Science of Mind - 2008 Spiritual Hero

Every year Science of Mind magazine chooses and features the individual that they feel has made the greatest contribution to spiritual advancement or somehow symbolizes an aspect of spirituality worth emulating.  Eckhart Tolle was chosen Science of Mind’s 2008 Spiritual Hero and featured in the January 2009 issue of the magazine in an article titled The Power in the Present Moment by Donna Mosher.  Quote on the cover page by Eckhart is “You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.  That is how important you are!”  That article follows.
 
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2008 Spiritual Hero - The Power in the Present Moment
 

Eckhart Tolle enjoys a life of relative isolation in Vancouver, Canada.  Rarely does he grant interviews or hold public events.  Nevertheless, the universe conspires to reveal the truth through any and all means.  Tolle’s profound yet simple teachings have found their way to the hearts of millions, and the awakening of the collective consciousness is growing.  Science of Mind magazine is honored to recognize this modern spiritual master as our Spiritual Hero for 2008.

Throughout the ages, spiritual masters have walked among humanity, reminding us that we are divine embodiments in physical form.  Each has revealed the universal truth that we are more than our bodies, more than our minds, more than our daily tasks, more than our relationships with others.  Each has shared with those with whom they have come into contact that love is our essence, that suffering is our challenge, and that there is a power in each of us that may be revealed to bring us peace, joy, and the realization of heaven on earth, right here and right now.

Today, the world is experiencing a spiritual quickening, an opening of the global heart, spread by technological advances in communications.  Teachers no longer must rely on one-on-one interactions, missives inscribed on parchment, scrolls tucked into clay jars to be found millennia later.  No longer is the message subject to interpretation or censorship by religious leaders.

Today, millions have direct access to the wisdom of contemporary spiritual teachers through published books and articles, through public lectures delivered around the world, through videos broadcast on television, radio, and the Internet.  Wisdom is shared in the vernacular:  that of the Buddhist, the Christian, the Muslim, and the language of the spiritual seeker affiliated with no defined religion or concept.

No spiritual messenger has more effectively tapped the power of technology to share with the world his understanding of our divine potential than Eckhart Tolle.  HIs loving guidance into the power of the present moment as the salvation of humanity has spread around the world like the fires of Pentecost.  From the publication a decade ago of his first book, The Power of Now, to his extraordinary online classes last spring exploring A New Earth with Oprah Winfrey, Tolle’s teaching is supporting countless millions to open to freedom from the pervasive preoccupation with past and future.  This fixation plagues humanity, he says, and prevents awakening to the evolutionary impulse of the universe, which may only be found in the present moment, the “Now”, the essence of enlightenment.

Beyond Thought

Divine inspiration seems to embrace Tolle in a mystical, magical way.  Anyone who has “met” him, be it through his classes, lectures, books, audio recordings, or online presentations, encounters nothing less than “the peace of God that passes all understanding”.  Speaking calmly and bolstered with the authority of spiritual truth, this gentle man exudes an ethereal quality of presence that is contagious.  He communicates his message in such a way as to impact the listener on an other-than-conscious level and to bypass what he calls “the conditioned mind”.

Tolle distinguishes his use of the word “mind”.  “I use it differently than you do in Science of Mind”, he says, “I refer to the concept of the limited, thinking mind, whereas Science of Mind refers to ‘Mind’ as one consciousness, as Truth being expressed.”

“I use the term ‘presence’ or ‘awareness’ to mean a spiritual awakening, a greater consciousness infinitely more vast than the thought processes”, Tolle says.  “We all have the possibility of stepping out of the negative thought processes and seeing how destructive they are.  They distort our vision of reality.”

“The first discovery”, he says of breaking through the conditioned mind, “is that one suddenly realizes there is a voice in the head that talks all the time.  This voice loves competition, opposition, and criticism.  The first awakening is that ‘things are going on in my mind’.  There is a place where that recognition occurs that is the site of the emergence of something deeper, a presence or awareness.  You become aware you’ve been held captive, because something else has arisen within you.”

“Up to that point, you had no choice because you were so identified with the conditioned mind.  You believed every thought.  There is no freedom here.  You are essentially ‘unconscious’.”

“This is what I believe Jesus meant when he said, ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do’.  He meant people were driven by unconscious mind patterning.”

“When you begin to awaken, you can choose different thoughts.  You can choose positive thoughts, and these thoughts come from the depth of your being.  Coming from

unconditioned consciousness leads to new thought.  More harmonious thoughts arise from the deeper level of Being.”

Awakening to Presence

The authenticity of Tolle’s wisdom comes from a personal confrontation with the conditioned mind that brought him to the brink of suicide and led to his own awakening thirty years ago.  Tolle had been living in a state of ongoing anxiety, interspersed with periods of suicidal depression.  At the age of 29, while a graduate student at Cambridge University, he awoke one night with an intense feeling of absolute dread and a deep

loathing of his own existence.  He was gripped by a desire for his own annihilation that threatened to overcome the instinctive desire to live.  The thought “I cannot live with myself any longer” kept repeating in his mind, until he realized what a peculiar thought it was, he relates in The Power of Now.  “I cannot live myself.  Am I one or two?”  The incessant turmoil of his mind stopped, as if to ponder a koan, and he felt drawn into a vortex of energy.  He heard a voice telling him to “resist nothing”.  Suddenly, there was no more fear.  The next morning, he awoke to a quiet mind and a pervasive sense of the incredible beauty of reality.  It was a realization beyond words, Eckhart Tolle had encountered enlightenment.

The resulting experience of peace and bliss was so powerful that he lost all interest in worldly acitivities.  He dropped out of school, quit his job as a teaching assistant, and sat on a park bench for two years.  Many assumed he was homeless.  Others began to come to him with questions.  Thus began his life as a spiritual teacher.

