A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle

“I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats.” ..........there ends my need for a guru :)

I read this somewhere, likely Eckhart Tolle. On later life influence from books, I’d put Eckhart Tolle pretty much on the top. And in addition to what he actually has to say, I had this huge other learning from that read……your learning does not necessarily get articulated or imbibed as you read…..you could be absorbing bits and pieces, and they'd be sitting in your subconscious for however long, and right place..right time..(internally) and voila.....they'd all fall into place in that one cataclysmic moment.

Capture those aha moments, and you'd be on your way. You'd even be left wondering how you didn't know it all this while. To me this realization from Eckhart Tolle came two whole years after I’d read him.

This came to mind again yesterday when I was talking to a friend who is attending a series on the Bhagavadgita, from a fairly prominent spiritual guru. To being asked how it was going, he said, 'it’s nice, interesting and all, and I'm attending regularly, but I don’t see any of those concepts being directly related to my life'

These are pretty basic and fundamental concepts of life, not some radically new technological breakthroughs, so at some point and in some form we've been exposed to them, and so the feeling of familiarity and disconnect at the same time. But in what form have they been perceived, interpreted, understood, comprehended, imbibed, internalized....that's where the difference lies. A reiteration helps. Remember, repetition does not spoil the prayer.

Like for instance when I first read Eckhart Tolle, I was like, I've read this in Buddhism; this one is from Advaita, this one from Zarathustra, and I’ve done so many years of this that I shouldn’t need Eckhart Tolle to come and tell me these. So much ego huh?? It's crazy how much mind restriction and conditioning act as filters to knowledge, or rather awareness.

That was till the book slowly got into me, and I saw that it’s not about a radically new concept, it’s about processing, context and articulation at one end, and my being ready to comprehend and internalize at another. It's only then that  I acknowledged how big a part in life it had played.

Eckhart Tolle draws from several religions or rather thinkers, and gives it to us in a form that is easy to identify with and absorb. He puts it in the form of attitudes and approaches in ones daily lives. He inspires one to a spiritual journey to find our true self and reach the ultimate in personal growth. 

Some of what he says; 

“See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always non-acceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.”

“Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it's no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.”

“It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.”

Calls for a high degree of self awareness for sure.

What Eckhart Tolle does is to enable an existential experience of those intellectual concepts;  as he writes, he extols one to feel and not get stuck in the words. As the essence of the thought or the feeling is concealed in the gap between perception and interpretation. Sure we need words and thoughts, they have their own beauty, but long as we stay aware that we do not get imprisoned by them. Use them as the finger that points.

The Good Earth was one book which had a deep influence, yet as I write I realize where I've moved away. Guess it’s time for a re read...