Tolle closed his retreat by fielding questions from the audience.  The last question that was asked was the most cogent in my opinion:  “Can a fool achieve enlightenment?”  Tolle rephrased the question to say that “Can someone with limited mental faculties become enlightened?”  He then used the example of Forrest Gump, the fictional character who seemed always to be bumbling into something wondrous without ever knowing it.  Tolle likens this foolish consciousness almost to be equivalent to the enlightened consciousness that is void of ego and self-retribution but that is rather imbued with love, kindness, and compassion.  In many respects, we become like the fool when we become enlightened at least to this world.

Tolle does not mean that we should act foolishly or become a fool.  He only says that in many respects what the world considers foolish, lack of ego and openness, can actually be our own salvation from our woes.  When we achieve this kind of mystical consciousness, we leave our own “pain body” as Tolle calls it and enter a deeper sense of connectedness with the world.  He says that amazingly in the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest always seemed to be at the right time and at the right place.  Doors seemed to open for him without effort.  This could be interpreted as blind luck or in fact as being connected to a divine source so that things just happen for you because you are open to them happening.  When we don’t know we can’t, then we can.  There was a blog that I published several months ago, exhorting all to “Be Child-Like”, a declaration that is often proffered during one of my yoga sessions.  Christ also said for us to be child-like so that we can enter the kingdom of heaven.  When we become open and receptive like a child, nothing is impossible.

Findhorn, Scotland

As all of you know, these blogs are all about increasing our level of consciousness and self awareness.  A quote that I have heard before but do not believe (can’t recall) having written about in the past is Carl Jung’s famous line:  ”A problem cannot be solved by the same consciousness that created it.”  This is definitely one of my favorite quotes of all time.  It helps us understand two things.  One is that many problems that exist are a product of our own mind creation.  It would not be there if we simply had a different, more enlightened perspective.  Secondly, if we work to raise our own level of consciousness we can accomplish both the ending of current problems and limit the emergence of new problems.

Take a family squabble for instance.  Say a brother and sister are bickering all the time about property and money in a family inheritance (fortunately this is not a real situation between my sister and me and do not believe it should ever be one.  it comes from a post that i just read online).  The brother believes he is right because he has earned a certain degree of entitlement from his working a family property.  The sister believes she deserves more because she took care of both elderly parents before their passing.  Both begin to be more negative and vehemently entrenched in their positions.

Obviously, in this situation, greed and power are the level of working consciousness for these two individuals.  When approaching this situation from that vantage nothing will be solved but only magnified.  When we let go of worldly attachments and selfish entitlement, we can have a chance at resolving the situation.  Otherwise the problem will continue to amplify and become a worsening situation.  In the online posting I read, a second brother died from a stroke at 50 due to the family battle.  Our actions oftentimes have considerable collateral damage beyond what we would recognize or choose to recognize.

Tolle’s use of Jung’s quote is a brilliant start point for all of us who are seeking peace, happiness, and love in this life.  If we continue to fill our own cups, we have the opportunity to let that cup spill over to help others.  When our cups are entirely empty, we have nothing to give others.  When our state of consciousness is very low, we have no chance at overcoming our current plight.  Instead we just compound it.  I hope these blogs help you elevate yourself through a mire of pettiness so that we can be worthy lights on this planet.

Findhorn, Scotland

This is a refinement of the idea that we covered in part 2:  ”But… ” We confine ourselves oftentimes to negative thinking and therefore we cannot embrace the moment of now.  We live our lives in a frustrated state of negation.

An example is his colleague and friend went to visit a woman with an advanced stage of cancer in the hospital.  His friend says to the patient, “I do not see a problem.”  Upon hearing that, the patient throws away her covering bedsheets to reveal one leg 2 to 3 times the size of the other and responds, “Is this not a problem?”  The man responds, “Oh, you see that leg being bigger as a problem?”  The patient responds with laughter and realizes how we tend to judge our situation by labeling it as good or bad.  We append our own ideas onto a situation.

Saying yes means embracing the positive in what we have in front of us no matter how bad it might appear to our judgmental, labeling brains.  We need to say yes in life to life and to everything in life.  Shifting our feeling about our situation to one of open, embracive happiness is the first start in our journey toward fulfillment and happiness.

Findhorn, Scotland

We oftentimes live our life in comparison to our neighbor.  My house is bigger.  My car is faster.  My wife is more attractive.  My kids are in better schools.  All of this is illusory and deprives us of our happiness because we are always looking externally for approbation of our work and our life.  If not, then we actually confront the exact same problem even for those who are “spiritual” or even ascetic in life:  ”Look at me ride this bicycle.  I am so much more environmentally friendly than you who are driving that gas-guzzling BMW.”  ”I am superior to you because of my faith even though I don’t want to say that but come on I live a good life.”  ”I do blessed charity work.  What do you do?”  Either way, whatever we do, we need to find some peace so that we are not always doing, comparing, and forcing our own world view to be better than someone else’s.

