Yes it's nice to hear his voice but after a while he makes me sleepy, not in a nasty way he just has one of them voices. So the book was much better for me, however the DVD's I have seen were brilliant

Originally posted by psycho81
Yes it's nice to hear his voice but after a while he makes me sleepy, not in a nasty way he just has one of them voices. So the book was much better for me, however the DVD's I have seen were brilliant

I do believe it was you that sent me the download of his voice..thanks! Yes I can see how you'd start to get sleepy with it, it is one of those voices.
Have you started the second book yet?

"i" feel that many are missing the "point" of what eckhart is talking about. he is saying that all of this, all thought and ideas is just thought and ideas and can/should be recognized as such. if one can see that there is thought and content, and then also see the entity/awareness that is not thought (the one watching/listening to the thought), we see that thought is simply content in our minds and that it is not "real" as we believe it to be real.

real is NOW only, always.

do you "get" it?

I, I, I...there is no I!!!!!!

but the mind cannot know this infinite "i" and it cannot talk about something it knows nothing of. mind cannot know anything of "no mind" as mind/thought/content exists within no mind/awareness.

anything conceptualized is an expression of ego. any thought considered "mine" is ego.

the "present moment" and "the now" are different words for the same thing, reality. they are both concepts in the mind and cannot exist in reality.

Originally posted by actuallynothing
but the mind cannot know this infinite "i" and it cannot talk about something it knows nothing of. mind cannot know anything of "no mind" as mind/thought/content exists within no mind/awareness.

anything conceptualized is an expression of ego. any thought considered "mine" is ego.

the "present moment" and "the now" are different words for the same thing, reality. they are both concepts in the mind and cannot exist in reality.

To make it simpler.

The "me", the "mine" are ego based concepts of the conceptually mind made self.
The "I" in all of us, what connects us all, is eternal not bound by dual concepts of go0d and bad, yesterday or tomorrow. or birth and death. Notice I did not say life and death. On this relative level of unawareness every concept has an opposite. But the opposite of death is NOT life, the opposite if death is birth. In fact "life" is one of the few words in humanity which even at a conceptual level, has no opposite. The other is the "I", and the only way that it can be "known" is through the absence of thought. It is a sacred knowledge gained through awareness and not analysis.
The "present" moment and the "now" however are not the same thing. Your attention and awareness to the present moment is but a gateway to the "now" which is infinitely greater than just the present moment which is just a temporal signpost.
It gets a little confusing because, as acknowledged by Eckhart, words can only point to the "I" and the "now" but they cannot describe it.
I would suggest to read or listen to Eclhart's books in the order in which they were written, then the gateways into the truth reveal themselves with more clarity.

Also, I can't stress this enough, different spiritual teachers address the exact same awakening in different ways. I would again recommend Adyashanti, his tone and approach is a little more gentle and humanistic. The key here is that at some point when you read or listen to them, a spark will ignite inside you. It's different for everyone, for some it will only happen if they go through a tragic event. For some it will never happen because they have so much invested into this mind made world. For others it might all make sense ten minutes before they die.

I am always open via U2U if anyone wants to discuss this in more detail.
I also have an extensive media collection from both men that I have no problem sharing. I have asked both Eckhart and Adyashanti personally and they never have a proble with people sharing their teachings with each other.

[edit on 30-6-2008 by schrodingers dog]

and in the article i again read that the now and the present moment are considered the same thing.

we exist in the present moment. if we are not the thought and content, but rather the awareness/experience, then the awareness that we are/see/feel/taste is all-there-is at any given moment, which is always NOW. what is outside of the present moment? nothing we can know because we are in and one and the same as the present moment, and cannot experience otherwise. all that ideas and concepts do is imagine what could be outside the moment, but even this is happening in the NOW (albeit less "aware"). i still don't understand/get where you are coming from in terms of there being a NOW and a different thing/state/quality called the "present moment." please explain in more detail your understanding of the present moment being different from the NOW, reality, and all-there-is.

when you talk about "your attention" and "your awareness" do you mean that we are pure awareness and there is no such thing as "your" and that you only use "your" and such words to explain things practically?

then how would you answer the question "what/who are you?" thank you.



