My spiritual blog & articles - My Spiritual Coach

Who is Eckhart Tolle? Why should we read him? What is his background?

5/30/2023

Let’s begin by saying that nobody “should” read anything. Either what someone has written resonates within our consciousness and inner being, or it does not. No one is saying we should read or listen to anyone. However, if what someone is imparting to us leads to a new understanding of life and who we are, then we will want to hear what they are communicating. Either we see that the relief Tolle is bringing is of value to us, or it isn’t.

Eckhart Tolle is a well-educated man who is fluent in several languages and studied Psychology, Philosophy, and Literature at the University of London. He also was in a postgraduate program at Cambridge towards his PhD, from which he dropped out.

But his education, and even his intelligence and ability to write and speak effectively, have nothing to do with the insight he brings to the human condition. Knowledge and education were of no comfort to him during the fretful nights and anxious days that plagued him for many years. Education, learning, degrees, and credentials have nothing whatsoever to do with grasping what he came here to teach.

His teachings focus on the power and beauty of being in the present moment. This awakened state of consciousness goes beyond the unfortunate tricks of the ego and its non-stop tangle of thoughts. If we are going to survive as a species and not wreck most of the planet in the process, this awakening is the essential next step in human evolution.

All the ancient spiritual communicators have brought this same message. Tolle just relates it to our times. He chronicles how the human ego, unique only to humans, causes untold suffering and destruction—as witnessed by history. With 110 million estimated people who have been put to death under communism alone, the rest of the death toll resulting from humans inflicting violence on each other is monstrous. So he is putting this ancient philosophy in the context of historical as well as modern developments that affect the peace and well-being of each one of us.

So, nobody “should” read his reflections on how the ego-mind works just because he is the latest authority on how we should live our lives and win the game of life. But if we passionately want to find a way out of the knots the ego-mind, which cannot abide in the present moment, then he is there to guide the way.

I don’t understand Eckhart Tolle’s work. Am I supposed to be numb to everything like a zombie instead of feeling human emotions?

5/13/2023

It does seem confusing because Eckhart Tolle points the way to emotional freedom yet it would seem that the path is just dulling out all the emotions that terrify us or cause us to be depressed. It seems logical that if we have no feelings at all, we won’t be subject to the upsets and disappointments that inevitably happen to every human alive.

But we can’t just cancel out all the bad-feeling emotions and keep all the good ones. It just doesn’t work that way. Like the front and back of a piece of paper, you can’t have one without the other. If we didn’t recognize the horrible feelings we would not be able to recognize the happy feelings either.

These feelings come from our minds. First come the thoughts, then come the feelings. We see something we judge we don’t like. We think first. We judge first. Then come the feelings. We see someone hurting a puppy. First comes the thought, “This is wrong.” Then come the feelings of anger, upset, and outrage. Maybe to a sadist, it wouldn’t be wrong. Seeing it would make them happy.

The problem comes when our thoughts are constantly in a state of judging and commenting on life with a negative bias. In our need to survive, everything can become a threat. The fearful and negative bias that kept us alive and dominant as a species is also what poisons our lives and causes us to be anxious or sad animals—unlike any other animals on the planet.

So it’s really the mind’s fearful antics that Eckart Tolle addresses. The emotions are a bi-product of our churning thoughts. To escape from the uncomfortable emotions, people will try all kinds of things. Eckart Tolle points to how the mind works so you won’t be hurled around by it or be kept on an endless pursuit of fun and temporary relief through substances and distractions.

He doesn’t mean to dull out our emotions so we won’t feel anything. It’s more like he’s telling us to dull out the aspects of our minds that cause unnecessary pain and suffering for ourselves and others. He’s not suggesting that we be like zombies, mechanically going through our days accomplishing tasks and surviving. He is letting us know that we need to use techniques to get control of the ever-racing mind and its chatter so that we can clear the way for the peaceful emotions.

The way to do this is by living in the present moment. In this moment we can feel whatever comes up and not hide from it. We can feel our emotions deeply but they don’t pull us around. Feelings come and go. They are not who we really are. We can feel one way about someone one day and then next we feel completely differently. So just like our minds, which come and go, our feelings also appear and disappear on the horizon of our waking consciousness. They guide us through life and let us know our happiest and most fulfilling path, but they are not who or what we are.

