FROM DEATH PSYCHOLOGY TO DEEP ECOLOGY AND EASE: KATHERINE MANSFIELDS FINAL DAYS IN FRANCE In 1922, at a time when death was closing on her, Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) could forget the solemnity of her state by adopting a holistic... moreFROM DEATH PSYCHOLOGY TODEEP ECOLOGY AND EASE:KATHERINE MANSFIELDS FINAL DAYS IN FRANCE

In 1922, at a time when death was closing on her, Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) could forget the solemnity of her state by adopting a holistic approach to the world, which, in 1973, Norwegian philosopher Arne Nss (1912-2009) would theorise about and term deep ecology. At the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Fontainebleau-Avon, on the threshold of her permanent end, deep in her psyche Mansfield found happiness in the feeling of kinship with and compassion for life forms other than her own. There she also saw the physical representation of the philosophy of deep ecology in Russian mystic George Ivanovich Gurdjieffs (1866?-1949) Movements, a symbolic dance deemed sacred and traceable to Sufism which, with its stress on the unity within the universe, had centuries ago foreshadowed deep ecology. Furthermore, at Fontainebleau, where the paths of people of different nationalities and creeds intersected, Mansfield felt affiliated with humans, thereby calling Gurdjieffs disciples my people, and contemplated in unison with them mans symbiotic relation to the universe. This paper, focused on the last stage of Mansfields life which she spent in France with references to her letters and other relevant writings, proposes to discuss that in the said period and setting, the writer acquired a sense of oneness with both human and nonhuman nature, or nature in its totality, which ultimately, like alchemy, transformed the painful period she had to endure into a rewarding one.

Read the original:
Gurdjieff Research Papers - Academia.edu

What is yoga?

Yoga, which means "union," is a 5,000-year-old system of principles and practices originating in India. Yoga incorporates nutrition guidelines, ethics, exercise, and meditation with the intention of bringing together the mind, body, and spirit.

Most types of yoga practiced in the United States focus on movement and breathing, and do not require a total lifestyle change. More thana hundredvariations of yoga are practiced in the United States some slow and gentle and others active and fast-moving.

One of the most frequently practiced types of yoga is called hatha yoga, which uses physical poses and breathing techniques to increase strength, flexibility, and well-being.

Research in breast cancer patients has shown that yoga may be able to help:

A yoga session can last from 20 minutes to an hour and can bedone alone at home or in a class setting with an instructor. During your yoga session you will:

In the United States, a yoga instructor has the option to train for 2 or more years or to be certified after only taking a weekend-long course. As a result, there is a wide gap in experience from teacher to teacher. Inexperienced teachers can increase the risk for student injuries, so it's important to find a seasoned instructor. Ask your doctor for recommendations on yoga instructors who have worked with breast cancer patients. Another way to find an experienced instructor is to check with an organization requiring at least 200 hours of training to gain certification as a yoga instructor.

The Yoga Alliance sets guidelines for teacher training and registers yoga schools according to these standards. The Yoga Alliance website offers a searchable U.S. database of qualified teachers and schools.

For more information about finding a qualified complementary medicine practitioner, see our Finding a Complementary Medicine Practitioner section.

Here are questions to ask a potential yoga instructor:

In studies ofwomen with breast cancer, yoga has been shown toreduce fatigue and improvequality of sleep, physical vitality, and overall quality of life.

At the 2003 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), results were reported from a yoga study involving 126 women recently diagnosed with Stage I or II breast cancer. The women were about to receive chemotherapy or hormonal therapy.Some of the women were assigned to yoga classes over a 3-month period. The women taking yoga had a 12% improvement in fatigue, physical functioning, and quality of life compared with those in the program who did not take the yoga classes.

In 2006, results of a yoga study were reported from an M.D. Anderson Cancer Center study. The study followed 61 women receiving 6 weeks of radiation treatment for breast cancer. Half the women took a yoga class twice a week; the other half did not. Compared with the women who did not take yoga, the women in the yoga group reported having more energy and less daytime sleepiness, better physical functioning, and better overall quality of life.

Likeall practices, yoga comes with some risks:

Back to Types of Complementary Techniques

Visit link:
Yoga - breastcancer.org

Since the 1970s, meditation and other stress-reduction techniques have been studied as possible treatments for depression and anxiety. One such practice, yoga, has received less attention in the medical literature, though it has become increasingly popular in recent decades. One national survey estimated, for example, that about 7.5% of U.S. adults had tried yoga at least once, and that nearly 4% practiced yoga in the previous year.

Yoga classes can vary from gentle and accommodating to strenuous and challenging; the choice of style tends to be based on physical ability and personal preference. Hatha yoga, the most common type of yoga practiced in the United States, combines three elements: physical poses, called asanas; controlled breathing practiced in conjunction with asanas; and a short period of deep relaxation or meditation.

Available reviews of a wide range of yoga practices suggest they can reduce the impact of exaggerated stress responses and may be helpful for both anxiety and depression. In this respect, yoga functions like other self-soothing techniques, such as meditation, relaxation, exercise, or even socializing with friends.

By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appears to modulate stress response systems. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the body's ability to respond to stress more flexibly.

A small but intriguing study done at the University of Utah provided some insight into the effect of yoga on the stress response by looking at the participants' responses to pain. The researchers noted that people who have a poorly regulated response to stress are also more sensitive to pain. Their subjects were 12 experienced yoga practitioners, 14 people with fibromyalgia (a condition many researchers consider a stress-related illness that is characterized by hypersensitivity to pain), and 16 healthy volunteers.

When the three groups were subjected to more or less painful thumbnail pressure, the participants with fibromyalgia as expected perceived pain at lower pressure levels compared with the other subjects. Functional MRIs showed they also had the greatest activity in areas of the brain associated with the pain response. In contrast, the yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI. The study underscores the value of techniques, such as yoga, that can help a person regulate their stress and, therefore, pain responses.

Although many forms of yoga practice are safe, some are strenuous and may not be appropriate for everyone. In particular, elderly patients or those with mobility problems may want to check first with a clinician before choosing yoga as a treatment option.

But for many patients dealing with depression, anxiety, or stress, yoga may be a very appealing way to better manage symptoms. Indeed, the scientific study of yoga demonstrates that mental and physical health are not just closely allied, but are essentially equivalent. The evidence is growing that yoga practice is a relatively low-risk, high-yield approach to improving overall health.

For more advice about reducing anxiety, visit our online Stress Resource Center at http://www.health.harvard.edu/stress.

More:
Yoga for anxiety and depression - Harvard Health

200 hour Yoga Teacher Training - FALL 2018

by Camille Moses-Allen

This foundational program will advance your practice, acquaint you with the many layers of yoga, build your confidence and help you find your voice.If you aspire to teach, you're in good company: Since the start of our training school in 1990, YogaWorks alumni have gone on to become some of the world's most renowned yoga leaders. We want you to master the fundamentals, so completing our program will mark the beginning of your successful career as a yoga teacher.

August 25-26

September 8-9

September 22-23October 6-7

TEACHERS:

Camille Moses-Allen & Emily Lodge

OUR 200-HOUR TEACHER TRAINING CURRICULUM INCLUDES:

Advanced study of asana (proper alignment, benefits and potential risks) Principles of anatomy Science and art of sequencing Hands-on adjustments How to observe bodies Informed use of props to improve or modify a posture Cultivating your voice Confidence-building through practice teaching Yoga history and philosophy Sanskrit names of postures The Business of Yoga

WHAT MAKES YOGAWORKS TEACHER TRAINING UNIQUE?Lineage & Experience: We've refined our comprehensive curriculum over 25 years.

Intelligent Sequencing: Learn the art and science of designing and delivering a safe, dynamic class.

Learn to truly teach: Our program isn't about memorizing and reciting sequences. Instead an emphasis is placed on teaching principles for clearly instructing students bodies into alignment.

Find Yourself: We give you the space and opportunity to find your own teaching style.

Global Recognition: With a legacy that includes today's yoga leaders and over 10,000 alumni, YogaWorks teacher training is respected worldwide.Yoga Alliance 5 Star Rating

Class RequirementFor the duration of the program, students are required to take 3 classes per week, 1 of which must be with a lead Trainer.

Early-bird price of $2,950 when you pay in full by July 30, 2018.

Total cost is $3,150 thereafter.

Payment Plans available off the full price plus a $50 admin fee (50% of tuition must received one week before start date).

