Eckhart Tolle: Awakening in the Now

Just might be a good thing! After watching Eckhart Tolle's Findhorn retreat and The Flowering of Human Consciousness DVDs, did I really need another Eckhart DVD?

Yes, it turns out I did. In this talk at UCLA, Eckhart addresses a few of the misunderstandings I had about the power of Now. He goes deeper into the Now and the ego than I've seen before, and I'm finding it very helpful in practical ways in my life.

For example, I had a falling out with my next-door neighbors this past week. Thanks to Eckhart's teaching, I knew what to do, and what not to do. I sat with the conditioned thoughts and pain-body feelings in the Now. I allowed everything to be as it was without asking anything to be different. I let it all go quickly without letting my mind turn it into a problem. The next day "circumstances" brought about a wonderful reconciliation that felt effortless and natural. I could not have manipulated a more peaceful outcome if I'd tried.

To watch my conditioned mind attempt to create a conflict, to have that awareness, is a gift from this teacher that will help me for the rest of my life. That is worth far more than the cost of another DVD. It's priceless.

Eckhart speaks of working with such life challenges to gain Presence. With his characteristic gentle humor he addresses:

- Obsessive thought, amplified by emotion
- How attention brings another dimension, and attention is space
- Positive and negative mental conditioning
- Unconditioned intelligence and accumulated knowledge
- The perpetually discontented ego
- The 3 a.m. noise machine
- "It's the Now again!"
- The delusion of many moments
- The dream of life and how to awaken
- Being the space which allows every form to be
- "How can I know this in my daily life?"
- Two mistakes spiritual seekers make
- The point of entry into the deeper state
- The end of the ego
- And - "... Is, is, is, is!"

While he doesn't say anything essentially new or different in this DVD, he does use different examples and perhaps a stronger emphasis. Each time I listen, I hear something new. Several points of his message clicked easily with this DVD, giving me lots of "aha" Now moments.

Some people say his message is repetitive. I actually need it to be repetitive. I need the wisdom that Eckhart Tolle speaks to penetrate all the layers of conditioned thinking/reacting that have kept me unconscious, kept me from living an authentic life. It's time to awaken. The time is Now. I will watch, listen and practice, knowing it will take time to fully awaken. And knowing it can only happen Now.

Eckhart Tolle's perspective is at once powerful, simple, refreshing and timeless. It's an intense yet mellow meditation on being. I first watched the DVD from Netflix but new I wanted this for my library. Watching it at different times, different moods and with and without company brings new texture and tone to the ideas he shares. This is a treasure.

I've been studying, reading and attending classes, under awakened spiritual teachers for many years, but only discovered Eckhart Tolle recently and he, his writings, DVDs, and TV, in my experience, are the real thing. Laura

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