"A New Earth" by Eckht Tolle

"A NEW EARTH"

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Uploaded by petaderfler on Aug 25, 2011

A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life´s Purpose
Class number 1 from 4th March 2008 with Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle

Astronomers have discovered evidence to suggest that the universe came into existence fifteen billion years ago in a gigantic explosion and has been expanding ever since. Not only has it been expanding, but it is also growing in complexity and becoming more and more differentiated. Some scientists also postulate that this movement from unity to multiplicity will eventually become reversed. 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 – and perhaps repeat the cycles of birth, expansion, contraction, and death again and again. 

For what purpose? “Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?” asks physicist Stephen Hawking, realizing at the same time that no mathematical model could ever supply the answer.

If you look within rather than only without, however, you discover that you have an inner and an outer purpose, and since you are a microcosmic  reflection of the macrocosm, it follows that the universe too has an inner and outer purpose inseparable from yours. The outer purpose of the universe is to create form and experience the interaction of forms – the play, the dream, the drama, or whatever you choose to call it. Its inner purpose is to awaken to its formless essence. Then comes the reconciliation of outer and inner purpose:to bring that essence – consciousness – into the world of form and thereby transform the world. 

The ultimate purpose of that transformation goes far beyond anything the human mind can imagine or comprehend. And yet, on this planet at this time, that transformation is the task allotted us. That is the reconciliation of outer and inner purpose, the reconciliation of the world and God.

Before we look at what relevance the expansion and contraction of the universe has to your own life, we need to bear in mind here that nothing we say about the nature of the universe should be taken as an absolute truth. Neither concepts nor mathematical formulae can explain the infinite. No thought can encapsulate the vastness of the totality. Reality is a unified whole, but thought cuts it up into fragments. This gives rise to fundamental misperceptions., for example, that there are separate things and events, or that this is the cause of that. 

Every thought implies a perspective, and every perspective, by its very nature, implies limitation, which ultimately means that it is not true, at least not absolutely. only the whole is true, but the whole cannot be spoken or thought. Seen from beyond the limitations of thinking and therefore incomprehensible to the human mind, everything is happening now. All that ever has been or will be is now, outside of time, which is a mental construct.

As an illustration of relative and absolute truth, consider the sunrise and sunset. when we say the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, that is true but only relatively. In absolute terms, it is false. only from the limited perspective of an observer on or near the planet's surface does the sun rise and set. If you were far out in space, you would see that the sun neither rises nor sets, but that it shines continuously. And yet, even after realizing that, we can continue to speak of the sunrise or sunset, still see its beauty paint it, write poems about it, even though we now know that it is a relative rather than an absolute truth.

So let us continue to speak for a moment of another relative truth: the coming into form of the universe and its return to the formless, which implies the limited perspective of time, and see what relevance this has to your own life. The notion of “my own life” is, of course, another limited perspective created by thought, another relative truth. There is ultimately no such thing as “your” life, since you and life are not two, but one.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF YOUR LIFE

The coming into manifestation of the world as well as its return to the unmanifested – its expansion and contraction – are two universal movements that we could call the outgoing and the return home. Those two movements are reflected through the universe in many ways, such as in the incessant expansion and contraction of your heart, as well as in the inhalation and exhalation of your breath. They are also reflected in the cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Each night, without knowing it, you return to the unmanifested Source of all life when you enter the stage of deep, dreamless sleep, and then reemerge again in the morning, replenished.

Those two movements, the outgoing and the return are also reflected in each person's life cycles. Out of nowhere, so to speak, “you” suddenly appear in this world. Birth is followed by expansion. There is not only physical growth, but also growth of knowledge, activities, possessions, experiences. Your sphere of influence expands and life becomes increasingly complex. This is a time when you are mainly concerned with finding or the ego, which is identification with all the above things, and so your form identity becomes more and more defined. This is also the time when outer purpose – growth – tends to become usurped by the ego, which unlike nature does not know when to stop in its pursuit of expansion and has a voracious appetite for more.