We have talked about this superiority complex in the remote past.  However, like most things in life, we can learn and benefit from the act of rephrasing and repetition.  Exploring these concepts for me never gets old because they are so vital to my life, and I want them to be part of it so forgive me for any perceived repetition in these blogs.

Another topic that we have covered before in the past is judgment.  We judge others around us because they are found wanting in so many categories:  spiritual absence, too fat, bad taste, uneducated.  Whatever categories we force on to others, we do so because we need to feel apart and better.  Today and hereafter, let go of judgment, superiority, and other false identification with one’s self.  I hate to say this but I am not better than you, and you are not better than I.

Findhorn, Scotland

Tolle’s tranquil Findhorn Retreat locale as pictured in yesterday’s blog is an ideal place for a spiritual retreat.  However, he reports that it is located near a Royal Air Force base that may have screaming jets fly overhead.  It also is plagued with Scottish fog and mist.  He cautions his audience not to declare, “Man, this place would be great only if there were not a base next door.”  ”I wish there were more sunlight.”  ”I could have enjoyed myself this weekend if…”

How often do we enter a situation and it is just not perfect enough for us because…  We are compelled again to condition our happiness with a big BUT!  I love this vacation spot but I would enjoy it so much more if it were not so hot, expensive, sunny, rainy, etc.  We force certain conditions of our situation that must be met for us to be happy.  Too bad we will never find that happiness because there is no perfect situation, place or time.

What is perfect as Tolle preaches is the here and now.  If we live fully in the moment and enjoy where we are and are fully engaged with the now, then we allow these silly “flaws” to vanish and all we see is a radiant present.  Today, enjoy everything about where you are and stop focusing on all the BUTS.

Tolle talks about how in life we are miserable because we are in need of having something only to find that when we attain it our happiness is equally as fleeting.  It reminds me of Oscar Wilde’s famous quote:  ”In this world there are two tragedies.  One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”  How true.  Tolle reveals how badly he wanted to excel in academics only to find when he attained those touted marks he was only happy for a cursory 2 weeks.

The reason that we are always sad is that we are putting a condition on our happiness external to ourselves (which we have talked about before) leading only to certain misery.  ”I will only be happy if…”  ”I know when I find the right person in my life then I shall be happy.”  ”If my career were more fulfilling then I would be happy.”  Really?

We are not a product of our circumstances but a product of our attitude in life.  We choose happiness by allowing ourselves to be there.  When we are not there, it is owing to our choice not to be there.  We will explore this theme further in the following blogs in this series.  Be happy now.

The inner body defines your inner self, what you feel when you are at peace.  Yes, it is a feeling and not a thought.  It is related to the outer body, but it is different.  When we are in tune with our inner body, we enter the present moment fully; we enter the now.

We can start by closing our eyes, then concentrating on our breathing and feeling the breath enter our body without resistance.  We feel the breath transform our inner body and how our body reacts to it.  We are attuned to the present moment and live fully within it.  Our senses are heightened and we are alert to our own self.  

Our inner body is essentially immutable during our lifespan.  We just need to be in tune with it.  As our outer body fails us and ages, our inner body remains a constant.  However, the inner and outer bodies are related.  When we listen to our inner body fully and surrender to it rather than resist it, we actually slow down the aging process and increase our immune system.  When we are at peace with ourselves and we feel it, we are in tune with the present moment and our outer body benefits from this deep surrender.

Surrender is the opposite of resistance.  Resistance is a manifestation of the mind, i.e., when our mind controls our thoughts and our behavior.  Acceptance of our condition is a requisite step.  That does not mean we should permit an unfavorable situation to continue.  However, if we accept it as a fact then we can free ourselves of any labels of negativity or positivity.  We surrender ourselves without resistance and listen to our inner body that gives us true peace.  We find inner joy when we are at peace and not in a state of drama, or fevered anxiety.  Drama comes from being enslaved to the egoic mind.  Surrendering to our inner body and being attuned fully to the present moment frees us and gives us focus and alertness to true consciousness.  Don’t believe me?Try it.  Get into the moment.  Get in tune with yourself.

I really got a lot out of this book and it helped me truly try to enter the moment of now and to relinquish the egoic fears of the future or to be miserable with any past transgressions.  Instead, living in the moment and being in tune with my inner body I achieve a deep sense of peace.

As we escape our ego and pain, we move into the moment of now.  We enter an unbridled and unfiltered joy that can be profound and liberating.  Too often we look at the what instead of the how.  We focus on the end product or result rather than focusing on what we are experiencing now:  the how, the process, the action.  When we get lost into the moment we begin to release the fears of the past and the future and move ourselves fully into the current state.