How did Eckart Tolle become enlightened, and what was his life like before he became enlightened?

4/29/2023

Eckart Tolle had been an extremely unhappy and depressed child and young man. His parents weren’t getting along, finally split, and he felt the atmosphere of joylessness in his surroundings. He felt alienated at school and even dropped out for a while. His excellently logical mind and personal experience drove him to reason that life was a meaningless round of pain with a few moments of short-lived happiness mixed in just to keep us going in the quest for survival.

Then, one night, while he was lying awake being tortured by his endless stream of anxious and sad thoughts, he said, “I can’t stand myself anymore!” This led him to reason that there must be two selves—one that can’t stand the other. It was such a weird contradiction, it “blew his mind.” Who is this self that he can’t take anymore?

This question cleared his mind and he was able to go back to sleep, peacefully. The next morning, the world appeared bright and clean to him—sparkling like a diamond. The birdsong outside his window took on the dimensions of a brilliant diamond as well. All of the world was new and fresh and he felt deep gratitude for these first-time revelations. For he saw there was a Big Me (the source energy of the universe localized within his body) and the Little Me (a frightened animal, trying to ensure its survival in an uncaring world).

This began his period of life when he acknowledged his immortal, spiritual Self for the first time. It was an act of grace and was also because he was brought to his knees by despair. This is how it happens to some. Some are initiated by a guru, others get it through holy visions, some through divine communication, some through shamanic or psychedelic rituals. Enlightenment was bestowed on Eckart Tolle through grace. Grace can be likened to heavenly intervention but the ground needs to be prepared for us to let it in (usually our back is against the wall).

He was ready to receive the inspiration that brought on enlightenment. He was directly experiencing the eternal present moment. He dropped out of his academic career to sit on a park bench and contemplate his discovery about the unseen world. He was deeply happy for the first time. His family thought he was crazy. But he knew within his Soul that he had found a path. The path is always being in the Now and that is where he lives to this day.

Is it necessary to get rid of desire for enlightenment?

2/28/2023

The Buddha pinpointed that the cause of all suffering is desire. To rid ourselves of suffering we must give up desire. We need to give up this kind of desire because desire is always for something that is not here. It is in the future. And while we are striving after the future and thinking that our salvation and happiness resides in it, we cannot fully appreciate the present moment. Desire is always for something else. We can’t desire it if we already know we have it.

Yet, it is not in human nature to give up desire. Desire is the intention that has fueled great inventions and works of art. Desire has spurred all intellectual and spiritual growth. We want something better. We want to be better. We want to feel better. And we desire to feel secure in the future. Therefore we take action to accomplish our desires.

In this sense, desire is just part of the Big Picture of constant transformation, expansion, and growth. We don’t need to give it up, because it is built into the system of being human. We only need to give up our attachment to the outcome of our desires. Things may not turn out exactly the way we desired and we cannot control that. Therefore, we suffer and the present moment is something we’ve got to muddle through until our next desires impel us to act.

For example, we want to have a fun-filled family picnic. Then it rains, the flies come out and bite us, the ants consume the food, and the car gets stuck in the mud. We can either suffer through this because our desires were not fulfilled, or we can accept that life is full of surprises and have fun dancing in the rain. Our desire to control the outcome of our actions in a mysterious world is what causes so much psychological suffering.

As we begin to recognize that the results of our desires may not always produce what we were hoping for, we gain emotional maturity. We are able to cope with whatever life manifests and even welcome it. “Bring it on. I want such-and-such, but the Universe, in it’s infinite wisdom, has produced something else. Let me welcome this gift.” Desire is a great springboard into the future but contains the element of dissatisfaction that a keeps us looking for more, and more, and more.

And so, desires are not something to get rid of, but rather intentions that are to be put in their place. It’s great if things work out the way we wanted. Yet we are willing to accept whatever happens and not feel we can control everything through just wanting the results we crave. They dissolve all by themselves as an instrument of suffering and become simply the energy of intention.

What is the connection between eating mindfully and being mindful according to Thich Nhat Hanh in "The Miracle of Mindfulness"? How is it related to Buddhism (in general)?