Midtown, MD

Aug 25 - Dec 16, 2018

SAT, SUN

85 hour Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga Alliance Registered

by Lily Dwyer Begg

Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training 2018 with Lily Dwyer Begg

Fells Point Studio

4 Weekends

Sept 14, 15, 16Oct 19, 20, 21Nov 9, 10, 11Dec 7 and 9

Fridays 7:30 - 10:30 PM

Saturdays 12:30 - 8:30 PM

Sundays 11:30 AM - 6:00 PM

Tuition: $500 deposit

$1,250 thereafter paid in full by September 7, 2018

Fells Point Studio

1807 Thames St.

Baltimore, MD 21231

800.336.9642

This training is open to men and women, parents and non-parents alike - anyone who feels the calling to teach pre- and post-natal yoga is welcome. Even if you have never been pregnant yourself, the foundation of your success as a teacher will revolve around your self-inquiry and experiential participation in everything we do and learn.

The training is designed to feel at once like a yoga retreat and a rigorous course of study. You will be given a chance to integrate all layers of self into the learning experience. You will prepare a solid foundation for the demands of working with a range of pregnant students, while at the same time participating in a space for embodied daily yoga practice and a felt firsthand understanding of meditations, chants, and energetic practices that support women during this rich, creative time of life. Respectful community and fellowship is a vital piece of this training: each graduating class emerges close-knit and you will be given tools to help one another grow and evolve as teachers, share critical and supportive feedback, and exchange ideas, experiences and responses to materials learned. Graduates will emerge empowered to teach from the heart grounded by sound knowledge and expertise.

This program curriculum will give you:

Full payment is required to reserve a space in workshops. All workshops are non-refundable. Cancellations made two weeks or more prior to workshop start date will be issued store credit. No store credit will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks prior to workshop start date. YogaWorks is not responsible for any costs incurred for travel arrangements or accommodations related to this event.

Fells Point, MD

Sep 14 - Dec 9, 2018

FRI, SAT, SUN

The Restoration

by Martha McAlpine

September 14, 15, 16

October 5, 6, 7

October 26, 27, 28

November 16,17, 18

Fridays 6:30 - 9:30 PMSaturdays 12:30 - 6:30 PMSundays 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

1024 Light Street

Baltimore, MD, 21230

800.336.9642 X12

We are interconnected. We all feel each other.Felt drained, edgy, misaligned lately?Crazy news. Busy schedule.This is the time to learn to update and enrich how we tend ourselves.To restore the collective heart we share.

These are teachings for teachers and students. Novice through advanced. All comers welcome to experience asana, kriya, breath, meditation, writing, talking, learning.

This is The Restoration.

In The Restoration, Martha will lead you through all-level asana sequences, kundalini kriyas, and meditation practices to explore the ancient yogic traditions. We will also draw from the recent advances of neuroscience, physiology and psychology. With structured writing and group work and learn simple but powerful skills that are everyday useful at home, work, anywhere for inspired, meaningful connection. Each day of the weekends will conclude with 30 beautiful minutes of deep rest in Yoga Nidra leaving you wholly empowered.

Martha is your guide through 4 weekends of ENERGETIC EVOLUTION

Weekend 1 : Our raw feelings and emotions are translated into AWARENESS

Weekend 2 : Our awareness is given purpose and DIRECTION

Weekend 3 : Our direction becomes far more personal as we build DISCERNMENT

Weekend 4 : Our discernment enables a sense of healing,wholeness, and FREEDOM

No reading list. No homework. No prerequisites. Just you.I cant wait to see you.

Marthas classes inspire me. As a teacher myself I am always looking for how the old and the new meet; how our modern urban lifestyles can benefit from these age-old shapes and folds. I love how she is able to bring it all together. How the old is new, and I feel my own deep connection to what is actually ancient in my busy life and timeless in my teaching. - NW

Marthas teaching is sublime. I come away from practice with her emboldened and softened, both at once. I never knew what I was missing on my mat, but I knew I wanted more. Now, every class I take - no matter the teacher - I can get MY practice and this is priceless. -EB

A homeschool mama, yogi, cyclist, and cook, Martha McAlpine brings a love of life to all she does. Most recently, after 20 years of practice, 200 and 500 hour teacher trainings, and ten years of teaching Martha returned to the 200 hr Charm City teacher training to renew what she's learned and taught for years. In the past year she also completed the Spirit Junkie Master Class with Gabrielle Berstein, Marie Forleo's BSchool, an Art of Attention teacher module with Elena Brower, and the Vinyasa Krama Para teacher training of Rod Stryker. She believes modern research paired with ancient traditions makes for a rich, interesting, contemplative present moment. As a lifelong learner she looks forward to sharing her uniqueperspective and abilities with you.

Full payment is required to reserve a space in workshops. All workshops are non-refundable. Cancellations made two weeks or more prior to workshop start date will be issued store credit. No store credit will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks prior to workshop start date. YogaWorks is not responsible for any costs incurred for travel arrangements or accommodations related to this event.

Federal Hill, MD

Sep 14 - Nov 18, 2018

FRI, SAT, SUN

Beginner Series, 5 Weeks (Severna Park)

by Eric Brown

Sundays (5 Weeks)

September 23rd - October 21st, 2018

Severna Park Studio160 Governor Ritchie HwySeverna Park, MD 21146800.336.9642 X15

The Beginner Workshop is a five week introductory course in yoga. A perfect introduction to the philosophy and postures of yoga, it is designed so that upon completion, students will have acquired a foundation in yoga that will equip them to start sampling other classes and developing your own practice.

The Program: Each class will demonstrate important yoga poses or postures, and introduce the yogic philosophy of Patanjali, a sage and yogi, who was the first person to systematically describe the yogic tradition in written form. He described the practice as consisting of eight limbs. These limbs cover all aspects of life: beginning with a prescribed code of conduct and ending with an individuals vision of his/her true self.

Eric Brown began practicing yoga and meditation in 1983 in search of self-healing. He studied many styles of yoga while living in Los Angeles and his classes are an eclectic blend of Ashtanga, Kripalu, Pranakriya, and the unique vinyasa flow style of LA. Erics classes can be challenging, but students are led in a mindful asana practice that fully engages them on many levels bringing deeper awareness to the subtle aspects of the postures. He wants his students to really learn and understand their bodies and the poses; fully feeling whatever theyre going to feel. Eric holds yoga teaching certifications with the Kundalini Research Institute (RYT 200); Kripalu/Pranakriya (RYT 200); Ashtanga Yoga (David Swenson); and Rocket Vinyasa Yoga (David Kyle). He studied with Kim Manfredi at Charm City Yoga and received his 500RYT in 2012. He is a Vipassana meditation practitioner and has received his Thai Yoga practitioner certification from the Thai Institute of Healing Arts. Eric has been featured in Yoga Journal (Oct 2011) and is a Manduka ambassador.

Full payment is required to reserve a space in workshops. All workshops are non-refundable. Cancellations made two weeks or more prior to workshop start date will be issued store credit. No store credit will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks prior to workshop start date. YogaWorks is not responsible for any costs incurred for travel arrangements or accommodations related to this event.

Severna Park, MD

Sep 23 - Oct 21, 2018

SUN

Beginner Series, 5 Weeks (Columbia)

by Nikki Watson

Mondays (5 Weeks)

September 24,18 - October 22, 2018

7:00 - 8:30 PM

Columbia Studio8325 Guilford Rd

Columbia, MD 21046 800.336.9642 X10

The Program: Each class will demonstrate important yoga poses or postures, and introduce the yogic philosophy of Patanjali, a sage and yogi, who was the first person to systematically describe the yogic tradition in written form. He described the practice as consisting of eight limbs. These limbs cover all aspects of life: beginning with a prescribed code of conduct and ending with an individuals vision of his/her true self.

Nikki Watson has a gift for making the practice of yoga an accessible, enjoyable self-exploration and loves helping her students learn and discover. Nikki started practicing yoga as a way to continue moving after years of ballet performance and dance education. As time went on, her practice became both physically and spiritually transforming. Yoga has become a great constant in her life a place of challenge, growth, change and contentment. Nikki received her 200 hour teaching certification from Charm City Yoga under Kim Manfredi in 2012 and her 500 hour certification through YogaWorks Baltimore.

Full payment is required to reserve a space in workshops. All workshops are non-refundable. Cancellations made two weeks or more prior to workshop start date will be issued store credit. No store credit will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks prior to workshop start date. YogaWorks is not responsible for any costs incurred for travel arrangements or accommodations related to this event.

