ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

When I was in Chicago, with some of the presenters there, it was clear to me that - there were moments when they were being ordinary “humans” and moments when they were fulfilling a role that their life has placed them within.  While all were teaching in their roles, some were more like ordinary “human” teachers and some definitely surrendered their physical self to the flow of Spirit through them, doing It's work.

In an excerpt from an article in EnlightenNext (for their 15th Annivesary in the Sept-Dec 2006 issue), Andrew Cohen interviewed Eckhart Tolle.

Cohen: Why is it that you need to take time to be alone, and what
is it that happens when you take the time to be alone?

Tolle: When I’m with people, I’m a spiritual teacher. That’s the
function, but it’s not my identity. The moment I’m alone, my deepest joy is to
be nobody, to relinquish the function of a teacher. It’s a temporary function.
Let’s say I’m seeing a group of people. The moment they leave me, I’m no longer
a spiritual teacher. There’s no longer any sense of external identity. I simply
go into the stillness more deeply. The place that I love most is the stillness.
It’s not that the stillness is lost when I talk or when I teach because the
words arise out of the stillness. But when people leave me, there is only the
stillness left. And I love that so much.

Cohen: Would you say that you prefer it?


Tolle: Not prefer. There is a balance now in my life, which perhaps
wasn’t there before. When the inner transformation happened many years ago, one could almost say a balance was lost. It was so fulfilling and so blissful simply
to be that I lost all interest in doing or interacting. For quite a few years, I got lost in Being. I had almost relinquished doing completely—just enough to keep myself alive and even that was miraculous. I had totally lost interest in the future. And then gradually a balance re-established itself. It didn’t re-establish itself fully until I started writing the book.  The way I feel now is that there is a balance in my life between being alone and interacting with people, between Being and doing, whereas before, the doing was relinquished and there was only Being. Blissful, profound, beautiful—but from an external viewpoint, many people thought that I had become unbalanced or had gone mad. Some people thought I was crazy to have let go of all the worldly things I had “achieved.” They didn’t understand that I didn’t want or need any of that anymore.

So the balance now is between aloneness and meeting with people. And that’s
good. I’m quite attentive to that so that the balance doesn’t get lost. There is
now a pull toward increasing doing. People want me to talk here and talk
there—there are constant demands. I know that I need to be attentive now, so
that the balance is not lost, and I don’t get lost in doing. I don’t think it
would ever happen, but it requires a certain amount of vigilance.

Cohen: What would it mean to get lost in doing?


Tolle: Theoretically, it would mean that I would continuously travel,
teach, and interact with people. Perhaps if that happened, at some point the
flow, the stillness, might not be there. I don’t know; it may always be there.
Or physical exhaustion may set in. But I feel now that I need to return to the
pure stillness periodically. And then, when the teaching happens, just allow it
to arise out of the stillness. So the teaching and stillness are very closely
connected. The teaching arises out of the stillness. But when I’m alone, there’s
only the stillness, and that is my favorite place.

Cohen: When you’re alone, do you spend a lot of time physically being still?


Tolle: Yes, I can sometimes sit for two hours in a room with almost no
thought. Just complete stillness. Sometimes when I go for walks, there’s also
complete stillness; there’s no mental labeling of sense perceptions. There’s
simply a sense of awe or wonder or openness, and that’s beautiful.

Cohen: In your book The Power of Now you state that “the ultimate purpose of the world lies not within the world but in transcendence of  the world.” Could you please explain what you mean?


Tolle: Transcending the world does not mean to withdraw from the world, to no longer take action, or to stop interacting with people.  Transcendence of the world is to act and to interact without any self-seeking.  In other words, it means to act without seeking to enhance one’s sense of self through one’s actions or one’s interactions with people. Ultimately, it means not needing the future anymore for one’s fulfillment or for one’s sense of self or being. There is no seeking through doing, seeking an enhanced, more fulfilled, or greater sense of self in the world. When that seeking isn’t there anymore, then you can be in the world but not be of the world. You are no longer seeking for anything to identify with out there.

Cohen: Do you mean that one has given up an egotistical, materialistic relationship to the world?

Tolle: Yes, it means no longer seeking to gain a sense of self, a deeper or enhanced sense of self. Because in the normal state of consciousness,
what people are looking for through their activity is to be more completely
themselves. The bank robber is looking for that in some way. The person who is
striving for enlightenment is also looking for it because he or she is seeking
to attain a state of perfection, a state of completion, a state of fullness at
some point in the future. There is a seeking to gain something through one’s
activities. They are seeking happiness, but ultimately they are seeking
themselves or you could say God; it comes down to the same thing. They are
seeking themselves, and they are seeking where it can never be found, in the
normal, unenlightened state of consciousness, because the unenlightened state of consciousness is always in the seeking mode. That means they are of the
world—in the world and of the world. 

More of this article can be read at Ripples on the Surface of Being (An interview with Eckhart Tolle by Andrew Cohen)

Re: ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

Oh this was very nice Deb, I enjoyed reading it, in fact I stayed up for it while Iwas planning to make it an early nite. Ok I'm off to beddie now but thanks so much or posting this.

Re: ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

Yes, thank you, Deb.  The balance between resting in the stillness and open space…and then the interacting.  So nicely said!  I also love it when both are present simultaneously, as when vacuuming.  You're vacuuming and moving the vacuum and you're totally within the stillness while totally within the doing.  Simultaneous.  Or when you're interacting on the computer, or typing or whatever, yet you're also simultaneously aware of space all around, surrounding, engulfing.  Then your action seems to come from the silence itself.  So beautiful, isn't it?

Re: ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

This was an Amazing article Deb! Thank you so much for posting it. I absolutely loved his view on surrender.

Very Deep Bow!
z

That is the state of surrender—a total “yes” to what is. Not the inner “no” to what is.

Re: ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

Interesting.  I've checked out a little of Tolle, he seems to fill a gap left by Krishnamurthi, he has package the pruning process very well for the western mind.  

Re: ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

Oh my goodness!!!  I'm so glad I found this pod and this post.  Thanks Deb!

I appreciate Tolle's ability to explain how to be in this world and yet not of it.  I've struggled with this for years, never able to stay in stillness because I was so disturbed and in anguish about the man made poverty and violence that so many others are subjected to.  I can say I had “survivor's guilt” for having such a privileged life.

Over the last twenty years or more, many other authors/teachers spoke to my heart with the same information, but Tolle helped me understand the need for balance and the distinction between doing and being – as Deb's post captured.  As starpeople said, he has made this accessible to the western mind.  It also makes a difference for me because I'm not being asked to worship the teacher or the teaching, but to experience for myself this pheomenon.

Re: ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

Starpeople, we seem to be drinking from the same well. I was thinking of Krishnamurthi as well, inspired by Judi's post. Krishnamurthi discusses quite extensively the need to inquire for oneself the state of affairs. But he doesn't bring it into a practical light. Tolle has found a way to do this. Though I'm loving Centria's remarks best – so true. :)

Re: ET Shifting Between Stillness & Doing

I'm glad I stopped by to reread the thread and to find Ken's comment.  I so love what Centria said
” … when both are present simultaneously, as when vacuuming.  You're vacuuming and moving the vacuum and you're totally within the stillness while totally within the doing.”  It sometimes seems like such a delicate balance to try to find, but when there, it's beautiful, isn't it?