1/11/2023

Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment, instead of racing ahead to the next thing that needs to be done. It also means not getting lost in ruminating about the past, especially past suffering. And since Buddhism is all about healing our suffering, mindfulness of the beauty of the present moment brings us peace.

If we rush through our meals because they are an obstacle to getting things done, we turning our eating time into another arena of suffering. We gallop through the meal, barely tasting anything. Shoveling the food into our gullets so we can “get on with it.” Eckart Tolle tells about a meal he had with some accomplished professors. They stopped slamming down the food in long enough to make a verbal point, and then resumed their ravenous slurping.

Or, we can be ruminating about the past. Some past hurt that we felt and continue to feel because we bring it up again and again. We can go through a whole meal this way and not taste anything or appreciate the harvest of the earth. Not even appreciate the skill of whoever prepared it. This type of lack of mindfulness can actually bring on heartburn and other digestive issues. We are not at peace while our body is trying to digest food. We are secreting too much acid or not enough acid and we will feel it shortly thereafter.

The Miracle of Mindfulness is the abundant peace we feel instantly when we just stop with all this ruminating and anxiety about the future—or thinking that the future is better than right now. When we eat mindfully, we are not so intent on filling up the empty hole that we feel. This can help with weight management, because we are not just flinging food down our throats because we feel so empty inside. We don’t run to food for comfort because our mind is quiet enough when we are fully in the Now.

Eating mindfully means tasting each bite. Appreciating the flavors. Feeling gratitude for everyone and everything that made this food possible. It means slowing down and experiencing all the textures, flavors, aromas, and the vibrations of care and love with which they were combined and prepared. This is gratitude for what basically sustains us. It is living with appreciation and attentiveness. The future is not going to bring anything better than right now. And so we are in a state of bliss as we pay attention to the present moment.

What are some of the pitfalls that people often fall into while pursuing enlightenment?

12/23/2022

One of the greatest pitfalls in pursuing enlightenment is in the word “pursuing” itself. For in pursuing, we are always in the act of trying to get there. Enlightened existence is being acutely present in the here and now. It is not about something in the future that we need to strive for but may never achieve.
Many people, if we think of enlightenment at all, see it as an end state. We’ve finally arrived after so much time of practice. It is something that once achieved, is done permanently and we’ve reached at the end; the destination. And if we practice certain methods, we will be enlightened too.

In India I saw sadhus who stood on one leg for the majority of their lives, or stood with one arm permanently raised to hasten their enlightenment. I witnessed all kinds of self-punishing practices that were supposedly the ticket to getting off the wheel of death and rebirth. I saw all manner of deprivations, including the naked nagas, up in the sub-zero temperatures of the Himalayas. One one level it is admirable to show sincerity and deep desire to be free. Yet, on another level, it is very body-centered and unnecessary for attaining the deep peace of really living in the present moment.

People also see enlightenment as a state in which all our problems are permanently solved and we will never feel pain, fear, or suffering again. And so we will sit in the lotus position for twelve hours a day, chanting, thinking that this state will bring us into emotional. freedom. The more difficult the positions and practices, supposedly the better. It sometimes becomes a situation of spiritual one-upmanship. “I sat and chanted for 18 hours straight.” “Really? Well, I did it for 20 hours!”

All this self-immolation and punishment centers on the idea that we can bribe the Universe through certain acts and we will finally feel safe. That’s not what enlightenment is. Enlightenment cannot be defined in one sentence but it is about being conscious, in the present moment of the beauty and grandeur of the Universal energy at the core of everything that is physical and non-physical. Enlightenment is about living in the Now, and taming the wild monkey mind that anxiously hurls into the future or depressingly focuses on past hurts and failures.

Therefore, people can carry on with their entertainments according to the cultures in which they were indoctrinated—this is holy, this isn’t, this will lead to enlightenment, this won’t—but it has nothing to do being in a state of Now-ness no matter what we are doing or not doing. If we think that doing something now is going to bring us enlightenment in the future, we are missing the point altogether. We chastise ourselves for not meditating enough or properly and feel like failures because “everyone else seems to be able to do it.”