Columbia, MD

Sep 24 - Oct 22, 2018

MON

The Restoration, WEEKEND 2: DIRECTION

View post:
YogaWorks Midtown | Baltimore Yoga Classes | YogaWorks

Yoga (Sanskrit: pronunciation (helpinfo)) is the physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India with a view to attain a state of permanent peace of mind in order to experience one's true self. The term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (to yoke) or yuj samdhau (to concentrate). The Yoga Stras of Patajali defines yoga as "the stilling of the changing states of the mind" (Sanskrit: : - :). Yoga has also been popularly defined as "union with the divine" in other contexts and traditions. Various traditions of yoga are found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In Hinduism, yoga is one of the six stika schools (accepts authority of Vedas of Hindu philosophy. Yoga is also an important part of Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. Gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west, in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book II

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III

See the article here:
Yoga - Wikiquote

Yoga is an old discipline from India. It is both spiritual and physical. Yoga uses breathing techniques, exercise and meditation. It helps to improve health and happiness.

Yoga is the Sanskrit word for union.

Patanjali was a pioneer of classical yoga. He defined yoga as "the cessation of the modification of the mind". (stopping changing the mind).

A person doing yoga will move from one posture (called asana) to another. For example, the "sun-salutation" contains 12 poses of asanas, one after the other, and is said to help balance body and soul. The "sun-salutation" is popularly known as "Suryanamaskar".

Yoga was introduced by Indian Ascetic . Ascetic practices (tapas) are referenced in the Brhmaas (900 to 500 BC), early commentaries on the Vedas.[1] Several seals discovered at Indus Valley Civilization (~33001700 B.C.) sites in Pakistan depict figures in positions resembling a common yoga or meditation pose. The pose shows "a form of ritual discipline, suggesting a precursor of yoga", according to archaeologist Gregory Possehl.[2] Scholars think there must be some type of connection between the Indus Valley seals and later yoga and meditation practices, though there is no conclusive evidence.

A yogasan is a pose in which a man can sit. The intention of yogasan is to exercise the body and making it free of pains and problems.

Yogi is a person who has mastered yoga or has achieved great success in yoga. Yogasanas are also called as Asan or Asanas (plural). A Yogi can sit in any asan for a given time.

This yogasan helps to release gas in the stomach.

This yogasan makes the spine more relaxed.[5]

1. Nisarga Yoga - Understand yoga philosophy and your true nature by being it via yoga practice.

2. Isha Yoga - A Guide To Yoga & Meditation.

3. Yoga Burn - Learning that art of Yoga

Go here to read the rest:
Yoga - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Bernhard Guenther, November 19, 2017

Relationships take on a whole new level for anyone who has taken the red pill, i.e. anyone who is sincerely engaged in seeking truth, self-work and cultural/social de-programming in order to transcend the Matrix on The Path Towards Awakening.

However, before two people can actually engage in (or enter) this higher level of conscious relationship, it is best if both individuals have done a good amount of sincere self-work on themselves on their own, confronted their shadows, childhood wounding, social/religious/cultural conditioning, mechanical behaviors, etc,as well as having established healthy self-love parameters. Learning to thrive in and enjoy solitude without needing anyone is also a prerequisite before being able to engage successfully in conscious relationships.

Articles such as what conscious women want from men, what conscious men want from women or you need a warrior man/woman that have been circling around make no sense for the most part and couldnt actually have been written by truly conscious men/women. These kind of articles often times tie into victim consciousness on some level as well as projections, entitlement, lack of taking responsibility and lack of understanding that on some level we always attract (or are attracted to) someone based on unconscious Shadow aspects (like The Dance between Codependents and Narcissists) , even if we dont see it consciously and hence blame the other person for not being conscious, having all sorts of expectations. There is also much distortion in the New Age version of Twin Flames with people over-estimating their level of Being (soul embodiment).

It always takes two to tango. As long as we havent owned our own shadow aspects, it will always come back to us (mirrored) through other people, or via occult entity attacks/interference, injecting through the cracks of our energy body due to lack of embodiment, past wounding/trauma and not having fully anchored our soul essence into the body/avatar. The extreme case of such a hyperdimensional influenced romantic relationships is the Love Bite or Dark Side of Cupid.

In short, if you want a conscious partner, the work is with yourself first and foremost with radical self-honesty. Anyone who is waiting for the perfect partner to appear without taking full responsibility for his/her own own soul evolution and is caught in blaming/projecting/expecting/feeling like a victim will be greatly disappointed.The relationships in your life (not only romantic) are also a gage/measure/reflection of where you are at in your own soul evolution.

In the end relationships are lessons in love, not an end in themselves. Not every relationships can be worked on either and there comes a time to let go and move on without trying (and without blame) to force something that just isnt meant to be, otherwise both people are keeping each other from growing/evolving. Knowing when to let go/break up or if its truly worth to work on the relationship depends on the specific unique situation, but mostly your inner knowing/intuition already and always knows but the mind can complicate things, especially if we dont trust our non-verbal inner guidance.

People come in and out of our lives to provide certain lessons. Not everyone is meant to stay forever. Oftentimes we are meant to be alone for a period of time with regards to our soul evolution, aligning ourselves with our unique soul purpose/Divine Will (and Divine Timing), patiently learning our lessons as opposed to being slave to the whims and desires of the impatient, desperate, and conditioned ego-personality.

With that being said, here are some writings on conscious relationships from various authors:

from Greater Community Spirituality by Marshall Summers

[Note: The word Knowledge used in this article relates to Gnosis (Higher Knowledge/Embodied Knowing).nothing to do intellectual mind-stuff, nor just ordinary feelings and is deeper than intuitiondirectly related to ones level of Being/individualized soul. The steps towards Knowledge area process, depending on ones sincere self-work, lessons to learn, talents to develop, aligning with ones unique soul purpose/Divine Will (contrary to the desires of the ego mind and is most often a destructive process > death of the personality identification to be reborn in ones true I).]

There are very few people in the world who really understand you your deeper nature and the deeper qualities that you have that even you have not discovered. At the surface of your mind, you might find much agreement, but at a deeper level beneath the surface of your mind, there are only a few who would be able to really recognize you.

To have many friends really does not account for much at all. To win favor amongst many people is to accommodate yourself to their expectations, and this will weaken and even destroy your ability to recognize yourself. People want to be loved and accepted and acknowledged, but this is driven by insecurity primarily.

At a deeper level, you need a more profound recognition. You need a true ally, not merely a friend. You need someone who recognizes your deeper nature and responds to this naturally. You do not have to perform for these people.But you do have to honor this nature within yourself. If it is unknown to you, or if you are resisting it or denying it by trying to be something else that you think will be successful, then your relationship with these rare individuals will not come to pass and you will have lost a rare and great opportunity.

As you begin to take the steps to Knowledge, to the deeper intelligence within you, your criteria for relationships will change. You will seek clarity and honesty. You will look for deeper values. You will look for more permanent values. You will look for greater integrity within people, greater sincerity, more substantial values.Of course, this will rule out many people, even if they are very pleasant and very nice in a social sense.

If they do not have this greater capacity within themselves or have not discovered this for themselves, well, then there will be no place for you to connect with them. You can understand them at the level of their circumstances or their personality; you might admire their appearance or their charms or their unique abilities, but the deeper connection will not be there. They are living at the surface, and you have gone beneath the surface.

You cannot wait for them or try to educate or enlighten them, for this will not be productive. You have to seek for people who are ready, willing and able to connect with you at this deeper level. If you try to improve someone else or bring them to this greater state of recognition, you will be wasting your time, which is precious and should not be wasted.

What you are really looking for here is Knowledge in others. You are no longer swayed by beauty, wealth and charm as you might have been before. Now you are listening for a deeper quality, a deeper spirituality, a deeper awareness. And surprisingly perhaps to you, you will not find it in many people.You will not find it in the beautiful people [obsessed with their physical appearance], the charming people, the wealthy people, the socially popular people, the people who are aggressive and ambitious, the people who are constantly selling themselves, the people who are caught up in political persuasions or the people who are extraordinarily intellectual.

If they do not have this deeper capacity yet, it will be evident, and Knowledge within you will not respond to them. Knowledge within you will not criticize them or condemn them. They are just not there yet. And this will give you a very different understanding of what real advancement is in an individuals development.