And then just when you thought you made it or that you belong here,  the return movement begins. Perhaps people close to you begin to die, people who were a part of your world. Then your physical form weakens; your sphere of influence shrinks. Instead of becoming more, you now become less, and the ego reacts to this with increasing anxiety or depression.  Your world is beginning to contract, ad you may find you are not in control anymore. Instead of acting upon life, life now acts upon you by slowly reducing your world. The consciousness that identified with form is now experiencing the sunset, the dissolution of form. And then one day, you too disappear. Your armchair is still there. But instead of you sitting in it, there is just an empty space. You went back to where you came from just a few years ago.

Each person's life – each lifeform, in fact – represents a world, a unique way in which the universe experiences itself. And when your form dissolves, a world comes to an end – one of countless worlds.

AWAKENING AND THE RETURN MOVEMENT

The return movement in a person's life, the weakening or dissolution of form, whether through old age, illness, disability, loss, or some kind of personal tragedy, carries great potential for spiritual awakening – the disidentification of consciousness from form. Since there is very little spiritual truth in our contemporary culture, not many people recognize this as an opportunity, and so when it happens to them or to someone close to them, they think there is something dreadfully wrong, something that should not be happening.  There is in our civilization a great deal of ignorance about the human condition, and the more spiritually ignorant you are, the more you suffer. 

For many people, particularly in the West, death is no more than an abstract concept, and so they have no idea what happens to the human form when it approaches dissolution. Most decrepit and old people are shut away in nursing homes. Dead bodies, which in some older cultures are on open display for all to see, are hidden away. Try to see a dead body, and you will find that it is virtually illegal, except if the deceased is a close family member. In funeral homes, they even apply makeup to the face. You are only allowed to see a sanitized version of death.

Since death is only an abstract concept to them, most people are totally unprepared for the dissolution of form that awaits them. when it approaches, there is shock, incomprehension, despair, and great fear.  Nothing makes sense anymore, because all the meaning and purpose that life had for them was associated with accumulating, succeeding, building, protecting, and sense gratification. It was associated with the outward movement and identification with form, that is to say, ego. Most people cannot conceive of any meaning when their life, their world, is being demolished. And yet, potentially, there is even deeper meaning here than in the outward movement.

It is precisely though the onset of old age, through loss or personal tragedy, that the spiritual dimension would traditionally come into people's lives. This is to say, their inner purpose would emerge only as their outer purpose collapsed and the shell of the ego would begin to crack open. Such events represent the beginning of the return movement toward the dissolution of form. In most ancient cultures, there must have been an intuitive understanding of this process, which is why old people were respected and revered. They were the repositories of wisdom and provided the dimension of depth without which no civilization can survive for long. In our civilization, which is totally identified with the outer and ignorant of the inner dimension of spirit, the word old has mainly negative connotations. It equals useless and so we regard it as almost an insult to refer to someone as old. To avoid the word, we use euphemisms such as elderly and senior. 

The First Nation's “grandmother” is a figure of great dignity. Today's “granny” is at best cute. Why is old considered useless? Because in old age, the emphasis shifts from doing to Being, and our civilization, which is lost in doing, knows nothing of Being. It asks: being? What do you do with it?

In some people, the outward movement of growth and expansion gets severely disrupted by a seemingly premature onset of the return movement, the dissolving of form. In some cases, it is a temporary disruption; in others a permanent one. We believe that a young child should not have to face death, but the fact is that some children do have to face the death of one or both parents through illness or accident – or even the possibility of their own death. 

Some children are born with disabilities that severely restrict the natural expansion of their lives. Or some severe limitation comes into a person's life at a relatively young age.  The disruption of the outward movement at a time when it is “not meant to be happening” can also potentially bring forth an early spiritual awakening n a person. Ultimately, nothing happens that is not meant to happen, which is to say, nothing happens that is not part of the greater whole and its purpose. Thus, destruction or disruption of outer purpose can lead to finding your inner purpose and subsequently the arising of a deeper outer purpose that is aligned with the inner. 

