2008-3-15 05:21:00
This latest round of conflict started when I posted this statement:
"There are several illusions though for he seems to support the Nothingness Philosophy. Fortunately, this is not the main theme he pushes. A seeker can read this or any other book and take what registers with his soul and leave the rest."
Notice I used the word "seems." Other people embracing the Nothingness Philosophy have come on this forum and challenged me and there has been no "seems" about it. These have been died in the wool hard core enter the void promoters.
I used the word "seems" with Tole because he seems to make statements indicating he is into the Nothingness Philosophy, but then he seems to see how the pieces do not fit together and backtracks into more practical teaching and often not resolving the contradictions.
I don't want to spend a lot of time of Tolle's teachings but will give a few things here to let readers know that I just did not jump to a hasty conclusion concerning Eckhart Tolle and the Nothingness Philosophy.
A core teaching of the Nothingness Philosophy is that we came from nothingness and we will return to it and the sooner we return the better. If we raise our consciousness or transcend then we will instantly be in the Eternal Now and have bliss forever.
Now this "Nothingness" is called by many names by its followers. Some call it nothing, the void, the gap, God, or in Tolle's case "the Unmanifest."
He says:
"Before the universe came into being, before the "big bang" if you like, there wasn't a vast empty space waiting to be filled. There was no space, as there was no thing. There was only the Unmanifested."
"The universe will then stop expanding and begin to contract again and finally return to the unmanifested, the inconceivable nothingness out of which it came."
He tells us we must obtain or experience this Unmanifest:
"When you are utterly and totally present, you encounter it as the still inner space of no-mind. Within you, it is vast in depth, not in extension. Spatial extension is ultimately a misperception of infinite depth - an attribute of the one transcendental reality."
"When space and time are realized within as the Unmanifested - no-mind and presence - external space and time continue to exist for you, but they become much less important. The world, too, continues to exist for you, but it will not bind you anymore."
Now my argument with the Nothingness People on this point is that what appears to be nothingness is not nothing but has within it the energy of purpose and the seeds of all there is including duality and billions of monads that evolve into human beings and other forms.
Then he gives the common teaching of that this Nothingness which is our true self does not evolve. We are only to seek a state of Being, not Becoming.
"Consciousness itself is timeless and therefore does not evolve. It was never born and does not die. When consciousness becomes the manifested universe, it appears to be subject to time and to undergo an evolutionary process. No human mind is capable of comprehending fully the reason for this process. But we can glimpse it within ourselves and become a conscious participant in it.
"Consciousness is the intelligence, the organizing principle behind the arising of form. Consciousness has been preparing forms for millions of years so that it can express itself through them in the manifested."
To this I ask, if consciousness does not evolve then why did It create a universe that does change and evolve? If Becoming is not desirable or possible then why create? Let the Unmanifest stay unmanifested.
Another teaching of the Nothingness Philosophy is that the mind is mostly a bad thing that is in the way of enlightenment and needs to be either eliminated or stopped in its tracks.
Tolle says:
"What is the greatest obstacle to experiencing this reality? Identification with your mind, which causes thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it...."
"Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continuous conflict within and without, but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking. What an incredible liberation this is!"
"Thinking has become a disease. ... Then the mind is using you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don't even know that you are its slave."
To this I say that the problem is not thinking, but the lack of thinking. According to DK [Djwhal Khul] only about 10 percent of the population are even capable of true thinking. The rest are only having computer brain activity blended with the emotional desire body. When Tolle describes thinking I see him as really describing this brain emotional interplay and not true thought or pure reason.
It is true that the mind can get in the way of enlightenment through illusion but it can also be a great instrument that takes us toward enlightenment. Remember DK tells us that the "mind is the plane whereon the Masters can be found."
Most of those who think they are at the end of their stay here and experience leaving their mind and have a joyous merging with the Unmanifest are actually having the same experience as the Christian when he is born again. Listen to both of these opposing people tell of their experience and it will sound the same. Instead of higher consciousness, the void or the Unmanifest taking the place of their mind it will be Jesus being born again in their hearts. They will then turn their minds over to Jesus.
This experience is really the first initiation and merely the beginning of a long journey, not the end as both sides believe.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."
-- Anais Nin (1903 - 1977)
Copyright © 2008 by JJ Dewey, All Rights Reserved