Placing all your emphasis on beauty and charm is clearly superficial, but so is placing all your emphasis on intellectual brilliance, and you will see this. You are listening for something deeper in yourself now, and that is why you are listening for something deeper in others.It is not just that you share ideas or beliefs. You may talk about spirituality, you may talk about God, you may talk about inspiration, but that does not mean there is a deeper connection at all.

Here, your mind must be clear and neutral. You cannot be judging, comparing and condemning other people, or you will never know the power of Knowledge within yourself. People are always judging one another, and this keeps them from recognizing one another or carrying on a deeper evaluation, which has nothing to do with condemnation at all.

You are looking for the evidence of Spirit in another, not just a conversation about Spirit, not just a liveliness in their personality. You are looking for something deeper in them because perhaps you have reached the point now where you are looking for something deeper in yourself, and you see that wittiness, charm, beauty and extravagance or even shared ideas, hobbies and so forth really is not it.You are surprised you find there are very few people who seem to have this deeper quality that you can discern and that Knowledge within you really does not respond to many people at all. And you feel alone, and you wonder if there really is anyone else.

Here you have to be willing to be alone if you are to have this level of integrity within yourself. Here you have to be true to Knowledge. If Knowledge is not responding, you do not need to respond. You can be friendly, you can be courteous that is valuable but you must be reserved.

If there is nothing there, there is nothing there. And if you realize there is no value and there is only unfortunate consequence in amplifying the attractive features of a person at the surface of their existence, then you will have to face the reality that there are but a few that you can deeply connect with.This will keep you from filling up your life with people and activities and involvements that really do not have anything important to offer and do not represent any serious or meaningful engagement for you. Here it is better to be largely alone than to have your life filled with people and engagements that have nothing to do with your greater purpose and destiny in the world.

Relationships take time. Serious relationships take a great deal of time. So many people are losing their lives, their time and their energy involved in relationships that have no greater capacity or greater destiny for them. Because they do not want to be alone, they are afraid that the person or the persons they are looking for truly may never arrive, so they will say to themselves, Well, this relationship is not perfect, but if I wait, there may be nothing better for me.

You have to be very careful what you tell yourself here. You must have faith in Knowledge and faith in life to bring into your life those people whom you are really destined to meet, who really have a great impact on your life, who will play a significant role in your own development and accomplishments in the world. You must build this faith.

If you are alone now, it is a valuable time to build your connection to Knowledge. Knowledge represents your most profound and important relationship. If this is not established, if this is not fully established, then your relationship with everyone else will be out of sync lacking clarity and purpose, lacking meaning and your life will be filled with people, engagements, activities and commitments that will never create a real opening for you.Beyond your need to go to work and to earn a living and to build your education for opportunities in the world, there is this greater destiny you have with certain people, and that is really what you are looking for.

But you must be patient. You must see that there is an appropriateness to when people appear in your life. Timing is very important.Many people think they are ready for true partnership, but they do not know what it is for, and perhaps they are armored against this realization. So if they met the right person, they would not be ready to participate with them, and this would produce a great and profound conflict.

You must be ready for a greater relationship. You must know where you are going. You must have a deeper sense of your purpose and destiny, even if it is not fully defined yet. It must be real and strong for you. You must be willing not to give yourself to other attractions. You must know enough not to give yourself to other seductions.

Part of your education here is really learning what does not work. It is more a process of elimination. As long as you are drawn by beauty, wealth, and charm, you do not yet have the discernment to see what is really meaningful and important. If you have never really felt a deep connection with another, do not think it is not possible and meant for you.

You have a greater destiny in the world, and there are others who are part of this destiny and who will play a significant role in its discovery and expression. This is an article of faith for you now, for not all your needs can be met in this moment, nor should they be met.

You have to have a sound relationship with your mind and your body. You have to develop your health. You have to develop your Pillar of Work. You have so many things to do now to build your foundation in life. You have the Steps to Knowledge to take to build your connection with Knowledge. No one should be pining away for a relationship when they have all of this work to do to build their foundation.

A relationship cannot take the place of this, ever. You cannot be waiting for someone to give you all the meaning and value of your life. For if you do not have this foundation, you will not be able to participate with them. You will not have the strength, the courage or the self-honesty to be able to participate with someone in a greater way. It will only be a relationship of convenience, a relationship of advantage, a relationship of attachment, a relationship filled with fantasies and expectations that will fail in the face of a real life.

People are attracted and then disappointed, constantly. They are not finding what they are really looking for in one another because they are not looking for the right things. They have not built the patience and the clarity and the discernment within themselves to really know what this means.

Discernment in relationships is very significant, for you can give your life away so very easily. It can be so easy to get involved and so difficult to free yourself later.There are many seductions and many traps. Look around you and see how people have fallen prey to these things. Look without condemnation. Look with the desire to learn, for people are committing every possible form of self-violation out there, particularly in their relationships.

They will teach you the consequences of choosing wrongly, of being attracted by meaningless things, of being seduced by others, by being trapped in relationships, held in place by someone else, unable to extricate themselves, sold on a relationship because there is nothing better or there is something there you wantfinancial security, beauty and charm, shared interests.

But none of these things really constitute a real connection with another. None of them speaks of a greater purpose and destiny in life. They are all momentary attractions, and if you commit yourself to momentary attractions, time will be very disappointing to you.

So you must have the strength, the faith and the confidence to wait, to look and listen. Do not shut people out. Really listen to them. Listen for Knowledge within yourself as you listen to them. If Knowledge is not responding beyond simple courtesy, you do not need to respond, nor should you.You are looking for one or two or three people who will make the great difference in your life. Perhaps one will become a life partner. Perhaps one will be a great teacher. Perhaps one will be a great companion in your work. Perhaps one will just teach you momentarily something of immense value or point your life in a direction, showing you the way to go.

You might need other people for simple thingsto provide goods and services, for simple companionship, for lighthearted enjoyment, but do not give yourself away to them.Do not give yourself away to anyone until you have built this deeper foundation within yourself. Do not let impatience or compulsion drive you. Do not let the persuasions of others or the power of seduction drive you.

Take your time. Do not hurry into any relationship. Listen to others carefully, to hear what their presence in your life means, if it means anything at all.If you are patient and observant, you will know. If you are reckless and compulsive, your life will be calamitous, and you will have a string of failed relationships or be circumscribed in an unhappy marriage or other arrangements with people.

The longer you are in a relationship that does not have this greater promise, the harder it will be to free yourself, for you will become dependent upon security and familiarity. You will need the person more than really want to be with them. And this is a dreadful trap, dreadful to the Spirit, dreadful in that it pre-empts you from finding your greater purpose and the individuals who will make all the difference in your discovery and expression of this purpose.

Do not worry that you are getting older. Do not let that drive your decision. If you are not meant to meet the significant partner for three years, let us say as an example, what are you going to do in the next three years? Go in and out of relationship, experience frustration, heartbreak, anger or resentment, disappointment, burning up your life over engagements that have no promise, while the Four Pillars of your life (Pillar of Relationships, Pillar of Work and Providership, Pillar of Health, Pillar of your Spiritual Development) remain undeveloped and un-recognized?

Can you be out of relationship for three years while you are building other aspects of your life? If you cannot, then you have a problem with personality addiction and this has nothing to do with real relationships. This is a personality disorder.Can you face loneliness and emptiness, or must you have constant stimulation, constant romance, constant infatuation and with them all the disappointment, frustration and disapproval that this generates?

You will waste your life and other peoples lives doing this. It is not necessary, you see. Constant searching, constant hoping and wanting someonethis is pointless and unnecessary, you see, for when you are ready, Knowledge will bring into your life the individual that you need and the people that you need for other parts of your life.

Do not think that everyone who crosses your path has been destined to meet you. If you have many engagements with people, many people will be crossing your path. You might have momentary encounters with them. They too are looking for certain individuals. Everyone is looking even if they are pretending not to be looking.But it must be the real engagement, you see. Knowledge will know. If you are strong with Knowledge, you will know. You will feel Knowledges response. It will be clear. It will be simple.

Perhaps you will meet someone, and Knowledge will say, Ah, this is your husband or your wife you are meeting here. None of this drama and excitement and infatuation and personal suffering and anguish that people go through in their romantic endeavors, their romantic escapadesjust a recognition.

Then you have to see if the person is really ready for this and if, in fact, this is who they are in your life, and you take your time doing that. It does not have all the glory and sensation and extravagance that you see in the movie picture. It is a simple recognition because the resonance is there and the connection is there.The right person is the right person. Now you must discern if they are ready for this and if you are ready for this. Then you must learn of their traits and their values to see if there is sufficient compatibility between you, to allow a relationship to be formed and sustained.

