Eckhart Tolle Talks About Compassion

Copyright: Janet Cameron


Eckhart Tolle uses the metaphor of a lake to describe compassion and its secret depths. By now, through meditation and relinquishing the negativity of constant mind-chatter, you should have dispensed with those self-inflicted opposites that cause conflict. You are ready to identify with Tolle's lake, for its surface represents the outer situation of your life and all the things that happen to you. This surface may sometimes be calm and sometimes turbulent, depending on the seasons. But deep, deep down, the lake is still and undisturbed, like the deeper recesses of your Being.

Don't Cling - Just Be


Stay in touch with the depths of your Being; don't cling to life situations; trust that your inner peace does not depend on those things. "You abide in Being," says Tolle, "unchanging, timeless, deathless - and you are no longer dependent for fulfilment or happiness on the outer world of constantly fluctuating forms."

While you are in this happy state you may do as you wish with these forms:
·                                 play with them.
·                                 create new forms.
·                                 appreciate their beauty.

The important thing is that you do not become attached and unable to let go of any of this.

Does Detachment Mean Remoteness from Others?


The opposite is true, because if you are not aware of Being, other human realities will not be accessible to you. This is because you would not have found your own reality. Your busy mind will either like or dislike their form, which includes both body and mind. Tolle believes that at the level of Being, "...all suffering is recognized as an illusion." Suffering is identification with form.

Compassion brings about a bond between you and all the creatures of the world. You share with the other creatures our vulnerability and mortality, says Tolle. "One of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called "Die before you die." You must go into this state deeply, so that your physical form begins to dissolve. Yet - you are still there within the divine presence, fully awakened.

Nothing real ever dies. This is your true nature, the other side of compassion, when you recognize your own immortality and the immortality of all other creatures. True compassion for another demands high consciousnesss that is beyond empathy. Tolle quotes the Bible: "The lion shall lie down with the lamb."

Through this special portal of beyondness and Being, you can remove "unconsciousness" from your world and attain true depth of compassion for everything around you.

Sources:

Tolle, Eckhart, The Power of Now, New World Library, U.S.A. 1999.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fifteen Women Philosophers

Image
Follow the link to access my latest book, Fifteen Women Philosophers you should have learned about at school (but probably didn't)  http://www.amazon.com/Fifteen-Philosophers-should-learned-school-ebook/dp/B00MR8OSS8#reader_B00MR8OSS8 Review by Sarah Barton: In her book Ms Cameron gives us interesting insights into the lives of women philosphers of bygone eras who were only too aware of the injustices of living in a world dominated by men. Thinkers like de Gournay and Wollstonecraft were early feminists, demanding that women should have access to education and equality. Wollstonecraft even stated that if men were treated as demi-gods then the inequality would result in women becoming 'cunning, mean and selfish'. Ms Cameron combines a brief biography of each of her candidates with a summary and an analysis of the main thrusts of their arguments, making us wish for more so it is excellent that there is a useful bibliography at the end.  The work of some of these women
Read more

Political Uses of Literature - Italo Calvino on Hidden Motives

Image
Publi Domain Italo Calvino (1923-1985) was born in Cuba and grew up in San Remo, Italy. He fought for the Italian Resistance in WW2 from 1943-1945. In " Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature ," Calvino begins by describing the difficulties for writers in being heard, since even the most sensational and explosive writing can fail to impact on readers, "All is as nothing, like the sound of the wind." Words pose no danger to writer or reader, and those of the poet or writer tend to be swallowed up - unless and until the work is persecuted. When this happens, the true power of literature is disclosed, a challenge to authority. The persecution of literature has a knock-on effect. Whenever writers are persecuted, there must already be restraints on discussion and political thought. Fiction and poetry can fulfil the important role of giving a voice to those deprived on one. Two Wrong Ways of Thinking About the Use of Politics in Literature Calvino pos
Read more

Philosopher Louis de Jancourt - How to Become an Enlightened Writer

Image
Public Domain Wikimedia Commons Louis de Jaucourt, (1704-1779) was a great scholar of the Enlightenment, born in Paris, who studied theology in Geneva. He  influenced his readers by his intelligent use of language and metaphor, and by inviting their complicity through sound psychological processes. Overcoming the Loss of a Manuscript Today, we are lucky as there is a degree of safety in storing our work online. It might be plagiarised but it is unlikely to be lost. It wasn't so in times past. The saddest thing about this great man's life was that he worked for twenty years to produce a work of six volumes on Anatomy, but the ship carrying his manuscript sank on its way to Amsterdam, and his labours were entirely lost.  Yet, undeterred, he went on to contribute more articles to the Encyclopédie than any other writer, and he did this voluntarily. He was already wealthy so he was willing to participate without payment. He wasn't as well-known or
Read more