Audio: The Power of Eckhart Tolle's Now [from American Public Media]

The Power of Eckhart Tolle's Now [Speaking of Faith® from American Public Media]

American Public Radio
Broadcast 10/8/2009

Eckhart Tolle Interview By Krista Tippety

Note from Jim: As aired on NPR, the lessons that you can learn in this audio clip may truly change your life.


Edited for time, that actual radio broadcast: http://www.bxuefmnmglgfyk.readnotify.com/tg/bxuefmnmglgfylhttp/speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/tolle/ (Edited for
Radio: 53:09:00)


The full unedited interview: http://www.bxuefmnmglgfyk.readnotify.com/tg/bxuefmnmglgfylhttp/download.publicradio.org/podcast/speakingoffaith/20080814_tolle_uc-to
lle.mp3 (1:35:51)

Excerpts:


“Eckhart Tolle is an influential spiritual leader, teacher and author. He draws on and synthesizes many religious and spiritual traditions to include Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, and Hinduism….

Eckhart is the author of ‘A new Earth’ (2008) and ‘The Power of Now’ (1997).

One of today's most influential spiritual teachers shares his youthful experience of depression and despair — suffering that led him to his own spiritual breakthrough, and ultimately, freedom and peace of mind. He also explicates his view of what he calls ‘the pain body’ — the accumulated emotional pain that may influence us and our relationships in negative ways.”

Notes:

In this interview, Eckhart speaks of the following topics:


- When you accept what is, it frees you out of thousands of years of conditioning.

- You are not your thinking. Accept the “mental noise” without associating yourself with it. Become a space for thinking to pass through and in doing so, become deeper and more conscious of emotions and thinking that passes through.

- Step out of human conditioning. The human mind is a stream of thinking and a reflection of conditioning. Our intelligence is tainted by madness. See the madness in our minds and thinking in a positive way. Our brain generates destructive and compromising “compulsive thinking”… “Continuous mental noise”… “a constant steam of thinking” (“stories that we internalize, emotions that animate us”). We wrongly identify with the ideas that emerge in our minds. Identify the thoughts and ideas as stories in your mind without wrongly associating them with self. Thoughts, judgments, interpretations are in our head and they incorrectly color what is. See these thoughts, judgments, ideas, and interpretations as just another of many diverse concepts of which your self are none. You are not the thoughts within your mind. You are the awareness of what’s going on in your mind.

- The mind, “a primary source of human suffering”. Unhappiness is unnecessary.

- Humans generate harmful obsessions over the past and the future. Don’t value the next moment over what is now. The future moment doesn’t yet exist. Future moments will not free you. All you can experience is the present. Realize the importance of the present moment. Be in the moment, accept what is. Be fully engaged with the present. The present is all that there ever is. Don’t argue with the present moment… See the vastness of it all, don’t compulsively interpret the situation, or impose your judgments on people and the world. Rise above it all by seeing the present moment as your friend not your enemy. Step out and stand above your constantly thinking mind.

- The “Pain Body” – Is an independent energy form that lives in people and colors people’s perceptions. It exists within us all. It is exaggerated emotional pain well beyond the actual experience… It consists of remnants of past pain emotions experienced as a child or that are remnants of previous generations. It turns one’s thinking negative. Humans hold “Body Memory” (unconscious knowledge) and “Stored Memory” (well beyond the conscious level) that must be acknowledged and overcome. Be aware of the Pain Body rather than unconsciously identifying with it. Recognize what it is and separate it from the pain that arises. When an emotion arises, notice it and experience it. Don’t wish it away or argue within. Just see that it’s there. Enable yourself to be “the space” for what arises in the moment. Realize that you are deeper than the emotion. Allow it to be and acknowledge that it cannot feed on your past or on your emotion.

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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.