You may have a greater destiny, but that does not mean that you can function successfully together. You will have to wait and see. If you value your life, you will not want to give it away. You will not want to gamble it. You have nothing to lose by taking time to see. If this is really the person for you, they are not going to go away. You can afford to take time.

For a relationship to function in the world, it must have a sufficient degree of compatibility. That does not mean you are completely the same, of course not. But you must have compatibility regarding your values, regarding your lifestyle, regarding your use of money, regarding how you look at work, regarding, really, the Four Pillars of your life.

Here you cannot rehabilitate anyone, for they are either ready or they are not. They are either right or they are not. The relationship is going to work or it does not.All this work that people do on their relationships is foolishness. It means the relationship does not work, and they are to keep trying to make it work, and they invest time and money and energy and sometimes a whole life into trying to make something work that really just does not work. They have no idea that if the relationship worked, they would not have to invest this kind of time. Yes, there are corrections and learning to be done and being together. But if you are always working on a relationship, it does not work. Spare yourself this fundamental lesson in life that can occupy so much of your life to learn.

Knowledge will know. But then you must find out the particulars of a persons life to see if you can communicate, if you can share your values, if you can be together harmoniously.Sometimes people are attracted to people very different from themselves, but these relationships are almost never successful. They require too much adjustment, too much conflict, too much disparity and too much personal adjustment.

If you are with someone whose values are very different from yours, you will never be comfortable with them, and your being together will never be smooth and easy.This is not about falling in love. You can fall in love with someone you can never be in a relationship with. So infatuation or even recognition does not mean a relationship. This is another great lesson of life.

Perhaps you will fall in love with many people over the course of your life, but you cannot marry them all. Some are personality infatuations. Some represent relationships from the ancient past that you are now re-experiencing and want to experience again. And some represent real connections that could not be brought into being because the people were not ready or mature enough to participate effectively together. In the moment, you will not know what is what. So be careful about letting yourself become so infatuated with anyone.

Do not want and try to be in love. That is blind and foolish. There are many people who could excite the deeper passions of the heart with whom you could never function together.You can be in love with someone whose values are so different from yours that you could not stand to be together beyond the initial romantic phase. You will constantly be arguing, constantly in friction, constantly disagreeing, constantly maladapting to each other.People fall in love and get married without any idea of what they are doing in their lives or where they are going. They just assume if you are in love you should be married. It is a great mistake. You might feel spontaneous love for someone, but do not let yourself go overboard with that.

In relationship, you are choosing your primary influence. You are assigning the person to be your chief influence, your chief advisor. It is a practical arrangement, not just an emotional one.

Do not think if you work hard enough, if you love enough, you will make it all work. This is foolishness. You will have to work at relationship, certainly, to a degree. You will have to adapt, certainly, to a degree. You will have to relinquish some of your personal freedoms and recklessness to be in a real relationship, of course. You will have to be attentive. You will have to be honest. You will have to be engaged. But people take this to mean that they can make a relationship work with someone whom they want for themselves, and this is a cruel error.

If you feel like you are going to fall in love with someone, hold yourself back, keep your eyes open. This is a very important learning and very necessary for you to become mature and wise.To be swept along by impressions and infatuations, to allow yourself to be seduced by others, to be overtaken by beauty, wealth or charm is such a form of self-betrayal. It is such a dangerous involvement. It has such profoundly difficult and unfortunate consequences.

You have to be very careful here. Who you associate with and how you associate with them has all the bearing for your life and the kind of life you have and the opportunities you have.Likewise, do not become sexually engaged with anyone unless it represents a real partnership for you, for sexuality is a commitment by its very nature. You may think of it as a casual involvement, but emotionally it is never casual. Your relationship will never be the same. And if it cannot fulfill itself at a greater level, it will be disappointing, and that will generate resentment and failed expectations, disappointment.

You can not alwaysjust be a friend with someone who was once a lover, for you have crossed a threshold where you are pretending to be in a real relationship even though perhaps you never were.Sexuality is wonderful with the right person and damaging with the wrong person. Never treat this lightly. Never think of this as a casual, recreational kind of involvement. To your body it is the real thing. To your emotions it is serious because it is consequential.

Here you may have to hold yourself back and learn to restrain yourself, or you will give yourself away recklessly, hopelessly and cause great damage. And as a result, you will never know what is really true within yourself.

People use each other so thoughtlessly in this regard and give themselves away so thoughtlessly in this regard. Particularly in the more free nations, the democratic nations, people have such access to each other that they can indulge themselves at great damage to themselves and to other peopledamaging their own integrity and the integrity of another, playing with the affections of another, pretending to be serious when in fact they have no real intentions here. Do not play these games with yourself or with others, for they produce nothing but harm.

You will see through disappointment here that you really do have deeper intentions regarding relationships. You have a more serious intention here. And what is that? And what does that mean? What does that require? And what are you really looking for in another? And are you yourself ready to be in a relationship of a greater nature or are you only pretending and flirting?

People commit themselves before they are ready. They get married before they are ready. They give their life away before they even know what their life is for, where it is going or what it really means. This happens all the time.So you have unhappy marriages and unhappy families. People are trapped. People are unhappy. People have capitulated. And now you have unhappy children being taught all the lessons of compromise that their parents have made.

To break this pattern, to break free of this reality that people have created, you must follow a deeper Knowledge within yourself and know what this means and how it feels, what it feels like to be restrained by Knowledge.

Take your decisions to Knowledge. If Knowledge is not choosing, well, you do not need to choose. If Knowledge is not saying yes, then do not say yes. If Knowledge is silent, then you be silent. If Knowledge is not committing itself, do not commit yourself.If it is not a yes, it is a no. There are no maybes. Do not tantalize yourself with that. That is trying to get what you want in the face of all the evidence that you are on the wrong track. So there is no maybe.Take your time. Look and listen to another. Do not become sexually involved with them. Do not be pressured to do so.

People will tell you all about themselves right away: their behavior, their intentions, their self-honesty, their interests, their values, their sincerity or lack of it, their self-awareness or lack of it. Do not be convinced by appearances. You must look deeper than this.

This will save your life. Later on, you will think back and say, Oh my God, I could have married this person. Oh my God, I could have become involved with this person. And if your life is really moving in the right direction, you will see what a calamity that would have been and how that would have used up such a great part of your life to try to get clear and to extricate yourself from that situation. And when you finally meet the people you need to meet, you will be so grateful you did not compromise before. You will be so grateful.

Ultimately, your focus must be on contribution in the worldwhere you are meant to be, what you are meant to do, where you are meant to give. If this is the focus of your life, then relationships will easily be a part of that, or they will not. And it will be very much easier to see if a person can fit into that or not.

That is why focusing on the presence of Knowledge and learning to read the signs of your own deeper inclinations are so extremely important before you become committed to another. Here you are seeking the kingdom first. You are seeking the reality of your life first. You are trying to discern a deeper direction.You are willing to be alone to do this. You are willing to forgo immediate gratification to do this because it is so much more important. You will hold yourself back for this.

If you are not extremely physically attractive, it is such an advantage here because the people who are very physically attractive are being constantly bombarded with offers and persuasions and seductions. They are being given power and recognition though they have most often never really earned it through any real merit. They are being seduced, and they will seduce themselves, and you will rarely find a highly physically attractive person who has ever cultivated any depth within themselves. They have become a product to be bought and sold. They are a resource for others. Unless they can see beyond this deception, they will fall prey to it.

As long as you are not hiding from people, avoiding people and denying people, you will be able to see where the connections could possibly be. But in the interim, your real purpose and emphasis and priority is to discern the presence of Knowledge and the signs of a deeper purpose in your life. For whoever you meet must be connected to this Knowledge and this purpose if you are to be with them successfully and if this relationship is to yield anything of real value and importance.

Take the Steps to Knowledge then. Learn from the wisdom of others mistakes and your own errors in judgment. Learn to be clear and sober. Do not condemn people, and do not become infatuated with them either. Do not base your expectations upon potential in others, for what you see today is really what you have in front of you.

There are so many important lessons here in discernment. But they all must be practiced to be realized. Take your path and evaluate it. Watch others clearly so that their accomplishments and mistakes can educate you. Let the world teach you what is true and how to distinguish it from what is not true, what is really good from what only looks good.

