Disentangling the Sense of I – Eckhart Tolle
Written on April 22, 2008 by Tom Stine
“When you don’t cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to you life that was lost a long time ago when humanity, instead of using thought, became possessed by thought. A depth returns to your life. Things regain their newness, their freshness. And the greatest miracle is the experiencing of your essential self as prior to any words, thoughts, mental labels and images. For this to happen, you need to disentangle your sense of I, of Beingness, from all the things it has become mixed up with, that is to say, identified with.”
Eckhart Tolle does a marvelous job of expressing the essence of the spiritual journey in this one little paragraph. A vast array of ideas, activities, thoughts, practices, you name it, are bundled into the concept of spirituality. But really, ultimately, spirituality is simply about what you are. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. Eckhart calls this disentangling your sense of I, in other words, discovering what you really are, discovering your beingness.
A New Earth is a truly inspirational book, and the work that Eckhart Tolle and Oprah are doing together is powerful and transformative. I feel a book review coming on! And a final review of the webinars from Eckhart and Oprah.
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on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:07 am
“I” will be glad when and if “I” can get my meds adjusted right. Because my ability to do any kind of deep thinking and medication seems so far away. “I” am glad your back. Hope you had a restful retreat. My blog is using up quite a bit of my energy keeping it going.
on April 26th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I’d love to hear more about your thoughts on the webinar and Tolle…
Michelle Vandepas’s last blog post..Living Your Life’s Purpose with Abundance!
on April 27th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
@Michelle Me, too! I will have to sit and ponder it all a bit. Eckhart is so humble and Oprah is so…. not humble, but useful and a nice contrast to Eckhart’s quiet demeanor. I’ll add this one to my growing list of draft articles!
on April 28th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I have recently bought his new book “A New Earth-Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose”, and was blown away by the powerful message in the book. I realized that he is also the author of the familiar book “The Power of Now” which I have not read. So I bought it too.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. I have a copy of “You’ll See It When You Believe It” by Dr Dyer Wayne in my bookshelf for many years. It sits there for years without being read, because I couldn’t fully grasp the essence of the words when I first bought it. Five years after, on one fine day when I was at the edge of depression, I picked up the book again and found a surge of refreshing power that comes with the words. That time I knew I was ready.
Cheers,
Jordan Cheng
Jordan Cheng’s last blog post..The Success Secrets of Michael Jordan
on April 28th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
@Jordan Glad to hear that Eckhart is working for you. Have you been watching him and Oprah? Good stuff. Funny, I love listening to Eckhart more than reading his books. A New Earth is good, though.
on May 14th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Ive read eckhart tolles book, and he, among other fake spiritual teachers, say that the way to overcome negativity and suffering, is to directly confront it, mentally. all this would do however is to give a nervous breakdown (a spiritual practice, not unheard of in egypt) and not a sense of cessation.
traditional tibetan buddhism states that one should seek shelter from harm, and seek a path that feels benificial to the mind.
eckhart tolle has some great points and nice thoughts, but his overall stance on confronting suffering emotionally on a spiritual level, is nothing more than pure self destruction.
eckhart tolle, the black monk, who teaches out of longhorn, scotland.
dont make me laugh
on May 14th, 2008 at 10:46 am
@John Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure I agree with your assessment of Eckhart Tolle’s approach. He is not so much asking you to confront your suffering but to look at it, see it for what it is. There is a bit of a challenge implied, but it is a challenge to see the emptiness in the suffering. There are many parallels between his teachings and Buddhism, by the way.
Also, I wouldn’t be so certain that his approach is pure self destruction. His method has merits. I would agree that his approach is not fully fleshed out in his books, but it can be followed if one is interested.
Finally, all spirituality has its negative points, to be certain. Some people do have a nervous breakdown, but that applies to every form of spirituality. Catholic monks, Tibetan Buddhists, Hindus, all have looked within and been faced with the darkness of their minds. Some have been scared to death by what they see and experience great psychological discomfort. It happens. And the only thing to do is to be compassionate. Spirituality is, at times, not easy.
Thanks again for your comments.
on May 28th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
I am so greatful to Eckhart Tolle and Oprah for turning me onto Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor and her beautiful book “”My Stroke of Insight”". Her story is amazing and her gift to all of us is a book purchase away I’m happy to say.
Dr Taylor was a Harvard brain scientist when she had a stroke at age 37. What was amazing was that her left brain was shut down by the stroke – where language and thinking occur – but her right brain was fully functioning. She experienced bliss and nirvana and the way she writes about it (or talks about it in her now famous TED talk) is incredible.
What I took away from Dr. Taylor’s book above all, and why I recommend it so highly, is that you don’t have to have a stroke or take drugs to find the deep inner peace that she talks about. Her book explains how. “”I want what she’s having”", and thanks to this wonderful book, I can! Thank you Dr. Taylor, and thank you Eckhart and Oprah.
on May 29th, 2008 at 11:13 am
@Stella I’ve yet to see Dr. Taylor on Oprah.com. I’ve heard that her story is an amazing one. Thanks for the recommendation. I must check it out sometime soon. Glad to have you here and leaving comments.