Pursuing enlightenment has become a tourist industry, with people going to far-flung regions to take ayahuasca or visit remote temples to make sacrifices. That may make people feel they are doing something to achieve enlightenment, but usually it wears off and they are back to their anxieties and self-doubts, self-comparisons, and hoping one day they will “arrive.” Enlightenment is not a state at which you arrive and it’s all free sailing from then on.

It is a constantly evolving deepening that we cannot influence through trade-offs, public display of spirituality, or wishful thinking. While we are in the physical, we will all feel pain and suffering. Enlightenment is not about pain-free euphoria. People have been trying for that for centuries and it has worked its way into major opioid epidemics. Being in a drugged-out trance in hopes of escaping the ups and downs of life is not enlightenment, though it masquerades as such.

No, pain is still there, no matter how enlightened any human is. But it hinges on how we view pain. How we hold it in our consciousness that makes the difference between enlightenment and mere suppression. Suppression is like holding our hands over a child’s mouth so she won’t cry—instead of alleviating her pain. Enlightenment is holding the pain in a state of presence, understanding that “this too shall pass,” It is also understanding that no one in the physical form is exempt from suffering, therefore, not taking pain personally—as if we are singled out to be picked on because of something we did or didn’t do.

How does Thich Nhat Hanh's work differ from that of other mindfulness teachers?

11/15/2022

Thich Nhat Hanh’s message is the same of all the great spiritual masters of all time. He quotes the Buddha, Jesus Christ, and others. And his message is to find the peace of the Soul within and discover a path out of the whirlwind mind and its fearful, angry, and upset states.

To do this, he offers simple and nature-based meditations that allow us to gently return to the groundedness of the Now. His meditations are refreshing poems and tributes to all of nature: Flowers, trees, mountains, rivers, and oceans. So it is not his message, but the way he communicates it that makes Thich Nhat Hanh unique.

All mindfulness teachers have their favorite practices, from fire walking to exercises in letting go. Hanh doesn’t favor one way of achieving peace in the present moment. He goes back to the very basics. Breathing and walking.

We are a culture of shallow breathers and are barely conscious of the most primary act that keeps us alive. Hahn tells us to pay attention to the in-breath. Pay attention to the out-breath. They are different. Just sit still and breath, separating the two and even remarking, “This is my in-breath. This is my out-breath.” Just this practice clears away the cobwebs of endless old thoughts and well as clearing the path for new creative ideas. Because while we are paying attention to the breath, our mind doesn’t have room for other thoughts.

Walking is another very simple modality that Hahn uses as a tool for centeredness and being in the Now. Most people walk to get somewhere. They are impatient. The future is more important than the present. They are in a rush and the present moment is standing in the way of “getting there.” Thich Nhat Hahn says, “Take each step as is you have arrived.” Stop running. You have arrived home. In the Now.

It is the way he expresses himself that is impactful and different from others. He defines mindfulness as “The energy of being aware and awake to the present moment.” And he gives us the tools to allow this energy flow to enter our lives and bring us inner peace.

Here is part of one of his poems on walking:

“Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Print on Earth your love and happiness.
Earth will be safe
when we feel in us enough safety.”

How does Zen help us deal with suffering and hardship?

11/13/2022

Thich Nhat Hanh, the great Zen master, says this:

“The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don’t wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.”

He is not saying that people don’t suffer. In fact, one of the fundamental observations of Buddhism is: Desire for and craving pleasure, material goods, and immortality is the root cause of all suffering. These desires are all wants that can never be satisfied. As a result, desiring them can only bring suffering.

Suffering means that we do not like what is happening in the present moment. We are not satisfied with it. It brings us emotional pain. Suffering is emotional and is a choice. Pain is inevitable and sometimes even a blessing when it lets us know that we need to take care of the issue. But suffering is chewing over in our minds the fears and anxieties that are merely add-ons and don’t help us at all.

He’s saying suffering may be a strong pull for us. We may want to wallow in it. And bask in feeling sorry for ourselves. We can ask, “Why me?”, as if this is something personal the Universe is inflicting on us, when we feel entitled to be happy every moment of the day and night. And furthermore, we never want our bodies to die. But because we know these bodies will go, we can’t allow ourselves to be happy because we will all end in death anyway.