Be sober. Be clear. Do not give your life away. Build your connection to Knowledge. Begin to discern the evidence that you are here for a greater purpose. Do this without coming to conclusions; just allow the evidence to grow.

Feel Knowledge moving you and holding you back. Take good care of your mind and your body. Be present to others, but be reserved. Then you will have the freedom to practice this deeper discernment, and you will see how invaluable it is and how it is so lacking in other peoples discernment and decision-making.

Knowledge is here to take you somewhere, to prepare you, to strengthen you, to show you the difference between what is real and what is not real.

You have a greater destiny and a greater purpose. You must follow this pathway and not give it up for love or money, not for beauty, wealth or charm. If you do this, your life will be preserved, and you will be able to become strong and mature enough to engage with certain people with whom you share a greater destiny. You will find them, and they will find you. And you will be ready for one another.

from Gnosis by Boris Mouravieff

Human love is imperfect because it is instinctive and impulsive. As long as man automatically follows his impulses, his love will serve only the cosmic goals of the ensemble [the General Law/Matrix]. The pleasure he always gains from this is as much an equilibrating element as a reward. As it is, it will not serve his esoteric evolution in any way.

Yet Love is the surest and most powerful means of achieving this evolution. This is because Love is the one objective element in our lives. That objectivity remains true in all Loves many aspects, and through all the variety of its manifestations. Love can, in effect, serve man in his esoteric evolution. However, to achieve this aim, man must apply conscious efforts to this love, not allow himself be led on by impulses. It can then be used to accelerate the growth of his Personality and its progress towards the second Birth, the first tangible result of esoteric practices.

This work, done by man and woman working together, can develop with extraordinary power and give rapid results on condition that from the esoteric point of view the two beings entirely suit each other, and also on condition that they are a perfect couple, that is, that their combination with reservations concerning the peculiarities of their human type reflects the relation between the absolute I and the You before the Creation of the Universe. This is the case of those beings known in esoteric science as polar beings.

We must add that now, at the threshold of the era of the Holy Spirit, where all that is wronghowever well-intentionedmust fall and break, the problem of the real polarity of couples becomes crucially important. Two beings, man and woman, who are supposed to be polar, cannot be absolutely certain of their polarity until later on, when they have reached the level of man 4, on the threshold of level 5. This is because, although polar in essence, each of them brings with them a past that covers their real I with a dissimilar crust. Those who are polar in essence must take this fact into account. It is only when they gradually shed this crust that the qualities of their essence will progressively shine through, bringing at each discovery an abundance of ineffable joy. Thus their love will always grow.

Conscious personal efforts, especially efforts between two polar beings, and the joint efforts of people who have already progressed in the search for the Way, mark out the route for those who want to serve, who wish to be useful to the task of redemption which esoteric work wants to accomplish today in the whole world.

To set out on the Way, man must necessarily go through an inner collapse of the Personality, what we call moral bankruptcy. Then he will know the vain illusion of pride, and the true value of humility.To return to this source, the chief practical objectives are mastery of the sexual centre, and the training of the emotional centre. However, for this esoteric work to be completed successfully by two people, it is essential that the two beings man and woman are integrally polar.

Here the real I is involved, and the couples Love, while containing all the possibilities already described in the preceding cases, has a singularly emotional character of a higher order. It naturally follows as this Love is hylic, psychic and spiritual at the same time, thus leading to an attraction that is visual, auditory and tactile, it is incomparably richer.

The chief characteristic of this so-called Royal case is the bi-polarity of the real I one for each couple. This orients their Personalities and their bodies in such a way that what each hopes for and awaits from the other is precisely, and very naturally, what the other desires to and is prepared to offer. It is only in a case of this kind that there can be absolute harmony between a couple, and even this is conditional on each of them trying progressively to liquidate his or her karmic burden and to establish a balance between the lower centres, whose development must be pushed to the limit.

These are the combined objectives which the allegedly polar couple who enter on the fifth way must seek through their work. This means that, right from the beginning, the Knight and his Lady-elect must practice courtly Love, which unites in itself Faith, Hope and Knowledge (Gnosis).

from Letters on Yoga by Sri Aurobindo

[Note: Sri Aurobindos comment is addressed to a man who asked the question. Obviously you can interchange the gender reference.]

Q: How can one know when he meets his psychic (soul) mate?

SRI AUROBINDO: How do you know a spiritual experience? It is all a matter of feeling and inner perception. It is an art and not a science. When she walks into your life you will know her right enough. As I have told you again and again, no rigid and hard and fast rule is possible in things like this. Union with woman is right in one case and perhaps wrong in other 99 cases. In that one case again without his Shakti (i.e. feminine counterpart) the mans progress will be very slow and he may even go wrong. In the other 99 cases contact with woman itself may prove an obstacle. There are so many hostile [hyperdimensional] powers working against the right union of complementary souls that very often, you can seldom meet your right mate. Of course I am talking of the path and not of the goal.

When you reach the highest you will have to see whether you can get your Shakti. Without a Shakti you can yourself be perfect, in the sense that you can attain full knowledge, power and Ananda and change your entire organised being into its divine nature, but when you want to throw your powers on the world for creation, it is different. Take my instance. It may so happen that I reach the highest all alone, my Shakti falling in the way. Then I cannot create without her. I can by my highest siddhi only prepare the way for others to follow and accomplish the rest in the future.

It is not only the [occult] dark forces who obstruct and make it impossible for the twin souls to meet, but even when they actually meet their life may get wrecked owing to mental and vital impediments. It is only when the psychic [soul embodiment] or the spiritual part is predominant in both, the two can really fulfil one another and progress higher and higher.

The [ occult hyperdimensional] hostile powers working against the siddhi of yogis are difficult to conquer. Ordinarily we are in complete darkness or ignorance with only flashes of knowledge now and then, even when the sadhaka has risen into a continual glow of knowledge and can discern the play of all the dark forces, he is not exempt from attack. Only when he reaches full illumination and is in serene and revealed knowledge he is beyond them and safe.

byShelly Bullard

We are approaching a period of time when relationships are ready to go through a major redesign. The current paradigm isnt working. People are unsatisfied in love; people dont know how to make relationships work.

And, believe it or not, this isnt a bad thing. Because when systems break-down, thats when they change. I believe thats whats happening in the area of intimate partnership. The break-down is forcing us to move towards conscious love.

So what exactly is a conscious relationship?

Its a romantic relationship in which both partners feel committed to a sense of purpose, and that purpose is growth. Individual growth. Collective growth as a couple. Growth that makes the world a better place.

As of now, most people get into relationships to satisfy their own personal needs. This might work for a few years, but eventually the relationship fails us, and we end up unsatisfied as a result.

Go here to see the original:
Discernment in Relationships and Conscious Relating

Reposted from Biocadence Blog

Alan Watts (Jan 6, 1915 Nov 16, 1973) was a philosopher known for opening Western minds to Eastern wisdom. He called himself an entertainer, rather than a guru or teacher, and encouraged a dialogue that is increasingly relevant in the spectrum of current events. Intertwinedwith stunning scholarship, his buoyant humor resounds, linking many of us to the collective unconscious. Today, 101 years after his birth, Im sharing 101 quotes that have deeply impacted my understanding of the human experience. Enjoy!

*Alan Watts was a prolific writer and speaker. I source the specific work for every quote that I can, and include (audio) to reference material sourced from audio lectures found onalanwatts.org and alanwatts.com. Hearing his voice and cadence drives his message to a deeper level; I recommend Alan Watts 101 for short animated videos coupled with some of my favorite talks.

~Compiled by Annie Tichenor, with the help of Mark Watts, Nicolette Schumacher, and Allison Faust

This was originally posted on the Biocadence blog. I reposted the content here to celebrate 101 years of Alan Watts for his birthday.

Go here to read the rest:
101 Alan Watts Quotes - Secular Buddhism

October 8, 2009

KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: I'm Krista Tippett. Today, "The Power of Eckhart Tolle's Now."

Millions of people of every age and walk of life are being affected by his teachings and philosophy. We'll probe the core ideas that have generated so much excitement and get a close-up sense of the man behind the books. His philosophy fundamentally challenges the notion that Descartes captured in a sentence: "I think, therefore I am."

ECKHART TOLLE: What we are talking about here is a state of alert attention to what is where compulsive thinking no longer operates. This means you rise above thinking to a large extent in your life. Where you can face life without the interference of the mind, still being able to use the mind when it's needed but not being used by it.

