Educate Yourself for Tomorrow

[Lori]

"If the history of humanity were the clinical case history
of a single human being, the diagnosis would have to be:
chronic paranoid delusions, a pathological propensity to
commit murder and acts of extreme violence and cruelty
against his perceived "enemies"-his own unconsciousness
projected outward. Criminally insane, with a few brief lucid
intervals."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EjlPvcgtiM&feature=related[/url]
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[Lori]

"The ego is not only the unobserved mind, the voice in the head
which pretends to be you, but also the unobserved emotions that
are the body's reaction to what the voice in the head is saying."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RofybYVNCe4&feature=channel
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[Lori]

"If you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm,
look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8kA4eu_r88&feature=related
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[Lori]

"Joy does not come from what you do, it flows into what you do
and thus into this world from deep within you. The misperception
that joy comes from what you do is normal, and it is also dangerous,
because it creates the belief that joy is something that can be derived
from something else, such as an activity or thing. You then look to the
world to bring you joy, happiness. But it cannot do that. This is why
many people live in constant frustration. The world is not giving them
what they think they need.

Then what is the relationship between something that you do and the
state of joy? You will enjoy any activity in which you are fully present,
any activity that is not just a means to an end. It isn't the action you
perform that you really enjoy, but the deep sense of aliveness that
flows into it."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg9lY7_hCGA&feature=related
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[Lori]

"The thought forms of "me" and "mine," of "more than," of "I want,"
"I need," "I must have," and of "not enough" pertain not to content
but to the structure of the ego...when those thought forms operate,
no possession, place, person, or condition will ever satisfy you.
No content will satisfy you as long as the egoic structure remains in place."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j42cTkiGdXY&NR=1
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[Lori]

"As a spiritual practice, I suggest that you investigate your relationship
with the world of things through self-observation."

Eckhart Tolle
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[Lori]

"How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible.
Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find
yourself in them."

Eckhart Tolle
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[Lori]

"There is the dream, and there is the dreamer of the dream.
The dream is a short-lived play of forms. It is the world – relatively
real but not absolutely real. Then there is the dreamer, the absolute
reality in which the forms come and go. The dreamer is not the person.
The person is part of the dream. The dreamer is the substratum in which
the dream appears, that which makes the dream possible. It is the absolute
behind the relative, the timeless behind time, the consciousness in and behind
form. The dreamer is consciousness itself – who you are."

Eckhart Tolle
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[Lori]

Excerpt from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

The Secret of Happiness

"Being at peace and being who you are, that is, being yourself, are one.
The ego says: Maybe at some point in the future, I can be at peace – if this,
that, or the other happens, or I obtain this or become that. Or it says:
I can never be at peace because of something that happened in the past.
Listen to people’s stories and they could all be entitled “Why I Cannot Be at
Peace Now.” The ego doesn’t know that your only opportunity for being at
peace is now. Or maybe it does know, and it is afraid that you might find this
out. Peace, after all, is the end of the ego.

How to be at peace now? By making peace with the present moment.
The present moment is the field on which the game of life happens.
It cannot happen anywhere else. Once you have made peace with the
present moment, see what happens, what you can do or choose to do,
or rather what life does through you. There are three words that convey
the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness:
One With Life. Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realise
that you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you
are the dance.

Feeling the Inner Body

Although body-identification is one of the most basic forms of ego, the good
news is that it is also the one that you can most easily go beyond.
This is done not by trying to convince yourself that you are not your
body, but by shifting your attention from the external form of your
body and from thoughts about your body – beautiful, ugly, strong,
weak, too fat, too thin – to the feeling of aliveness inside it. No matter
what your body’s appearance is on the outer level, beyond the outer
form it is an intensely alive energy field.

If you are not familiar with “inner body” awareness, close your eyes for
a moment and find out if there is life inside your hands. Don’t ask your mind.
It will say, “I can’t feel anything.” Probably it will also say, “Give me something
more interesting to think about.” So instead of asking your mind, go to the
hands directly. By this I mean become aware of the subtle feeling of aliveness
inside them. It is there. You just have to go there with your attention to notice it.
You may get a slight tingling sensation at first, then a feeling of energy or aliveness.
If you hold your attention in your hands for a while, the sense of aliveness will intensify.

Some people won’t even have to close their eyes. They will be able to feel their
“inner hands” at the same time as they read this. Then go to your feet, keep your
attention there for a minute or so, and begin to feel your hands and feet at the
same time. Then incorporate other parts of the body – legs, arms, abdomen,
chest, and so on – into that feeling until you are aware of the inner body as a
global sense of aliveness. What I call the “inner body” isn’t really the body
anymore but life energy, the bridge between form and formlessness.

Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can. After a while, you
won’t need to close your eyes anymore to feel it. For example, see if you can
feel the inner body whenever you listen to someone. It almost seems like
a paradox: When you are in touch with the inner body, you are not identified
with your body anymore, nor are you identified with your mind. This is to say,
you are no longer identified with form but moving away from form-identification
toward formlessness, which we may also call Being. It is your essence identity.
Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway
out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the
body’s ability to heal itself."
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[Lori]

By Tim Touber,

(Ode Magazine, Jan/Feb 2006)

Eckhart Tolle offers us hope

Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth is what you’d call the right book at the right moment.
A lot of people are feeling a sense of urgency right now, as if something has got
to happen-as if something must change before it’s too late. But what and how?
These are the readers for whom Tolle writes. His book is not only practical handbook
to bringing about such change; it offers philosophical inspiration. It gives the reader
hope because the disease and the cure are so clearly analyzed here- all that is left to-do is act.

The disease-Tolle calls it “the insanity”- humanity is suffering from is an utterly crazy self-image.
Humans have forgotten their essence-pure consciousness-and identify instead with things that
are not us: our thoughts, our mental concepts of ourselves. Tolle, a German now living in
Vancouver, Canada, whose bestseller, The Power of Now, has been translated into more than
30 languages, unravels the madness, which he simply calls “ego,” with the precision of a microsurgeon.
He defines ego as “an identification with form, mainly meaning thought forms. “ An example of a form
might be I am “ a man,” or “a Christian,” “a journalist, “ “a victim,” “ a worthless person” and so on.

Most people do not live in reality, but in a conceptualized image of it, Tolle believes.
They look at reality from within a limited perception of themselves and the other.
They look at the world from within their beliefs. The identification of the ego with mental
images and external things like work, car, possessions or relationships causes humans
to get attached to and dependent on things outside themselves. “I have, therefore I am”
could be the ego’s motto. “Wanting to have” becomes an obsession continually stimulated
by the consumer society.

The underlying emotion controlling tall the ego’s activities is fear-the fear of being nobody,
of note existing, of dying. The fear in which most people live according to Tolle, is easy to explain:

“Deep down, every human being knows that no form is lasting, that all forms pass away.
So the ego always knows a feeling of insecurity. Many people therefore live in a permanent
state of unease, restlessness, boredom, fear, and dissatisfaction.”

To survive, the ego needs a great deal of attention. It is addicted to power, recognition and
conflict, and stays busy comparing itself to other egos. It sees itself as separate from the other
and the world. It thinks in terms of “better than,” “less than” and higher than” and lives by the
grace of attack and defense. Tolle says, “Egos differ only on the outside. Deep down, they are
all the same. They live on identification and separation. Every ego is continuously fighting to
survive, trying to protect and expand itself. However the ego manifests itself, the hidden, driving
force behind it is always the same: the need to differentiate itself, to be special, to be the boss;
the need for power, for attention, for more. And, of course, the need for a feeling of separation:
that is, for opposition, for enemies.”

The more you derive your identity from your thoughts and beliefs, the more you become cut
off from yourself, the other, and the world around you. Even (or in particular) many so-called
religious people are stuck on this level. They equate “truth” with their thoughts about reality.
And because they identify totally with their thoughts, they claim, in an unconscious attempt to
protect their identity, to be the only ones who know the truth.

The emotions that are consequence of living from ones ego give rise to “pain-bodies” which we
carry around with us. These bodies can be activated by people or situations (when someone
“pushes our buttons”). At such times we are completely overwhelmed by emotion. Tolle writes,
“ A pain-body is a semiautomatic energy form that resides within most people, an entity consisting
of emotion. Like all forms of life, it must regularly feed itself-take in new energy-and the food it
needs to replenish its supply consists of energy that corresponds with its own energy:
That is energy with a comparable frequency." For the pain-body, every emotionally painful
experience can be used as food. That is why it thrives so well on negative thinking and drama
in relationships. The pain-=body is an addiction to being unhappy.