Tolle moved from London to Glastonbury, England, where he spent 20 years integrating and deepening his awakening before moving to North America to write his first book.  Published by a friend in Canada, The Power of Now garnered a cult-like following in that country, its popularity growing by word-of-mouth recommendations.  A California publisher picked up the rights to the book., Oprah Winfrey picked up a copy from Meg Ryan, and the phenomenal impact of Eckhart Tolle’s teaching was launched around the world.

Relinquishing Attachment

One’s strenght is also one’s weakness, it has been said.  Tolle’s powerful intellect, which had served him well in his work in education, also fed the tormenting, incessant chatter of the conditioned mind.  Relinquishing that in which he had so much invested perhaps required the dramatic collapse of his identification with the mind structure.

“Life always gives you what you need”, Tolle says.  “Most people can awaken gradually.  Others find suffering is essential.  Suffering can get you more stuck if you resist it.  Or it can bring about an opening.”

“In my case, my ego lived through my identity with my accumulated knowledge.  I derived a sense of myself as an intellectual.  I didn’t have good looks, or physical strenght, or a good body, or material possessions to make me feel special.  I did have a mind that was strong and an identity with that - that was my ego.  Is it easier to let go of the identity with possessions, external appearance, or physical strength than with accumulated knowledge?  Maybe it is.  Jesus said it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.  By ‘rich’, he did not just mean possessions.  Any heavy baggage from which you derive your sense of identity keeps you from accessing the true self beyond the conditioned self.”

“My mind got trained, which is helpful, so I can explain things that are hard to put into words.  We don’t need to become stupid or ignorant when we awaken.  We just don’t want to identify with the mind.”

“For an intellectual, it requires more if you are identified with the intellect.  But not all intellectuals are.  For example, Einstein had a highly developed intellect, but no ego identification.  His intellect was inspired by a greater intelligence.  In such a case, the intellect becomes a tool.  Einstein remained relatively free of the ego.”

“I encountered Steven Hawking, the physicist, once when I was at Cambridge.  I saw the clarity in his eyes.  I thought, ‘He’s not suffering.’  There was no trace of suffering in his eyes.  It is possible that his condition destroyed his ego.”

Cease Seeking

No authentic spiritual wisdom is without paradox.  Tolle’s teaching to seekers of enlightenment is to stop looking for it.

“Being a ‘seeker’ implies the future is more important than the present”, he says.  “It’s a fallacy because it prevents you from accessing the vertical depth of consciousness.  A seeker is, instead, on a horizontal path.”

“A less evolved seeker might be lookng to create possessions.  One more evolved may be seeking a future state of enlightenment.  Either way, it prevents spiritual seekers from accessing the present moment.  The seeker overlooks the present moment, which is all there is.  So one would want to stop being a seeker and access the present moment.  You don’t want to devalue it and treat this moment as a stepping-stone to the next.”

“Our entire culture lives like this, and so much suffering has resulted.  When you live for the next moment, realize that it never comes.  The future is no more than a thought in your head.”

“The primacy of the present moment is of extraordinary importance.  When we wait to live, we never feel at home.  The essential spiritual practice is finding a friendly relationship with the ‘Now’.  Make the present moment your friend.  This goes against the collective conditioned mind patterns.”

“For true change, one must first become comfortable with the ‘is-ness’ of the present moment.  No matter where you are - in prison, in a bad home, any given moment - first say, ‘This is what is’.  There is no problem without a mental story around your circumstances.”

The state of affairs of the world today inevitably raises the question of the existence of evil.  Science of Mind suggests that evil is the absence of an awareness of love.  Tolle echoes that, saying that evil is actually an extreme manifestation of human unconsciousness.

“Evil is a complete identification with a thought form”, Tolle says.  “For example, a terrorist believes totally in thoughts.  ‘Me against them.’  Trapped in the collective ego, he is filled with an unawareness of anything beyond the form of ‘me’.  He reduces others to a mind form and completely believes in judgment.  Other humans are reduced to a mental concept, and he has no awareness of them as Life.  This unawareness leads to evil.”

“Love is the awareness that ‘I and the other are one’.  That which animates another human being is that which animates me.  Love is the recognition that you and I are ultimately one.  This awareness must happen at a feeling or sensing level, not through the conceptual mind but through the level of awareness.  Ultimately, you cannot judge anyone.”

“In the space of this openness is where true love arises.  Our destiny is to come to this realization.  And this will lead to a transformed world.”

“The human species is at the point of transition”, Tolle says, “an evolutionary shift from one level of consciousness to another.  There is no guarantee it can happen.  We’re in the middle of consciousness waiting to respond to evolution.  If we respond to the evolutionary movement, we can be transformed.  If we don’t make it, consciousness will seek another form to manifest through.  It is only a short delay as far as the planet is concerned.  Such a delay does not matter in eternity.  But it would be tragic in terms of time.”

Unfolding to Divine Purpose

Tolle says the reason for the existence of all life in the universe is to be an expression of the one consciousness.  He says the concept of duality is a distortion and a separation.

“There is no truth to the idea that ‘I have a life’.  If you have a life, you can lose it.  Rather, say, ‘I am life.  I am eternal timelessness’.  The bodily form is a temporary expression of that.”

“The individual must be open to the purpose of the whole”, he says, “to be one with the evolutionary impulse of the universe.  The evolving human being’s life purpose is to open to the greater intelligence within, to explore inner space, the ‘vertical plumbing’ of consciousness.  Access to it is in the ‘Now’, not in a resistance of the present moment.”

“There is a wonderful realization at the depths of your being.  You don’t need a limited concept or definition of yourself to give you a sense of self worth.  You can sense how vast you are.  You are part of the one power that drives the universe.  You are the light of the universe.”

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