MS. TIPPETT: This is Speaking of Faith. Stay with us.

[Announcements]

MS. TIPPETT: I'm Krista Tippett. This hour, my 2008 interview with Eckhart Tolle, one of the most influential spiritual teachers in the world today. Long a reclusive figure with a quietly expanding following, Tolle has recently become a household name and a global best-selling author. He believes that a planetary shift in consciousness is underway. And his vision fundamentally challenges the notion that Descartes captured in a sentence: "I think, therefore I am."

From American Public Media, this is Speaking of Faith public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. Today, "The Power of Eckhart Tolle's Now."

Eckhart Tolle began to gain attention as a spiritual teacher with his 1997 book, The Power of Now. Then in 2008, Oprah Winfrey chose his follow-up work, A New Earth, for her book club. She conducted a 10-week online seminar with Tolle that has been downloaded 27 million times. The philosophy that Eckhart Tolle brings to readers and live audiences draws on and synthesizes core teachings of many religious and spiritual traditions, including Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism, and especially Buddhism. Tolle echoes the Buddhist analysis of the mind as a primary source of human suffering. That is, the notion that we confuse reality with the racing thoughts in our heads, the stories we've internalized from our families and culture, and the emotions that animate us as a result. Becoming aware of this, Tolle says, is the only way we can truly ever direct our experience of the world and our presence within it. And he prescribes a direct route to this new way of being the shift in awareness to what he calls "the power of now." Tolle emphasizes that in our firsthand experience of life, now is all there ever is. Human beings have a tendency to obsess over the past and the future. But we only know the past through the lens of the present moment, and when the future is actually upon us, it will also be another now.

MR. TOLLE: When people value the next moment more than they value what is, they are dissatisfied with what is but they are hoping some other future moment is going to free them from this dissatisfaction. But the other moment never actually comes because when the so-called future comes, it appears again as the unsatisfying present. [Laugh] And so when you realize, OK, where is my life? Essentially, it's here and now, and it will never not be here and now. And suddenly you pay more attention to this.

MS. TIPPETT: Now in his 60s, Eckhart Tolle himself was a deeply private person for most of his life. He spent decades as a semi-nomadic teacher, leading something of a hermit's existence. Today he lives in Canada with Kim Eng, his partner in business and life for over a decade. I wanted to probe his ideas to understand the powerful reach he has acquired. I also wanted to understand how his own life gave rise to his insights and how they continue to develop through his experiences now. Eckhart Tolle was raised in a Catholic family in Germany and moved to Spain at the age of 13, to live with his father, after his parents separated. He dropped out of school and did not pursue a formal education again until he went to England to study at the universities of London and Cambridge. There, at the age of 29, Eckhart Tolle experienced a catharsis that led to the teachings for which he is now known.

MS. TIPPETT: You really you kind of schooled yourself, didn't you? And then you pursued your studies as an adult in graduate studies. It seems that your life was very cerebral. I mean, you were kind of an embodiment of this Western notion that "I think, therefore I am."

MR. TOLLE: Yes. I only read what I enjoyed reading, so it wasn't an academic kind of upbringing. And at that time, I was not particularly interested in intellectual things. That started in my early 20s, when after I had moved to England

MS. TIPPETT: OK.

MR. TOLLE: where I got a job. And then I became suddenly very interested in intellectual things. I also started to suffer from depression.

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. TOLLE: And the intellectual quest was an attempt to find some kind of meaning also for my life because I believed that the meaning was to be found there somewhere through the intellect. And it took me quite a few years to realize it wasn't there. You couldn't find it that way. [Laugh]

MS. TIPPETT: You know, you told a story in A New Earth about an experience you had, which was actually a few years before you really had kind of a breakthrough and came out of that, where you experienced a woman talking to herself on the train, right? On the tube train.

MR. TOLLE: Yes.

MS. TIPPETT: Tell that story. Kind of caught in her thoughts, and then you came to understand that you had some of the same problems.

MR. TOLLE: Yes. So she would I would sometimes see her on the train. I call it the tube, the subway, in the morning. And she would continuously talk to herself or, rather, to an imaginary person in a very angry voice. Continuously complaining, "And then he did this to me. Then he said, and I said then how dare he tell me this," and I watched in amazement how can anybody be so insane and still apparently have a job? Because she would catch the subway every morning.

MS. TIPPETT: [Laugh] She was going somewhere, right?

MR. TOLLE: And one day I was sitting opposite her on the subway, and she got off at the same station that I needed to get off to go the university library. I followed her, and we got closer and closer and finally I realized, oh, my God, she's going to the university.

[Laugh]

MR. TOLLE: Because at that time, I still thought the university was the great temple of knowledge, and all the answers the professors and so on, they had all the answers and I would eventually find them too. I was washing my hands in the bathroom and I thought, "My God. Her voice. She never stops talking." And I suddenly realized, well, I do that too, except that I don't do it out loud. And then I thought, "I hope I don't end up like her," and somebody next to me looked at me and I suddenly realized in shock that I had actually said these words aloud just like her. I said, "I hope I don't end up like her." [Laugh] So I realized my mind was as incessantly active as hers. Our only difference was that my thought was mostly based on feeling sorry for myself. It was kind of depressed kind of thinking. Her patterns were fueled by anger. But that was only a very brief

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. TOLLE: flash of realization. But I always remember it because that was it took years before I finally was able to really step out of the stream of thinking and realize there is a place inside me that is far more powerful than the continuous mental noise with which for many, many years I had been completely identified, just like that woman.

MS. TIPPETT: So what happened to you when you were 29 to finally really jolt you out of that?

MR. TOLLE: Well, I was in the depth of depression, and I lived in anxiety about my life and my problems and my future. And one night I woke up in the middle of the night again feeling this sense of dread, and a phrase came into my head, which said, "I can't live with myself any longer. I can't live with myself any longer." And that phrase went around and around in my head a few times and suddenly, I was able to stand back and look at that phrase: "I can't live with myself any longer." And I thought, "Oh, that is strange. I cannot live with myself. Who am I and who is the self that I cannot live with? Because there must be two of me here, if that phrase is correct."

MS. TIPPETT: Yes.

[Laughter]

MS. TIPPETT: Interesting.

MR. TOLLE: There are two of me.

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. TOLLE: The "I" was there, and the "me" that I couldn't live with actually was the continuous mental noise, the stream of thinking that considered life and that considered myself as a problem.

MS. TIPPETT: Right. Right.

MR. TOLLE: So that was the answer to that question, "Who am I and who is the self that I cannot live with?" The answer came experientially. Not that I stopped it through an act of will. It subsided by itself.

MS. TIPPETT: What do you mean when you say the answer came experientially? How? How did that unfold experientially?

MR. TOLLE: Well, after that night, I woke up in the morning and the first thing I noticed as I opened my eyes and listened that everything seemed much more alive than I was used to, that the room that I was in, the light coming through the window, objects on the table. And I looked. It was everything was precious and alive, almost as if I was looking at it and listening to it for the first time. So I was in a state of kind of amazement. "Wow, this is all very beautiful." And I picked up a pen, held it. Looked out of the window at the beautiful tree that had always been there but I'd never really seen it. Then I was in London at the time when I had to take a bus and go into town. And even there, sitting on top of the double-decker bus, everything seemed so peaceful, even the traffic. Later, I saw that phrase in the Bible somewhere, "The peace that passes all understanding."

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. TOLLE: That's what happened because I didn't understand why I was at peace because externally nothing had changed. Internally, everything had changed.

MS. TIPPETT: So, you know, here's something that's striking to me about your story, because I think many people have had these breakthroughs. I mean, like the moment you described a few years earlier where you had this kind of cathartic experience and you saw something momentarily and you were momentarily changed. But you had this transformation. I mean, it sounds like, from the story you tell, you were never the same after that day. What was it that happened to you that was so complete?

MR. TOLLE: I don't have an answer to that. I know that for most people it does not happen in that way. For most people, it's a gradual process. Perhaps because the suffering was so dreadful, the psychological suffering, that it was a dark night of the soul, as I realized later, that many people before this shift in consciousness happens they go into the depths of depression or despair. And there is a permanent change that happens when you let it go that low.

MS. TIPPETT: That far. Mm-hmm.

MR. TOLLE: Yes. Most people don't actually have to go into the depths of despair. They have their ordinary daily suffering, and that's also enough to eventually bring about a transformation of consciousness.