[edit on 30-6-2008 by actuallynothing]

I see more and more people saying they need to block out the negativity, (depression, illness, disasters etc) yet, wouldn't this devolve your ability to handle it, ignoring it till you don't notice it anymore isn't solving the problem, it's...well, ignoring it. I'm not saying anyone is wrong or right here, I haven't read the Tolle books, but it was a general question, I believe to try and reach harmony, a balance between the light and dark, yin and yang, the control of negativity is my ultimate goal, not to block it out.

I hope I haven't offended anyone, this guy's view does sound interesting anywhere I can download the audio?

EMM

Originally posted by ElectroMagnetic Multivers
I see more and more people saying they need to block out the negativity, (depression, illness, disasters etc) yet, wouldn't this devolve your ability to handle it, ignoring it till you don't notice it anymore isn't solving the problem, it's...well, ignoring it. I'm not saying anyone is wrong or right here, I haven't read the Tolle books, but it was a general question, I believe to try and reach harmony, a balance between the light and dark, yin and yang, the control of negativity is my ultimate goal, not to block it out.

I hope I haven't offended anyone, this guy's view does sound interesting anywhere I can download the audio?

EMM

Yes I know what you mean, Im finding I dont want negativity at all in my life, hey its just an emotion we can do with out isnt it? Yet it does bother me that I may just be blocking it and not dealing with it. Ive just started to read his books and Im very very impressed so far. What he says is ground breaking stuff.

Been reading the book several times already...yeah, I really like it...I came to this realization:

The ego/false self wants attachment/identification (with physical objects) because of their (physical objects') permanency/solidity because it is itself merely an abstraction, just nothing more than thoughts, I.E. not real; and it has always some degree of dysfunction or disorder.

It is unable to understand Being/awareness/consciousness/presence. It cannot be "thought" but only "experienced" as something wonderful & mysterious.

[edit on 4-7-2008 by reject]

Of all Tolle's work I find the 'Inner Body' meditations the best for accessing / feeling The Being.

Hello. So glad I found this thread. I have read A new Earth and I found it so accurate. It left me 'understanding' myself and others on a level I never thought I could.
I am battling a bit with living in the 'now' when challenges arise but I suppose that is the true test.
Also acceptance is proving to be difficult for me...I know I must accept to surrender but the mind keeps telling me to stop being a pushover.. any advice would be great.
thanks

I have now fully read this book and found it so very enlightening and made total sense to me.

The fact the ego is a seperate entity from the self/being was a revelation to me. I found as I read the book page by page it made more and more sense to me. The things the ego does to stop us becoming enlightened, the pain it creates by constantly taking us away from the now into the past and future. It does this to keep itself alive, in a truely enligtened individual the ego dies, it does not want to die so it keeps us as far from the now as possible.

My problem now is, the spiritual guidance I found is leaving me and I am having to read the book again. I think I will have to read it several times before this knowledge finally becomes my daily reality.

Originally posted by Mr Green
I have now fully read this book and found it so very enlightening and made total sense to me.

The fact the ego is a seperate entity from the self/being was a revelation to me. I found as I read the book page by page it made more and more sense to me. The things the ego does to stop us becoming enlightened, the pain it creates by constantly taking us away from the now into the past and future. It does this to keep itself alive, in a truely enligtened individual the ego dies, it does not want to die so it keeps us as far from the now as possible.

same!

Z

Originally posted by watchZEITGEISTnow

Originally posted by Mr Green
I have now fully read this book and found it so very enlightening and made total sense to me.

The fact the ego is a seperate entity from the self/being was a revelation to me. I found as I read the book page by page it made more and more sense to me. The things the ego does to stop us becoming enlightened, the pain it creates by constantly taking us away from the now into the past and future. It does this to keep itself alive, in a truely enligtened individual the ego dies, it does not want to die so it keeps us as far from the now as possible.

same!

Z

Glad its not just me then! Any ideas on how to stay in the now that you've found will be greatly appreciated. Its like you read the last page of the book and become totally aware...then you wake up the next day and you need to re learn it all so it goes in again.

One thing I am more aware of is the pain body and how it creeps in without you realising it, now when I see it I stand aside and just observe it and let it pass, recognize what it is and what its trying to do and this helps a lot. Its amazing how little effect it has on you if you just observe it and dont judge it or react to it. It kind of looses its power over you.

I am also finding the pain body easier to detect and it is definately not as overwhelming as it was before... I have just started The Power of Now and while reading as you say... living in the now is such a fantastic place to be and I do find it easier.
Also did a bit of breath meditation this morning and that has also helped me.. feel very calm today.