If we think of how animals behave, they live fully in the moment.  Look at a dog or a cat.  Are they reflecting on their past grievances or worried about tomorrow?  No, they are fully and completely absorbed in their present state.  Even when an animal fights another animal, that skirmish is fleeting and does not linger after the event.  The animal continues on its way.  In fact, the only time that animals have shown the same negative energies that humans possess is when the animal lives in close proximity to humans who are similarly so inclined.  We should learn from animals and how they are simply happy being.  Perhaps if we spend time with an animal and look deeply into his/her eyes, we can see what living in the moment truly feels like.

When adversity should arise, our response to that adversity reflects where our current state of being truly is centered.  When an individual defames or expresses hatred toward us, we let it pass right through us.  We do not even acknowledge or respond to it because it is something that would appeal to the egoic mind and the related pain-body.  When we truly live in the present devoid of ego and body, we do not suffer the slings and arrows of a perceived enemy because we perceive no enemies.  We are free from that individual’s venom.  We are in a different plane of existence being fully ensconced in the present moment.  When adversity strikes you and you remain deeply calm and at peace, you have entered a deeper state of consciousness.  You have entered the now.  It is a great place to be.

This is perhaps one of my favorite ideas that Tolle presents.  Sometimes if we live so far into the current moment, we fear that we are not planning for the future or have goals that we want to set.  Tolle distinguishes between clock time meaning we put a certain event on our calendars or plan to do work tomorrow for a certain project. But setting that time down for clock time should not force us into constantly thinking and worrying about that event, which becomes what he calls psychological time.

Psychological time is how we live with our egoic mind/pain-body in the past (regret, sadness, hate) and our future (fear, anxiety) rather than being fully alive in the current time, right now.  It is living our life unconsciously as he says.  We are living far from a level of consciousness and peace when we fail to leave our mind and live right now.  By living psychologically at another time, we subscribe to many of the negative emotions that grip us, all driven by the egoic mind.

Clock time is not bad if put into context, and it doesn’t have to do just with future events. When we learn from our past mistakes not to repeat them, then we are using clock time.  However, when we sit in deep regret about our past and it begins to color our current perception so that in fact we are living in the past then we are beholden to psychological time.

Living deeply within the framework of the current time allows you to be free of the egoic mind and the related pain-body.  If you truly sense everything around you:  the food you taste, the person you are with, the work you are doing, the music that surrounds you, the breath that you take, you are treating time as one of the most precious of commodities.  We oftentimes think time is so precious so that we must not waste it by planning so and so.  However, by engulfing ourselves in the future, we fail to live in the current and so we therefore waste the most precious of all time, which is now.

Is it not true that the only real time is the now?  Have you ever experienced the past or the future?  Only in your mind perhaps but not in reality.  We can only experience the now.  There is no other time than the present so if we waste that precious time by living in the past or the future, we are truly wasting the most precious part of time, which is the now.

By the way, I was chosen surgeon of the month by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.  For those who are interested, here is the link to the article.  Also, in the next few days, my webmaster is creating several indices for those who would like to easily access past blogs.  This was an excellent request by one of the readers of this blog last week.  Check out the top menu bar of this blog, and you will already see an index by category.  I have asked him to make an index by date and other functional improvements as well.

After understanding that our egoic minds that rule our every moment is the source of our problems, we must then understand the effect that manifests through what Tolle calls the “pain-body”.  He conceives of emotions as being a bodily response to our egoic mind (sounds a bit like Ruiz, huh?).  When our mind thinks a certain thought, our emotion is a bodily response to that thought.  For example, anger is a consequence of our egoic mind thinking that we have been hurt or how we can then return the favor.  Our bodily literally shakes when we allow the mind to transform into the body.  If we are not associated with our mind but leave our mind and our related ego, then we enter a deep consciousness that we discussed yesterday that permits us to then separate us from emotions that may ruin us.  In short, our egoic mind drives our pain-body.

The reason that Tolle talks specifically about one emotion, pain, is that he would like us to escape the deepest negativity which is intimately tied with mind and body.  He says that in Buddhist thought, enlightenment is simply defined as “the end of suffering”.  Understanding that the further that we enter a deep state of consciousness, i.e., by entering deeply into the now and by not engaging in fruitless mind activity, we begin to relinquish the pain-body.

Our egoic minds drive us by fear.  Ultimately, the fear is of our own self-destruction, the most unstated fear is our own death.  For example, we insist on winning an argument and to defeat the other person.  We fear failure.  We do not allow us to be vanquished. Our egoic mind drives all of this emotion and compels us into a state of constant fear.  By living fully in the moment and experiencing the now, we can begin to let go of the fears of the past and the future that drive us.  Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”  What he was essentially saying is when you let go of hate and your own ego, you have no enemies.  You no longer see enemies all around you because you cannot be hurt in that you have freed yourself from the ego and thereby extinguished the pain-body.

Tomorrow we will talk more specifically of how to understand “now” in terms of a universal concept, time.  That is my favorite idea that Tolle has presented.