View Related
First guideline - to realise the root issue is attachment — possessiveness of the heart — clinging to the futile effort of living life on my own terms — to become so bound up by itinerary. Although spirituality is infinitely more real than ego, spirituality is the very reality of ego. The density and intensity of ego's illusion eclipses the capacity to experience all that we really are. Psychotherapy allows people to relax in their suffering so they can be intimate with their pain.
Second guideline - detachment from images — to have a virgin mind. What he's saying is hard to get because it's so fundamental. An image is a thought in the mind, so all our thoughts are images. An image we may say is a belief. He's not saying push the reset button — it's the attachment that's the problem. The intensity of our belief blocks our view. Beliefs about myself, my culture, my religion, where I live, my family — the internalised repertoire of ideas about myself and the person I am. Eckhart would say, as helpful as these are in relative consciousness, no idea is you — you cannot think yourself — you are unthinkable, but not unknowable. You can learn to know yourself. We're trapped in the idealogy of ourselves. All that we really are is beyond anything we think we are. However, we can taste the mystery of ourselves. Wean yourself off the idea of who you are. Come to terms with the futility of the effort. Practice this attitude. Don't come to any resting place within yourself. Imagine a stone falling into a bottomless body of water and imagine you are that stone. There are protrusions falling from the cliff — the movement of the water rolls you on. This will go on through all eternity. It's a journey that has no end and the subjectivity is you. Everything is always giving way to something that is deeper.
Third guideline - other people. Think of the people you live with. They have emotional valances (screens hiding what is beneath). There's no such thing as a foreseeable encounter with somebody else. It's a mystery. See everybody this way. No idea of a person will ever tell you who they are. We didn't come here to understand each other; we came here to believe in each other. Every idea of God is infinitely less than God and therefore the extent to which we cling to any idea of God is the extent to which there is an obstacle to God. We need to have a willingness not to know God so that in the unknown we begin to know. In love-filled silence, the word God evokes from the heart the awareness of God. God is never reducible to any of our ideas of God. And it's the same with ideas about any other person or ideas about the earth — no idea of the earth is the earth — or ideas about the universe. The universe is God's body — it's unthinkable, but not unknowable. The things of this earth are seductive to us. When you walk through a forest, you realise the Beloved has passed this way in haste. You see the mountains — the Beloved is the mountains.
Fourth guideline - the path of suffering. Eckhart teaches that we should always do our best to avoid suffering, to help others to avoid suffering, and to help heal suffering. Each of us has an unfinished edge of suffering in our heart — the hurting place. It's in you and in me — the place where we taste the intimacy of our own suffering. Your suffering does not belong to you. Loneliness, for example, makes you one with all the people around the world who are lonely. This is true of all your suffering. It unites you with all who experience this suffering. God is the infinity of your suffering. To approach suffering in a sacred way is to hold it with reverence and respect. The paradox is that you do your best to avoid it while at the same time being intimate with it. Give intuitive priority to the creative stream and recognise the sacred quality in everything.
Eckhart Tolle :
Eckhart Tolle :
What are Tags?. View articles or events that contain the above words.
Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article