Years ago Tolle was almost overwhelmed by the pain and tress created by his ego, now knows
the way out of the labyrinth of reason: “only through awareness-not through thinking-can you
see the difference between fact and opinion belief). If you do not cover the world with labels
and words, a feeling for the miraculous with return in your life that was lost long ago, when
humanity stopped using reason and became possessed by it.” According to Tolle, recognizing
one’s own insanity marks the beginning of spiritual healing. When you look at ego-when you
are conscious- you become free of it. Consciousness and ego cannot coexist. Every time the
ego is recognized, it becomes weaker. If more people acknowledge their egos and choose
consciousness-which means being present in the here and now without being swept away by
the ego’s mental images and emotions-the transformation to a new earth may happen more
quickly. Tolle writes ¨People without egos embody the awakened consciousness that changes
every aspect of life on our planet, including nature, because life on earth is inseparable from
the human consciousness that perceives and interacts with it.”

Tolle concludes with a warning to those whose egos are grasping for a new “truth”:
“you cannot make liberating your ego a goal to achieve in the future. Only Presence,
being in the Now, can free you form ego: not yesterday or tomorrow.” In other words:
The new earth is already here, now, if you want. it. - ODE Magazine
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[Lori]

CHAPTER 74. "Your sense of who you are determines what you perceive as your needs and what matters to you in life—and whatever matters to you will have the power to upset and disturb you. You can use this as a criterion to find out how deeply you know yourself. … So you may want to ask yourself the question: What are the things that upset and disturb me?" (p. 186-187). Make a list of the things that upset and disturb you on a regular basis. It is not your true self who is disturbed, but rather, “The small me that seeks security or fulfillment in things that are transient and gets anxious or angry because it fails to find it. Well, at least now you know who you really think you are. … If peace mattered to you more than anything else and if you truly knew yourself to be spirit rather than a little me, you would remain nonreactive and absolutely alert when confronted with challenging people or situations. … Then out of your alertness would come a response” (p. 188). The next time you are upset by something on your list, don’t respond from your “little me.” Instead, become alert—present in the moment—and then respond to the situation.
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CHAPTER 75. “Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world” (p. 190). This week, try the following and see how it changes your daily interactions, relationships, and life itself: “Whatever you think people are withholding from you—praise, appreciation, assis-tance, loving care, and so on—give it to them. You don’t have it? Just act as if you had it, and it will come. … You cannot receive what you don’t give. Outflow determines inflow” (p.191). Write about a few instances this week where you tried this—with a family member, colleagues at work, friends, a stranger in the street. 6. On page 215 of A New Earth, there is a powerful spiritual practice that we can do from time to time: "When someone criticizes you, blames you, or calls you names, instead of immediately retaliating or defending yourself—do nothing. Allow the self-image to remain diminished and become alert to what that feels like deep inside you. … You may then come to an amazing realiza-tion: When you are seemingly diminished in some way and remain in absolute nonreaction, not just externally but also internally, you realize that nothing real has been diminished, that through becoming 'less,' you become more.” Use this practice in your interactions this week, and write about your experiences here.

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CHAPTER 77. Nonreaction is not the same as allowing abuse. "Sometimes a situation may demand that you tell someone to 'back off' in no uncertain terms. Without egoic defensiveness, there will be power behind your words, yet no reactive force. If necessary, you can also say no to someone firmly and clearly, and it will be what I call a ‘high-quality no’ that is free of all negativity" (p. 216). This week, if an appropriate situation arises, practice saying a “high-quality no.” How did you feel afterward? What was the response from others?

A New Earth Online ClassQuotes from A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.
Copyright © 2005 by Eckhart Tolle. Excerpted by permission of Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.o p r a h . c o mo p r a h . c o m Companion Guide
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[Lori]

"According to Christian teachings, the normal collective state of humanity is one of
" original sin" Sin is a word that has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted .
Literally translated from the ancient Greek in which the New Testament was written,
to sin means to miss the mark , as an archer misses the target, so to sin means to
miss the point of human existence. It means to live unskillfully , blindly and thus to
suffer and cause suffering. Again the term stripped of its cultural baggage and
misinterpretations , points to the dysfunction inherent in the human condition."

Eckhart Tolle
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[Lori]

" You do not become good by trying to be good , but by finding the goodness that
is already within you , and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only
emerge if something fundamental changes in your consciousness. "

Eckhart Tolle
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[Lori]

" Ego is no more than this: identification with form, which primarily means thought forms."

Eckhart Tolle
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[Lori]

"Discover the depth within yourself. A sense of awe, of wonder,
will arise within you. It can only awaken those who are ready.
Are you ready? Find the goodness already within you....
The past has no power to stop you from being present now....
Only by awakening can you know the true meaning of that word.
To love is to recognize yourself in another. In order to attract success,
you need to welcome it wherever you see it.... The source of all energy
is within you. You will come to life. A new year. A new you."

Eckhart Tolle
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