficially, but
you may need to experience many disillusionments before you realize
that truth. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they will
also give you pain. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but
they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused
and arises from within as the joy of Being. It is an essential part of
the inner state of peace, the state that has been called the peace of
God. It is your natural state, not something that you need to work
hard for or struggle to attain.
Many people never realize that there can be no “salvation” in anything
they do, possess, or attain. Those who do realize it often become
world-weary and depressed: If nothing can give you true fulfillment,
what is there left to strive for, what is the point in anything? The Old
Testament prophet must have arrived at such a realization when he
wrote: “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and
behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” When you reach this
point, you are one step away from despair — and one step away from
enlightenment.
A Buddhist monk once told me: “All I have learned in the twenty years
that I have been a monk I can sum up in one sentence: All that arises
passes away. This I know.” What he meant, of course, was this: I
have learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow
the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of
all things and conditions. Thus have I found peace.
To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and
lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in
a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when
your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your
life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or
conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come
to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to
enjoy and appreciate them — while they last. All those things, of
course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with
dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with
ease.
The happiness that is derived from some secondary source is never
very deep. It is only a pale reflection of the joy of Being, the vibrant
peace that you find within as you enter the state of nonresistance.
Being takes you beyond the polar opposites of the mind and frees you
from dependency on form. Even if everything were to collapse and
crumble all around you, you would still feel a deep inner core of
peace. You may not be happy, but you will be at peace.
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
REALIZING PURE CONSCIOUSNESS
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
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
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
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