MS. TIPPETT: Mm-hmm.

MR. TOLLE: But I have no ultimate answer, really, why in my case it was a very dramatic permanent shift, and for most people it's a gradual transition. I realized that later.

MS. TIPPETT: Spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle.

[Sound bite of music]

MR. TOLLE: Historically, we're reaching a very critical point on this planet, and so many people are realizing that something fundamental needs to change. And the fundamental dimension is not outside; it's within each human being. And so if there is a great readiness now on the part of many, many people for this inner shift in consciousness, and that's why so many people read these books. I was amazed when The Power of Nowcame out 10 years ago

MS. TIPPETT: Mm-hmm.

MR. TOLLE: When I wrote the book I thought, "OK. This will appeal to a few people who have already gone deeply into meditation or whatever." That's what I thought. And then I thought I suddenly realized many people who have never read a spiritual book in their lives, they looked it and said, "I understand now. I understand the structure of my unhappiness."

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. TOLLE: And I understand that it is not necessary. [Laugh]

MS. TIPPETT: Right. And you've now had what, 26 million people watch the 10-week

MR. TOLLE: Yes.

MS. TIPPETT: Webinar with Oprah Winfrey and millions of copies of A New Earth. And not just your book. I mean, there's an explosion.

MR. TOLLE: Yes.

MS. TIPPETT: And you speak about, and I think we can all see many, many indications of that, this spiritual energy. You know, and you are actually saying you are writing about a profound shift in planetary consciousness that is destined to take place in the human species. Now, I mean, I hear many people say these days, these last years, you know, something is changing. There's a shift in consciousness. We're understanding more. We're learning more. And yet I worry that this is a Western a luxurious phenomenon that's only available to those of us who don't have to think about survival. Because there are many places in the world right now, and this is also part of what's happening on our planet now, I mean, some of the basic elements of survival food are scarce. And

MR. TOLLE: Yes.

MS. TIPPETT: Yeah. So how do you think about that? That disjunction?

MR. TOLLE: Well, as long as survival occupies your mind then there's very little room for anything else and even for unhappiness. The strange thing is as long as you're struggling to survive, you don't even have the energy the mind doesn't have enough energy

MS. TIPPETT: To have what we call unhappiness.

MR. TOLLE: for an unhappy me.

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. TOLLE: An unhappy self. You wouldn't even know what somebody's talking about when they talk about unhappiness because you're struggling to survive. But once there is sufficient, then a different thing comes in. The mind suddenly begins to work in a different way and becomes very problematic. So the fact that now there are still many humans who don't have enough food and so on.

MS. TIPPETT: And water. Yeah.

MR. TOLLE: There's a great im and water. There's a great imbalance on the planet, again, largely created by the greed of the human mind. So, yes, that is there, but the transformation of consciousness has to start somewhere on the planet. And then it will affect the rest of the planet. The collective and the individual are really very much the same.

MS. TIPPETT: Mm-hmm.

MR. TOLLE: So it doesn't work if you say, OK, I need to have a good income and a really peaceful place where I can meditate every day, and then I can really tune in and be at peace and go very deep. It's not going to work.

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. TOLLE: The spirituality has come into the so-called unsatisfying reality. It has to this is the moment to enter it, rather than waiting for your life to improve. It will never really improve unless the spiritual dimension comes in.

MS. TIPPETT: Let me ask you this. I think a criticism some people have, or a wariness, of what's been called New Age spirituality, and I actually think we're in a different era now even, that what might have been called New Age is evolving into something different.

MS. TIPPETT: Your work is sometimes associated with that sphere. And I think that there is a concern that, you know, it is engaged in a spiritual quest and yet it's very individualistic, that it is inward looking. And in that way would diverge from some of the impulses, you know, in the great traditions Christianity, Judaism this impulse that comes also from that consciousness or from faith to repair the world. You know, a kind of active compassion, the agape love of the New Testament.

MR. TOLLE: Yes. Yes.

MS. TIPPETT: Is there a disconnect?

MR. TOLLE: No. I believe that really it's for every individual to realize within themselves that there is the old consciousness working in them, the structures of their own mind, and there is the possibility of stepping out of that. The shifting consciousness, it's for you to experience. You realize that in essence you are not whatever is in your mind but the awareness behind your mind. Then a much greater depth is suddenly active in you. And when you touch that, when you have access to that, when you are that, then the way in which you interact with other human beings and with the world at large changes. You become a force for good in this world. It's only there where really true compassion and true love, which ultimately is not what the ego thinks love is, which is "Don't you ever leave me. Don't you dare leave me. I need you," or whatever, some kind of it's not that, but true compassion, true love, and real the joy of being alive. They all arise on that level. And it's only then anybody who embodies this shift in consciousness and many people are going through it now on the planet not the majority yet, it's still a minority, but they are they cannot not have an influence on the world around them. They influence not by wanting to influence; it just happens. And then many people will be called upon to do things in this world, to be active. But it comes from a much more peaceful place within, not from an angry conflict-ridden state of consciousness. And very great power comes through you then. But the primary thing is not changing the outer world; the primary is going through the change within. And then you cannot not change the outer once that has happened.

MS. TIPPETT: Wasn't it Gandhi who said, "I can't change the world but I can change myself"?

MR. TOLLE: Yes. And ultimately, you see, that's where true change happens. So it sometimes looks from an external viewpoint as if you were preoccupied with yourself. But, no, the normal state of consciousness, you are continuously preoccupied with yourself. [Laugh]

MS. TIPPETT: Right. I mean, I think what you're saying also, and certainly those experiences could be confused. I mean, someone might imagine that they were very spiritual and yet still very preoccupied with themselves, right? I mean, I think what I hear you saying is that for you a sign and a symptom of a true shift in consciousness would be that one was having a good effect on, a different effect on the world around them.

MR. TOLLE: Yes. A very good yardstick or criterion is, for example, your relationship with other human beings. Do they become more peaceful? Do they become free of conflict? Are you still contributing to the conflict or does conflict dissolve in your presence?

MS. TIPPETT: Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle.

[Sound bite of music]

MS. TIPPETT: You have a really interesting analysis of, or just an observation about humility and real humility that can arise when people have a true passion for their calling. I mean, humility is one of these words really hard to talk about. It's hard to talk about in American culture. But to me it's very hopeful because you also name the fact that true humility is out there. And I think when you say that, we all know we've known people like that.

MR. TOLLE: Yes. And basically one could say true humility is no longer living through a concept, a mental concept, of who you are.

MS. TIPPETT: Just being that, right?

MR. TOLLE: Just being that.

MS. TIPPETT: Fully being that.

MR. TOLLE: Yes. Yes. And so it's not something one can actually cultivate because anything that you cultivate really is a mental concept.

MS. TIPPETT: And it's also not a sacrifice in that sense, right?

MR. TOLLE: No.

MS. TIPPETT: Because I think that in Western culture, humility is like debasing yourself.

MR. TOLLE: Yes.

MS. TIPPETT: And that's not what you're talking about. It's really about being fully alive.

MR. TOLLE: Being fully alive and fully engaging with life in the present moment, which is where life happens. Fully responding to the needs of this moment, not rejecting this moment, not arguing with this moment, but being open to it.

MS. TIPPETT: And I wonder if it's also some aspect of that is that when you are fully alive and fully present, even if in a very powerful way, right, I mean even if your presence is powerful, there's something about knowing your place in the scheme of things. I mean, being aware of how complex and large everything around you is.

MR. TOLLE: Yes. The vastness of it all and the compulsion to continuously interpret whatever you are experiencing at any given moment, that is no longer there. And there's great freedom in not compulsively interpreting other people, situations, and so on. Not imposing all these judgments. That's another word for it. Imposing thinking, thinking continuously on the world, which is so alive and so fresh and new at every moment. It's all when we impose the continuously compulsive thinking on it then we deaden it, and we become dead to the aliveness of the world. We become dead to the aliveness in others. And so we can no longer have empathy for others when we are behind a screen of conceptualization through which we judge others. And so, yes, the mind is beautiful. The ability to think is a great thing. And it does not mean that you fall below thinking when you are open to the present moment in the state of

MS. TIPPETT: Or that you turn your mind off, right? It doesn't

MR. TOLLE: Yes. It doesn't mean you become semiconscious or it doesn't mean it's a thing that happens to you when you have a few drinks.

MS. TIPPETT: Right. Right.

More:
Eckhart Tolle The Power of Now | The On Being Project

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