Heilsublogg

18.12.2007 | 01:25

Eckhart tolle

Question:

It is grief I would like you to talk on some more. I have “Even the Sun Will Die” and get it about form, just having lost 3 family members. Even when watching my mind, and feeling some peace, tears just come like a tidal wave. Then there is a hole, I sit with it, but all the spiritual teaching in the world does not seem to allow relief from grief. It is as if as a human form you have only one way and that is through; I noticed feelings of guilt for the feelings, but even surrender doesn’t seem to help... for want of trying to communicate my question much is lost... Grief seems separate to me, from all other emotions we experience and can have some effect on anger, self pity ect.?

Answer:
If you surrender to what you are feeling (and not feed the feeling with your thoughts, with stories), grief will burn up the ego and then show you its other face, which is peace or even joy. Joy is the dynamic aspect of peace. But don’t expect to obtain anything through surrender.
You say, “even surrender doesn’t seem to help”. As long as surrender is a means to an end (help, relief etc.), it is not complete surrender. There is an expectation. In true surrender, you ask for nothing, expect nothing. You simply embrace what is. Another way of putting it: you suffer consciously. Blessings on your journey.

Question:

I have been wanting to ask you this for months- What are your thoughts on the New Testament? It appears that you believe certain parts were add-ons, or apart from the essence of the teaching. Are there any parts in particular? And why?

Answer:
The New Testament contains deep spiritual truth as well as distortions. Those distortions are of two kinds. Some are due to a misunderstanding of Jesus’ teaching, others arose because people had an agenda (wanting to fit Jesus into their preconceived notions, wanting to make converts etc.). At some point, if there is another book, I may write about this in more detail. But you can find all this out for yourself. When you are present, you access your inner knowing and you will sense what is true and what was added on or distorted.

Question:

If you only live in the now, what would stop someone who is in a relationship or marriage from resisting the temptation to have sex with anyone who is attractive but who is not his/her partner? After all, if you are in the now and see someone attractive, you want to have sex with them now?

Answer:
Does living in the Now mean giving in to every impulse that arises? Then all those people who chase one sexual partner after another must be enlightened.

As long as you want something from another (such as sex), are you present? Or are you seeking to reach some point in the future that promises fulfillment? (And thereby making the present moment as well as the other person into a means to an end.) All wanting implies that the future is more desirable than the present, does it not?

It is inevitable that physical attraction towards another person will sometimes occur. That’s no more than part of nature. When you identify with that impulse, it becomes “you” and turns into wanting. The other person then becomes a means to an end – the end being sex, the attainment of the object of your desire. When you are present, you can observe the attraction or the sexual feeling within yourself, recognize it as natural, accept it, even enjoy it without needing to act it out. After all, it may be totally inappropriate to do so within the totality of the situation. When you recognize yourself as the space of consciousness in which the impulse arises, you don’t become the impulse; you don’t lose yourself in it. Being present is being the space, rather than what happens.

Question:

What do we experience when we connect with our real self? How does that experience change the way we live our own life?

Answer:
You no longer create suffering for yourself. Anger, resentment, regret, grievances, anxiety, guilt, etc, which are all inseparable from the egoic state of consciousness, no longer arise. And when you no longer create suffering for yourself, you no longer create suffering for others. You have deep empathy, not only with other human beings, but also with nature and all life forms. You see all life forms as manifestations of the one formless and eternal Life, which is what you are in essence, and you can sense that essence not only in yourself, but in all beings. In other words, everywhere you encounter yourself.

Flokkur: Lífstíll | Facebook