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 do you know you are an immortal individual infinitely aware spiritual being?

5/5/2023

Practical knowledge can change through the years and is based on experimentation, observation, facts, information, and skills acquired through education. Spiritual knowledge is based on awareness and individual experience of another energy field, often unavailable to the physical senses.

And so we really can’t “know” that we are immortal individual infinitely aware spiritual beings. We can only experience this vibrational field. We cannot find this in books or talks. Others can point the way through these methods, but we have to have the direct experience of this infinite awareness to be the “knower” of this state of consciousness.

This state of awareness comes through many ways but the easiest for me is experiencing the peace of being in the present moment, the joy of a loving heart, and gratitude and wonderment at the mystery of life. It is not something to know and say, “I’ve got it all solved and I know it.”

Hidebound knowledge is based on the past. It is established. We know something to be true because other people told us so and wrote it in books. Knowledge has the quality of being written in stone. It is not considered to be a fluid, changing thing. Yet we can still find many cases of “facts” that were thought to be common knowledge and now are completely debunked. For example, at one time we “knew” that the earth was the center of the universe, that the earth was flat, and that bloodletting of already weak and sickly patients was a cure-all for what ailed them.

As De Bruin says, “… the human mind is loyal to what it has known and used for a longer period, even when confronted with the incorrectness of that knowledge.”

Fluid, cosmic knowledge (in this case awareness) changes, grows, and is not confined to the past. It is experienced now. When that awareness comes to us, we are the Knower of The Now. We are the watcher. It is something we can only hint about. It is difficult to express through language and is not subject to debate about whether we are right or wrong. Ultimately, we feel it in our heart and gut and it has very little to do with the human mind except as a means of communication.

Plato said that all souls are eternal and indestructible. Do you agree?

5/4/2023

I agree with Plato that Soul is, by definition, eternal and indestructible. Bodies and minds come and go. Everything physical withers away and dies, from the tiniest one-celled animal to the whale. Mountains turn into grains of sand on the beach, worn away by time and weather. And deep rivers have dried up into canyons.

Only one thing is eternal—the fundamental Energy of the Universe, which never had a beginning and has no ending. It always was and always will be. It takes many, many forms, but always originates from the One Eternal Source. That is also true about the Soul because it is through our Soul that we partake of the Universe. It participates in us and we participate in it. But most of us don’t recognize the, because we are run by the mind-stream of endless thoughts, fears, and regrets.

Yet deep within each of us, we know that the Soul we were when we are eleven years old is still the Soul we are now. And when we meet someone who is on the same vibrational level as our Soul, we feel a spiritual reaction. Our Souls are tuned into each other. We inherently know that there is something within us and surrounding us that can never die or be destroyed and we feel it in this connection too. It is in a state of growth and freedom, like the expanding Universe itself.

Plato understood that the Great One Source Energy is the fountain of all that is. And that within each of us, regardless of our individual characteristics, is Divine Consciousness. It’s just a matter of how much are we allowing into our fields of recognition and how much of it we are uncovering. For it is all there, like a lightbulb covered over with duct tape. Take away the layers of the obscuring tape and you will find the eternal light of the Soul within.

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.

What are some reasons why the book "The Awakening of Intelligence" by J. Krishnamurti is highly regarded?

4/27/2023

I am glad to hear that J. Krishnamurti’s The Awakening of Intelligence is highly regarded. For I was under the impression that people have moved on to more spectacular gurus, that offer more entertainment.

Krishamurti was serious about understanding what is really holy about life and all its permutations. He wasn’t about ceremonies, dancing and writhing around in ecstasy, and putting on a dramatic display of how “enlightened” we are. He was more like what Jesus said when someone asked him how to pray. He wasn’t for the big public grandstanding of the ego, showing how religious one is and how one is going to “heaven.” He said,

“When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
—Matthew 6:5-6

Krishnamurti is about the inward journey towards finding out what is really true for us. Not what others tell us, not what we believe because we were brought up that way, and not because it is a trendy lifestyle to be caught up in Bikram yoga and Osho’s sexual pyrotechnics because we are lost and lonely.

I am not surprised that Krishanmurti has stood the test of time. I am just surprised that in this period of mass amusement, passing as spirituality, that he would be embraced at all. He is not kidding and he is not nice. He outright tells us to look within and find the wisdom that resides in silence and stillness. It’s not effortful. It’s a quiet space that discards all the trapping of what everyone else tells us is “the Truth.”

What is the relationship between depression and spiritual awareness? Does being spiritually awakened help depressives cope with their condition?

4/4/2023

Simply put, depression is lack of spiritual awareness. Depression is being lost in the quagmire of the ego-mind, the “little me,” and not seeing a way out. It is endless hopelessness and anger turned inward. It is being upset, anxious, and sluggish, lacking in energy. And it is being dragged along by a fearful mind that is bent on survival above anything else, including happiness.

This is because the ego-mind and it’s constant babble shuts out the spiritual vibrational fields that bring inner peace, comfort, joy, and appreciation of all the beauty around us. It focusses on “what’s wrong with this picture?”, finding a flaw in everything and then zoning in on that flaw. This includes finding fault with ourselves, others, and with the world. Of course, at one time this enabled us to survive and rise to the top of the food chain. But now, like the appendix, it is a useless function that causes more harm than good.

Spiritual awareness, which is tuning into another level of vibration and being receptive to it, is the only way out of depression. People have tried drugs for centuries but they are only a quick fix. They usually need augmentation as the ego-mind finds its ways around them (like a fox trying to get into a henhouse). They also do not build coping skills. Some drugs have opened peoples’ consciousness to non-physical realms but they are also only a temporary doorway.

