Eckhart Tolle

[John]

I had a dream recently where I was walking down the street with Eckhart Tolle and I asked him,

"Eckhart, why is it that your suffering led to your enlightenment? When so many people around the world suffer so much, and it only leads to more suffering, even suicide. Suffering hides from awareness and is only ever the punisher and not the teacher. But for you, it seemed to have some sort of scientific effect on your ego, breaking it down until you could see it for what it is"

I can't remember what he answered in the dream, could anyone help me with this?

Cheers guys.

 

[Flicker_boy]

"no pain no gain kiddo"

[MIARIVEL]

@John Our ego wants things that only make us feel good, things that benefit us, our ego tells us that we are more superior than anyone and everyone else. However if we let our ego get the better of us, we suffer in the long terms because we are blinded by it. We shut off empathy, caring and being open to other and life around us. Ego shuts us off from possibilities and opportunities. 

Our suffering is caused by our own mind, what we choose to focus on and believe and they way we interpret our reality. We have nothing and no one else to blame but ourselves for our own suffering. Suffering is a choice of the mind. 

I think the Buddhist believe that the notion of enlightenment occurs when one has suffered thoroughly, and in turn, managed to transcend this personal suffering. So if you can learn and grow through whatever it is you go through (the hard, painful and challenging times) if you come out the other side a better person because of it, then you will feel 'enlightenment'. Because you have grown, lived and understood what life is about. 

[Mal]

@John

I think Tolle the night of his transformation was really willing to die.  He had enough. Maybe he discovered that one not need actually die in order to discover the peace a suicidal person is looking for?

I had an experience like this myself, where I just let the identity die because I saw that it actually did nothing for me, only caused me problems. It was short lived though, and not a lasting thing, but I got a glimpse of what it means to awaken: Pain happens, but there is nobody there to suffer.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Mal

[Ayla]

@John , I'm obviously not Eckhart, but I can relate to his story.

What is happening is that most of the time, people actually CHOSE pain. Pain, as uncomfortable as it might be, it is the only "safe" ground. If you really sit down and contemplate this, you will see that we are all addicted to pain....until we're not anymore. That is one important side of the story. 

When pain becomes so invasive that it corners you though, the survival instinct kicks in. And at that point, as if you were in front of a tsunami, you run from it, or you will drown. You don't bring suitcases, favorite painting and your mother's last postcard. You just get out of there. Empty handed and naked sometimes. So maybe this analogy will help with the realization that you cannot bring anything from "person-hood" into enlightenment. Nothing at all. Anything you try to grab hold of, will hinder you. The more "stuff" you already have attached to you, the longer the process it will be. This is why for some people who have already worked through emotional pain the process may seem instant and permanent, while for others, a moment of realization is just the beginning of a very long path of "cleansing".

Here's a bit more about this:

Yet another way to look at it is that pain is like a stretcher. Think of a big hand trying to fit into a tight glove. What we don't fully realize is that pain is only there to make that glove big enough so that when dealt with properly, joy will replace it. Joy-hand is just as big as pain-hand. Only joy cannot hurt, so it cannot fit into small glove. Or, better said, your willingness to feel pain is exactly proportional with your capacity to experience joy... 

 

[cetus]

@John " I reached a tipping point, I had no other choice but to either surrender my ego, or spent the rest of my existence under it's torment".

[charlie2dogs]

14 hours ago, John said:

I had a dream recently where I was walking down the street with Eckhart Tolle and I asked him,

"Eckhart, why is it that your suffering led to your enlightenment? When so many people around the world suffer so much, and it only leads to more suffering, even suicide. Suffering hides from awareness and is only ever the punisher and not the teacher. But for you, it seemed to have some sort of scientific effect on your ego, breaking it down until you could see it for what it is"

I can't remember what he answered in the dream, could anyone help me with this?

Cheers guys.

 

if he was enlightened, he would have said this: when you as consciousness evolve to  complete self realization you will experience what is called enlightenment,  now what are you doing to cause this greater awakening, are you playing some religious or newage game of practices, meditations, philosophies, trying all these paths and trying out all the newage teachers and gurus on the net? but going no place, but getting more frustrated because no one seems to understand enlightenment or how to get there.  you are looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing.

[Emm]

He could have said: If you want to get somewhere you are already there. Time/space is infinity. There is no enlightenment happening, I was naive to think so. Nothing happened to me really because i know now i am not Eckhart Tolle. Form can not be in infinity. Don't ask question, you are the answer. You must read my new book. The no enlightenment book. The I book … heuuu sorry The I am book. I am going to get the f planet high … f

 

 

 

 

[Emm]

heuu I am not ?  f

[Guest username]

He said: Buy my books on Amazon, you cheap bastard. 

 

Just kidding

[30secs]

he realized that who is the "I" is perceiving his suffering,  and he concluded that the "I" is the space/void where though exist then one morning he was very happy and fully conscious.  I remember Echart Tolle said, "you just misinterpreted the suffering as bad" . We have different suffering in life, but one thing he precisely said, we just misinterpreted it.!

[Eelco1981]

@John He might, in your dream, have answered something like this: Suffering is the sign that consciousness tries to awake through you. If you live a comfortably life without real problems, you dream on in the illusion. There are two powerful ways to awakening; either have all the money and success in the world and then realize that it did not fulfill you. Then the suffering (awakening) begins. Or the second way: you get depressed by another event. Someone who is depressed is closer to enlightenment than someone that is living a comfortable life.

The awaking takes time. People will die or kill themselves or each other before they awaken. This may take thousands of years. that seems like a long time. But do you know how old the earth is? Then a couple of thousand years is like a second in a human life. By the way, God (awareness, consciousness) is not in a hurry, he will survive anyway. The human kind might not. Is that a bad thing? Only for the human ego. God (awareness, consciousness) does not care much.

[MarcusJ]

@Eelco1981   I have read some peoples awaking to the higher self during extreme stress or near life/death situations.   The common observation from all of them was how "un-empethetic" the higher self was toward there horrible situations.  It appeared as if the higher self was almost being robotic or "cold" about the whole thing.  Do this ...do that... maybe you will survive....and obviously they did.   Your observation?

[Eelco1981]

@MarcusJ I assume you mean awareness/consciousness with 'higher self"? I absolutely don't know. Experiences just happen. Not any experience is wrong or good. Living and dying, happiness and sadness. All experiences. Only to an ego is an experience wrong or good. Awareness does not care, because it has no agenda. It is timeless, it will never die. Only the body and the ego can die. Why should awareness/consciousness care?

[Matthew Lamot]

9 minutes ago, Eelco1981 said:

@MarcusJ I assume you mean awareness/consciousness with 'higher self"? I absolutely don't know. Experiences just happen. Not any experience is wrong or good. Living and dying, happiness and sadness. All experiences. Only to an ego is an experience wrong or good. Awareness does not care, because it has no agenda. It is timeless, it will never die. Only the body and the ego can die. Why should awareness/consciousness care?

The fact of the matter is this:

Once you realize the Self, its is sympathetic toward the Jiva, how can it not be?  It allows the Jiva to be and in the process this liberates the Jiva and heals it.  The Jiva then expresses that freedom through its faculties, but knows deep down that it's depth is not of this world.  Limitless and fearless.

What is being described above sounds like the person is still the person but has a concept that he is awareness.  This is not liberation.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Matthew Lamot

[MarcusJ]

@Matthew Lamot   I agree... the people who reported on this were not initially on the path of awareness.  To them it was just another experience.