03-13-2011, 12:00 AM
I was just talking to a friend about this guy, and came across this description of Tolle's own big breakthough experience. Very interesting!!
Eckhart Tolle's Spiritual Transformation:
The story which I describe briefly in the introduction to the book
is that for many years I lived in a state of great fear and
continuous fluctuation between states of depression and high
anxiety. This was to the point of becoming almost unbearable. One
night I woke up in the middle of the night, as I had many times
before, in a state of even more intense dread and fear. The mind had
lots of reasons why I was feeling fearful, and yet that state was
continuous no matter what my external situation was. It became so
unbearable that suddenly the thought occurred to me, "I cannot live
with myself any longer." That thought was the trigger for a
transformation. The thought kept repeating itself many times in my
head and then suddenly there was a stepping back from the thought
and a looking at the thought. I asked, "Who is the 'I' and who is
the self that I cannot live with?"
In Zen they have koans and it's almost as if a koan spontaneously
appeared in my mind. A koan's purpose is to destroy conceptual
thinking because it has no answer on a conceptual level. So, I
asked, "Who is the self that I cannot live with? Are there one or
two? If I cannot live with my self, who is that self?" And then,
beyond thought, there was a recognition of the "unhappy me," as I
later called it, as being something completely non-substantial and
fictional. Then consciousness withdrew completely from
identification with that "unhappy me." At that moment the whole
structure of the "unhappy me" and its pain collapsed because the
withdrawal of identification was so complete. What was left was
simply beingness or presence. There was still a moment of fear. It
felt like being drawn into a hole within myself, a vast whirlpool,
and a realization arose in my chest, "Resist nothing." That was the
key. Then resistance was relinquished and I don't know what happened
after that.
All I do know is that the next morning I woke up and even before
opening my eyes I heard the sounds of birds and it was so precious;
everything was so precious. Then I opened my eyes and everything was
alive and new and fresh as if I had never seen it before. And I
walked around and picked up things and looked at them. I was amazed
at everything. There was no understanding of it. I was not even
trying to understand anything. It was just so beautiful. Then I
walked around the city in the same state, even in the midst of
traffic. I was in a state of amazement and it was all so beautiful.
Eckhart Tolle's Spiritual Transformation:
The story which I describe briefly in the introduction to the book
is that for many years I lived in a state of great fear and
continuous fluctuation between states of depression and high
anxiety. This was to the point of becoming almost unbearable. One
night I woke up in the middle of the night, as I had many times
before, in a state of even more intense dread and fear. The mind had
lots of reasons why I was feeling fearful, and yet that state was
continuous no matter what my external situation was. It became so
unbearable that suddenly the thought occurred to me, "I cannot live
with myself any longer." That thought was the trigger for a
transformation. The thought kept repeating itself many times in my
head and then suddenly there was a stepping back from the thought
and a looking at the thought. I asked, "Who is the 'I' and who is
the self that I cannot live with?"
In Zen they have koans and it's almost as if a koan spontaneously
appeared in my mind. A koan's purpose is to destroy conceptual
thinking because it has no answer on a conceptual level. So, I
asked, "Who is the self that I cannot live with? Are there one or
two? If I cannot live with my self, who is that self?" And then,
beyond thought, there was a recognition of the "unhappy me," as I
later called it, as being something completely non-substantial and
fictional. Then consciousness withdrew completely from
identification with that "unhappy me." At that moment the whole
structure of the "unhappy me" and its pain collapsed because the
withdrawal of identification was so complete. What was left was
simply beingness or presence. There was still a moment of fear. It
felt like being drawn into a hole within myself, a vast whirlpool,
and a realization arose in my chest, "Resist nothing." That was the
key. Then resistance was relinquished and I don't know what happened
after that.
All I do know is that the next morning I woke up and even before
opening my eyes I heard the sounds of birds and it was so precious;
everything was so precious. Then I opened my eyes and everything was
alive and new and fresh as if I had never seen it before. And I
walked around and picked up things and looked at them. I was amazed
at everything. There was no understanding of it. I was not even
trying to understand anything. It was just so beautiful. Then I
walked around the city in the same state, even in the midst of
traffic. I was in a state of amazement and it was all so beautiful.