Tuning into the underlying Source Energy of the Universe brings us into an awareness that we are more than our rambunctious minds. We are not so apt to be carried away by the “little me” and it’s perpetual worries. When we allow the natural well-being of All That Is permeate us we are actually harnessing that energy and we can freely flow with life now. We are not stuck in the past and we are not worried over the future because we live in Eternity. This is the only lasting source of happiness, joy, and excitement about being alive. We step back from the mind and all its anxiety and depressive tendencies and allow ourselves to experience eternity, space, freedom and move into the vibrational space of Spirit.

Spiritual awareness needs practice to get there for most people. It’s worth it to find our way to emotional freedom and joy. All other methods, including talk therapy and drugs have been enormous failures, with a few individual exceptions. Also, I am not vilifying our thinking apparatus, the miraculous mind that is capable of creativity, problem-solving, and communication. That aspect of the mind is in keeping with the miracles of the Universe. Being in contact with Source Energy sharpens those aspects of our thinking because we are not giving so much attention to turmoil and unhappiness.

Spiritual awareness also helps people who have chemical or neurological brain imbalances. For they are able to recognize the tricks of depressive thinking. They begin to see how the fretful mind works and are able to put it in its place. They learn to watch their thoughts and even laugh at them, instead of being dragged down into the quicksand. It takes skill and training to do this when we have depressive tendencies. But it’s worth it to uncover the shining light that has always been there: Our Eternal Soul.

What is your opinion of Baghwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho)? Do you think he was a real spiritual leader or simply a psychological trickster? What is your personal experience with him/it?

3/2/2023

I was in India when Rajneesh, or Osho, was ordered to leave. The government had opened investigations into multiple allegations of criminal behavior in connection to Osho. These included charges related to Osho-sanctioned prostitution, international drug trafficking, gold smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion. It affected me because I had loved his earlier writings and felt he was pandering to the undisciplined party atmosphere Americans and some Europeans desired.

Ordered by the government, Osho had to pay back taxes, a major blow to his reputation that greatly angered the Rajneeshees. In 1981, the year he left for Oregon from India, more criminality took place. Referred to as one of the most terrible cases of a bio-terrorism attack in America, Osho’s followers reportedly poisoned half Wasco’s county’s voters (in an attempt to take over the county) by pouring or spraying Salmonella-tainted liquid on salad bars of ten popular restaurants. A total of 751 people were affected by the poisoning and hospital beds were full of patients in critical condition.

Obviously, there is nothing spiritual about killing people, or trying to kill people for the sake of power. Also, Osho’s goal of having 365 Rolls Royces for every day of the year did not denote a life of simplicity in the guru lineage. Furthermore, Osho’s ruthless deputy Sheela attempted to have his physician, Dr. Andrews, killed, ordering an accomplice to poison him with a shot of adrenaline to the buttocks. By this time, Osho was a regular Nitrous Oxide user (administered by Dr. Andrews) and it wouldn’t have looked good if word got out about this addiction.

Finally, for spiritual enlightenment or awakening, we don’t need to go into extended periods of ecstatic dance and indiscriminate sex to get there. This appealed to Americans, who wanted to party hearty and still have the trappings of spirtuality. Osho’s theory is that we must overcome our inhibitions to get into the deeper layers of our consciousness. But sitting quietly and centering on the Higher Self through conscious breathing is a much more effective method and truer to the yogic path. All that sweaty dancing around and orgiastic behavior may be fun, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with understanding the non-dual aspects of the Universe.

Hatred, killing, poisoning, and sexual exploitation are the paths to chaos, not to any kind of spiritual realization. At one time Osho spoke beautifully of love and I admired his way of expressing eternal truths.

“Love is a spiritual experience – nothing to do with sexes and nothing to do with bodies, but something to do with the innermost being.”

“I teach you to be more conscious. And love will come as you become more conscious: it is a guest that comes, that comes inevitably to those who are ready and prepared to receive it.”

But somewhere along the line, he got twisted, as so many “gurus” have. It then became all about ego, greed, power, sexual exploitation, addiction, and destruction. Osho’s ego-mind overcame and counterbalanced all the good he brought to the spirit-based life he had passionately proposed in his early practice.

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 are your thoughts on "The Secret"? Have you tried any of the techniques it teaches? Do you think it can actually help someone be successful and happy in life?

2/13/2023

“The Secret” is based on the works of Abraham Hicks, who originated the term “Law of Attraction.” However, as “The Secret” is as old as human consciousness, it’s been around for a long time. The Secret popularizes it by presenting it in a flash-cut documentary style that can appeal to the masses who want entertainment.

And so, The Secret is pitched as something that will make your physical life successful and happy. You can get all the goodies and fun experiences you want by just employing this immutable law: Like attracts like. If you put out enough good vibrations, all the great stuff will come to you and you’ve won the game of life!

But what the Law of Attraction is really about is the inner journey of depth and spiritual understanding. It’s not about “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Yes, all good things are possible for us on the physical plane. Yet we must acknowledge that on the physical plane, it all goes away, dies, decays, goes out of fashion, or ultimately becomes another problem. “The Secret” does not make this distinction.

When we experience life from depth and inner being, even if we live in a simple room and find our entertainment in nature, which is free, we are rich. We don’t need all the stuff—The Monster Buses, the cruises, tons of excess money, tons of excess everything that needs maintenance and protection. And so The Secret has been twisted around by our culture of accumulation and outward displays of wealth, relying on magical thinking and formulas that are akin to the incantations of our primitive ancestors.

I have found that in my own life, the Law of Attraction works. Because when we are attuned to the beauty of life, we are also awake to the opportunities to use the talents we are channeling from the Source Energy of the Universe. And we stay out of our own way. But to use the Law of Attraction for our ego’s gratification or to blindly acquire stuff that makes us feel secure because we have not done the inner work, is another misguided quick fix.