Children who have suffered greatly often grow into young adults who are mature beyond their years. What is lost on the level of form is gained on the level of essence. In the traditional figure of the “blind seer” or the “wounded healer” of ancient cultures and legend, some great loss or disability on the level of form has become an opening into spirit. When you have had a direct experience of the unstable nature of all forms, you will likely never overvalue form again and thus lose yourself by blindly pursuing it or attaching yourself to it.  

The opportunity that the dissolution of form, and in particular, old age, represents is only just beginning to be recognized in our contemporary culture. In the majority of people, that opportunity is stile tragically missed, because the ego identifies with the return movement just as it identified with the outward movement. This results in a hardening of the egoic shell, a contraction rather than an opening. The diminished ego then spends the rest of its days whining or complaining , trapped in fear or anger, selfpity, guilt, blame, or other negative mentalemotional states or avoidance strategies, such as attachment to memories and thinking and talking about the past.

When the ego is no longer identified with the return movement in a person's life, old age or approaching death becomes what it is meant to be:  an opening into the realm of spirit. I have met old people who were living embodiments of this process. They had become radiant. Their weakening forms had become transparent to the light of consciousness.

On the new earth, old age will be universally recognized and highly valued as a time for the flowering of consciousness. For those who are still lost in the outer circumstances of their lies, it will be a time of a late  homecoming when they awaken to their inner purpose. For many others, it will represent an intensification and a culmination of the awakening process.

AWAKENING AND THE OUTGOING MOVEMENT

The natural expansion of one's life that comes with the outward movement has traditionally been usurped by the ego and used for its own expansion. “Look what I can do. I bet you can't do that,”says the small child to another as he discovers the increasing strength and abilities of his body.  That is one of the ego's first attempts to enhance itself through identification with the outward movement and the concept of “more than you” and to strengthen itself by diminishing others. It is, of course, only the beginning of the ego's many misperceptions.

However, as your awareness increases and the ego is no longer running your life, you don't have to wait for your world to shrink or collapse trough old age or personal tragedy in order for you to awaken to your inner purpose.

As the new consciousness is beginning to emerge on the planet an increasing number of people no longer need to be shaken to have an awakening. They embrace the awakening process voluntarily even while still engaged in the outward cycle of growth and expansion. When that cycle is no longer usurped by the ego, the spiritual dimension will come into this world through the outward movement – thought, speech, action, creation – as powerfully as through the return movement – stillness, Being, and dissolution of form.

Until now, human intelligence, which is no more than a minute aspect of universal intelligence, has been distorted and misused by the ego. I call that “intelligence n the service of madness.” Splitting the atom requires great intelligence.  Using that intelligence for building and stockpiling atom bombs is insane or at best extremely unintelligent. Stupidity is relatively harmless, but intelligent stupidity is highly dangerous. 

This intelligent stupidity, for which one could find countless obvious examples, is threatening our survival as a species.

Without he impairment of egoic dysfunction, our intelligence comes into full alignment with the outgoing cycle of universal intelligence and itsimpulse to create. We become conscious participants in the creation of form.

It is not we who create, but universal intelligence that creates through us. We don't identify with what we create and so don't lose ourselves in what we do.   We are learning that the act of creation may involve energy of the highest intensity, but that is not “hard work” or stressful. We need to understand the difference between stress and intensity, as we shall see. Struggle or stress is a sign that he ego has returned, as are negative reactions when we encounter that do not cause opposing reactions are those that are aimed at the good of all. They are inclusive, not exclusive. They join; they don't separate. They are not for “my” country but for all of humanity, not for “my” religion but the emergence of consciousness in all human beings, not for “my” species but for all sentient beings and all of nature.

We are also learning that action, although necessary, is only a secondary factor in manifesting our external reality. The primary factor in creation is consciousness. No matter how active we are, how much effort we make, our state of consciousness creates our world, and if there is no change on that inner level, no amount of action will make any difference. We would only recreate modified versions of the same world again and again, a world that is an external reflection of the ego.

CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness is already conscious. It is the unmanifested, the eternal. the universe, however, is only gradually becoming conscious. 

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.  

Although the unmanifested realm of pure consciousness could be considered another dimension, it is not separate from this dimension of form.  Form and formlessness interpenetrate. the unmanifested flows into this dimension as awareness, inner space, presence. How does it do that?  Through the human form that becomes conscious and thus fulfills its destiny.  The human form was created for this higher purpose, and millions of other forms prepared the ground for it.

Consciousness incarnates into the manifested dimension, that is to say, it becomes form. When it does so, it enters a dreamlike state. Intelligence dreams, but consciousness becomes unconscious of itself. 

It loses itself in form, becomes identified with form. This could be describe as the descent of the divine into matter. At that stage in the evolution of the universe, the entire outgoing movement takes place in that dreamlike state. Glimpses of awakening come only at the moment of the dissolution of an individual form, that is to say, death. And then begins the next incarnation, the next identification with form, the next individual dream that is part of the collective dream. When the lion tears apart the body of the zebra, the consciousness that incarnated into the zebraform detaches itself from the dissolving form and for a brief moment awakens to its essential immortal nature as consciousness; and then immediately falls back into sleep and reincarnates into another form. When the lion becomes old and cannot hunt anymore, as it draws its last breath, there is again the briefest of glimpses of an awakening, followed by another dream of form.  on our planet, the human ego represents the final stage of universal sleep, the identification of consciousness with form. It was a necessary stage in the evolution of consciousness.

The human brain is a highly differentiated form through which consciousness enters this dimension. It contains approximately one hundred billion nerve cells (called neurons), about the same number as there are stars in our galaxy, which could be seen as a macrocosmic brain. The brain does not create consciousness, but consciousness created the brain, the most complex physical form on earth, for its ｅxpression. When the brain gets damaged, it does not mean you lose consciousness. It means consciousness can no longer use that form to enter this dimension. You cannot lose consciousness because it is, in essence, who you are. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.

AWAKENED DOING

Awakened doing is the outer aspect of the next stage in the evolution of consciousness on our planet. The closer we get to the end of our present evolutionary stage, the more dysfunctional the ego becomes, in the same way that a caterpillar becomes dysfunctional just before it transforms into a butterfly. But the new consciousness is arising even as the old dissolves.  We are in the midst of a momentous event in the evolution of human consciousness, but they won't be talking about it in the news tonight. on our planet, and perhaps simultaneously in many parts of our galaxy and beyond, consciousness is awakening from the dream of form. This does not mean all forms (the world) are going to dissolve, although quite a few almost certainly will. It means consciousness can now begin to create form without losing itself in it. It can remain conscious of itself, even while it creates and experiences form. Why should it continue to create and experience form?  For the enjoyment of it. How does consciousness do that? Through awakened humans who have learned the meaning of awakened doing.  

Awakened doing is the alignment of your outer purpose what you do – with your inner purpose – awakening and staying awake. Through awakened doing, you become one with the outgoing purpose of the universe.  Consciousness flows through you into this world. It flows into your thoughts and inspires them. It flows into what you do and guides and empowers it. Not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny. And how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness. 

A reversal of your priorities comes about when the main purpose for doing what you do becomes the doing itself, or rather, the current of consciousness that flows into what you do. That current of consciousness is what determines quality. Another way of putting it: In any situation and in whatever you do, your state of consciousness is the primary factor; the situation and what you do is secondary. “Future” success is dependent upon and inseparable from the consciousness out of which the actions emanate.  That can be either the reactive force of the ego or the alert attention of awakened consciousness. All truly successful action comes out of that field of alert attention, rather than from ego and conditioned, unconscious thinking.
 

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From the book "A New Earth" by E. Tolle

http://www.agoyangyang.com/content.php?id=102