Hanh says, stop this miserable cycle of anxiety. Don’t put off your happiness until the day when everything is picture perfect and your body won’t die. Be happy now. Even if your toe hurts and you just bit your tongue. Experience the pain fully and when it is divorced from suffering, it is just one more strong physical sensation.

Zen’s primary focus in on mindfulness in the present moment. It is not about the wild hurricane of the whirlwind mind. It is finding peace in every minute, joy in the kernel of timelessness, and gratitude for it. Suffering gets transmuted, through this awareness, into a profound revelation of perfection right now.

Can you explain the concept of "mindfulness" as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh?

11/13/2022

The moment we awake from sleep, our minds begin their whirlwind of thoughts about the future: I need to do this and that, I need to meet or avoid certain people, I’m hungry, my leg hurts, maybe I should see a doctor. But the last doctor I saw didn’t help. Now what should I do? It took so long to get my last appointment with that doctor. No we are going back into the past, remembering the unpleasant. Then we switch to the future, fearing what will happen if we don’t get it taken care of. We fear it will only get worse.

This is just one example of how our minds run away with us, as we toggle from future to past and past to future. Meanwhile, we are not experiencing the fullness of our present moment, which is all we really have. The past is gone. The present hasn’t happened yet. All we truly have is the now. And if we don’t allow ourselves to experience and pay attention to the now, in all its peace and completeness, we will be dragged around by our minds into a state of anxiety, fear, regret, despair, and unease.

And this is just the start of the day. Instead of waking up and looking at the new dawn, feeling the joy of being alive, feeling appreciation for life and love, being fascinated with how perfect it all is, we need to fix things. We need to get on with the next project, we are bored, restless, or reluctant even to wake up as we face the drudgery and difficulties ahead.

Thich Nhat Hanh steers us away from this unhappy way of living. He says:

“If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future—and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.”

We are not really living when we are rushing off to the next thing and seeing the present moment as an encumbrance that we need to get through somehow. The present moment becomes something we must survive so we can get to the next thing that we must survive. It is a pointless and completely miserable way to live: Let’s get on with it so we can rush to the next thing we need to get on with. Instead, Thich Nhat Hanh says:

“When you walk, arrive with every step. That is walking meditation. There’s nothing else to it.”

Now we are at one with our body and its movement, each step, the earth, and the freedom of present moment awareness. We are not dragged down by the sorrows of the past or the fears about the future. We are mindfully walking, one step at a time, and being happy with that one step. Focussing our attention on that one step. In that mindful step is the key to our freedom from the churning of the mind. There is no place to go. We have already arrived.

What is the connection between Martin Heidegger's philosophy and Buddhism (especially Zen)?

10/23/2022

Martin Heidegger’s philosophy is deep and complex, and yet he makes statements that are simple and Zen-like. Zen is accepting things as they are and not fighting the flow. This includes the Zen approach to death, which is Life and Death are one. It is a continuum. There is no dividing line between them. As in the world of form, there is actually no dividing line between anything, there only seems to be to our perceptions. Everything interacts as part of a cosmic dance of chemicals, atoms, and non-physical elements. All is one underneath it all.
Heidegger made this statement:

"If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself.”

He is saying that our fear of death and our craving to “make something” out of our lives puts us on a hamster wheel of tasks and to-do lists that never end but don’t lead to peace, joy, or understanding of our true selves. Instead of being in denial about our own physical death, if we face that it is inevitable, we won’t scramble around living life on the surface. It’s like the Kamikaze fighter who crashed his plane but didn’t die. He expected to. die And when he survived he felt renewed, as if he saw life and all its glory for the first time.

Heidegger also said, “Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.” He is saying that we are more than the physical bodies, which, like snowflakes are all individual but form the totality of the snowfield. Or like raindrops falling into the ocean. The individuality disappears, once we cross over into death.

This is Zen-like because of the emphasis, that after all, All is One. We realize that the deepest level of our life, what in Zen is called the "true self," is always here-and-now. This true self, even though here-and-now, is always changing. When we are born we enter the world of change and when we die we enter the world of change. It is always the same yet always changing. If we don’t realize this, we live deluded lives. That is why Heidegger said, “Transcendence constitutes selfhood.”