Eckhart Tolle Teachings

Inspired by ThatDude, I looked up Eckhart Tolle. Here is a thread of some of his sayings. I'm not a fan of the commercial aspects of his sites personally.

Still, this thread is not for people who want to debate Eckhart Tolle as an individual. We have seen plenty of those, mostly from folks who can't believe in enlightenment and think ego is the God.

Other discussions welcome

"When you create a problem, you create pain. All it takes is a simple choice, a simple decision: No matter what happens, I will create no more pain for myself. I will create no more problems."

- Eckhart Tolle

I do wonder if it's possible for someone to arrive at the inner truths through the intellect, even if what is pointed at is reasonable.

JL

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by janielee

I do wonder if it's possible for someone to arrive at the inner truths through the intellect, even if what is pointed at is reasonable.

JL

Intellect can point the way but realisation lies beyond the intellect.

So in Yoga there is the path of Jnana Yoga. Jnana Yoga is the yoga of knowledge—not knowledge in the intellectual sense—but the knowledge of Brahman and Atman and the realisation of their unity. Where the devotee of God follows the promptings of the heart, the jnani uses the powers of the mind to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the permanent and the transitory. This begins as an intellectual pursuit but the realisation is not found within the intellect.

And in Zen we see the use of a koan to frustrate the intellect to the point where intellect gives in, thus opening the possibility of intuition or direct knowing. For example, there is a goose in a bottle - is it trapped?

And a common criticism of Neo-Advaita is that people can understand it on an intellectual level and think there is nothing more to be done, but without a shift in consciousness all they have are ideas.

Peace

Originally Posted by iamthat

Intellect can point the way but realisation lies beyond the intellect.

So in Yoga there is the path of Jnana Yoga. Jnana Yoga is the yoga of knowledge—not knowledge in the intellectual sense—but the knowledge of Brahman and Atman and the realisation of their unity. Where the devotee of God follows the promptings of the heart, the jnani uses the powers of the mind to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the permanent and the transitory. This begins as an intellectual pursuit but the realisation is not found within the intellect.

And in Zen we see the use of a koan to frustrate the intellect to the point where intellect gives in, thus opening the possibility of intuition or direct knowing. For example, there is a goose in a bottle - is it trapped?

And a common criticism of Neo-Advaita is that people can understand it on an intellectual level and think there is nothing more to be done, but without a shift in consciousness all they have are ideas.

Peace

Thanks, I agree with that. Thank you for sharing your experiential insight.

That's what I also wonder about Eckhart. But at least he seems genuinely realized, as opposed to many of the Neo-Advaita preachers. hehe

iamthat - is it common to go "up" and down" at some point?

Namaste,

JL

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by janielee

iamthat - is it common to go "up" and down" at some point?

Yes, there seems to be a stage of the journey where we realise that we are more than the lower self or personality but we are not yet fully established in identity with the Higher Self or Soul.

So we fluctuate between the two. This can be very difficult. We try to function from our Higher Self but we are still pulled down by personality issues, desires, conditioned responses, etc. But when we operate from personality we know that we are more than our personality patterns, so we are no longer satisfied with the limitations of physical existence.

All we can do is persist, and gradually the pull of the personality lessens as we become more identified with the Higher Self.

Peace

I came across this video many, many, many years ago, shortly after I first got really serious with meditation practice. It dovetailed nicely. https://youtu.be/eGH6sdODcOw

Ups and downs, oh yes. LOL!

My Big Wow moment was almost a year ago. September 29th, 2019 to be exact. That's what brought me here.

I was firmly rooted in it for several weeks, however it slowly faded over the next several weeks though it never totally dissipated. Sometimes I'm a little closer, sometimes a little more distant, but I haven't yet found myself firmly rooted like I was those first few weeks. That being said I find it impossible to go back to before that experience. It left a mark and a profound one.

Originally Posted by iamthat

Yes, there seems to be a stage of the journey where we realise that we are more than the lower self or personality but we are not yet fully established in identity with the Higher Self or Soul.

So we fluctuate between the two. This can be very difficult. We try to function from our Higher Self but we are still pulled down by personality issues, desires, conditioned responses, etc. But when we operate from personality we know that we are more than our personality patterns, so we are no longer satisfied with the limitations of physical existence.

All we can do is persist, and gradually the pull of the personality lessens as we become more identified with the Higher Self.

Peace

Thanks iamthat...appreciate your words.

“Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment.”

- Tolle

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”

-Tolle