How aware are you?

We had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with Eckhart Tolle on a retreat in Costa Rica. The theme was Deepening Presence.

While I am clearly not able to convey the essence of such a retreat in one email, I still wanted to share a couple of reflections and provide some questions for your own personal journey.

Many of us have very busy minds. They continuously produce thoughts and these thoughts can bring a couple of undesired implications:

• Many of the thoughts are about the past and nurture anger, frustration about things that should have been different
• Many of the thoughts are about the future and relate to worries, concerns and planning with uncertainty
• The focus of these thoughts on either past or future prevents us from living in the moment and enjoying the moment, respectively life with a sequence of present moments
• But it gets worse: quite frequently we take our thoughts very seriously. We even take them as reality; we end up believing what we think without checking. In that sense our thoughts define our world view; and since many of these thoughts are not predominantly positive, hence our world view is not predominantly positive
• And yes, it gets event worse: our thoughts nurture our ego and our identity. Our thoughts frequently judge and label everything around us. Our ego tends to create enemies and this ultimately disconnects us from others and from the world.
• And all of the above leads to a situation where we continuously listen to our thoughts (or our inner voice, at times even several voices), we believe in our thoughts, we are at the mercy of our thoughts and eventually we act as if the thoughts were true.
• And as a consequence our life is focused on the HAVING and the DOING
• Our thoughts end up being a burden and they stand in the way of stillness, presence and joy - our BEING

Let me share a quote from Eckhart Tolle:

"In fact, the more you make your thoughts (and beliefs) into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself. Many people are stuck at that level. They equate truth with thoughts, and as they are completely identified with thought (their mind), they claim to be in sole possession of the truth in an unconscious attempt to protect their identity.
They don't realize the limitations of thoughts. Unless you believe (and think) exactly as they do, you are wrong in their eyes, and in the not-too-distant past, they would have felt justified in killing you for that. And some still do, even now"

Asked about his greatest achievement in life, Eckart Tolle responded: "that I learned how to stop thinking". And this is his invitation for a purposeful and joyful life: to go into stillness which then allows to live in the present moment. Through stillness we can achieve consciousness which is what we ultimately are when you strip away all our stories, material elements, roots, aspirations, etc. And with our consciousness we are part of the bigger consciousness in the world. He uses the image of the wave and the ocean: all too often we are so focused on trying to be the best possible wave, in fact comparing us to other waves out there. But we miss the fact that we are all part of the bigger ocean, we are all related. He uses another image that I felt compelling: the light of a sun beam. This sun beam is the light, and this ray comes from the sun, in a sense it is the sun.

Being aware and being awake requires that the ego gets out of the way. As long as the ego and its continuous stream of thoughts govern our lives we will not be aware. In order to stop the flow of thoughts Eckhart Tolle suggests a series of practices that can help to be in the present moment in stillness:

• Become aware of your thoughts; let them go by and try not to think
• Yoga and meditation can help
• Try out silent and slow walks or walking meditations
• Relate consciously with people by silently gazing at them; connecting before you let words come in
• Relate consciously with pets; it seems to be easier to directly connect with their essence
• Relate consciously with objects; don't look at them as "means to an end" but explore their essence by holding them, touching them, experiencing them

In that sense consciousness is not something you need to build, it has always been there. However, the ego and the interminable stream of thoughts haven’t allowed you to access it.

As I mentioned above, the retreat took place in Costa Rica. The Ticos (Costa Ricans) greet each other with 'pura vida'; and experiencing its amazing nature, fauna and friendly people gave us a sense of pura vida. The setting was perfect: inspiring teachings, beautiful crowd of people with growing consciousness, pure Costa Rican experience. And yet, I could see that very small events pulled the ego back.
Carolina and I played a round of golf on a fantastic course overlooking the pacific ocean. We both played relatively well for our standards, and then on hole 4 we got into an argument. It was a beautiful par 5 with the Pacific behind the green. Both of us had decent drives and then I felt that Carolina was claiming my ball. Unfortunately we had played the same balls (with the same brand and number). I eventually gave in and let her play ‘my' ball, nevertheless, this brief event spoilt our whole round of golf. At some point I started to play less well, got event more frustrated. And what could have been a wholistic experience in nature with some physical activity together with my beloved wife, turned out into a frustrating one. And all because of a small ball, or because of my ego getting in the way.

Let me leave you some exercises:

• Meet your spouse or a friend and spend some time gazing at each other without speaking. Ask for permission for this exercise first. Become aware of your thoughts, try to connect with the essence of you spouse/friend
• How does it feel to be me? Leave aside history and aspirations, just focus on the here. Who are you on the Being dimension?
• Explore your purpose in a state of stillness and presence. Ideally, you will find your gift to the world that has always been there but was just covered by expectations, socialisation, etc. Once you uncover it there is a fair chance that the manifestation of your purpose will be supported by the universe
• Go and visit Costa Rica and experience ‘pura vida’

Pura vida,

Ekki