Eckhart Tolle, the Deeper “I” – Stillness Within Meetup (May 12, 2018)

Earlier in May, Stillness Within members were able to share an extraordinary Eckhart Tolle talk: The Deeper I

Thanks to Suzanne Stewart for hosting a great gathering and preparing the summary below!

 

After a few minutes of shared stillness, we watched in awed presence as Eckhart introduced his “Deeper I.” He starts with “the surface I,” that “historical self” who is never very comfortable with “not knowing” and creates the “illusion of knowing by compulsively interpreting, judging, concluding, labelling.” In this way the surface “sense of self is never very satisfying, always needing more” of this illusory knowledge. Eckhart points out that this only works to prevent a “direct experience of our deeper Self.”

 

Eckhart harkens frequently to K’s SEEING in alert, intense awareness within us, this “seeming need for knowledge,”—seeing this clearly as an impediment to presence. He stresses that this seeing “is NOT and act of willpower.”

 

Eckhart elaborates on many themes as he points to the nature of the Deeper I: the arising of “creative beauty” and “the transformation of daily life;” the roles of suffering, time, striving and seeking, which he does not recommend as paths to the direct experience of the Deeper I. He simply invites us to ask, “What is it that allows every experience to BE experienced?”

 

Eckhart follows this with a detailed talk about his “portals into presence,” the simple practices he first introduced in The Power of Now almost 20 years ago. The video was over 2 hours long, so we opted to share a prepared summary of this 50 minute section. We ended with a short but intensely aware practice of Eckhart’s favourite Inner Body Awareness practice. A copy of the summary handout follows.

Krishnamurti also alludes to an inner “I” which can lead us to true discovery and ultimate truth:

“The mind must be utterly silent.  Not asking, not hoping for experience.  It must be completely still.  Only then is there a possibility of that light which will dispel our darkness.”

Thanks again for supporting a great event!