I started listening to and reading Eckhart Tolle’s work a few years ago when I noticed I was perpetually obsessed with the next thing, which was squashing any joy the moment right now might have to offer. I noticed this had become a real problem. I was racing to the next meeting, focused on the next week, managing to the quarter, focused on the annual outcome. It was unpleasant at best. So I started to explore, how can I both be driven and goal oriented – my natural state, and squeeze every bit of joy out of this moment right now? I wanted to enjoy my business and my life along the way, slow down the acceleration and continue to grow. Here are 30 points I wrote down from my evening with Eckhart. I think these stand-alone pretty well, though they are enhanced with context. What stands out to you?
- Most people’s normal state is waiting. So there is an undercurrent of unease from that. When you become more present to now that undercurrent of unease dissipates.
- Humans awaken by being challenged by life.
- Can you completely accept this moment as it is?
- Awareness of the present moment is the portal of the awakened state of consciousness, a deeper/higher function than thinking.
- A “normal” state is a continuous stream of thinking. Complete identification with thinking. You are collapsing what happened with your interpretation of what happened into one. Happiness is the freedom from this thinking condition. Separating the thinking from what happened.
- All suffering is created out of the human mind.
- Your pets are rooted in being. The tree even more so.
- The tree is teaching you being.
- What is the narrative you impose on the situation?
- How would I experience this moment if I did not add a narrative?
- The ego – the story of me. Mind based narrative looks for superiority over others.
- Complaining is great for the ego. It makes you think you’re superior. If you’re right, someone has to be wrong.
- The egoic self is a mental image of who you are.
- The secret of life is – not only that it is possible to transcend thinking, it is necessary.
- The dysfunction of the human mind is amplified by technology.
- We must address the underlying dysfunction in the human mind.
- Thinking gobbles up consciousness.
- The being of human being points to the deeper direction.
- We are born and then we die, isn’t that strange.
- Being aware of the short-lived nature of the human increases being.
- Everything in the level of form is impermanent.
- The awareness of being needs to underlie the doing.
- The present moment cannot be a means to an end.
- Don’t regard the present moment as an entry of a stepping stone.
- Stress is forgetting the present moment.
- The solution in life is your relationship with this moment.
- Ultimately you are the now. Being rooted in the now. Real change only happens in the now.
- Love is the realization of oneness.
- The light of consciousness, you are connected to the source of life.
- Your destiny is to become a human being.
