Stillness Within Meetup – August 8 – Mastery of Life

  Six of us took part in watching a recent Eckhart Tolle talk on August 8th, which focused on discovery of the essential beingness that supersedes our experience of the self. A key message was focused on:  realization of who we are in essence, beyond the person.  Mastery of life involves moving towards living in two dimensions simultaneously – the form based existence being in balance with pure beingness.  We each have the capacity to effectively balance being and becoming (e.g. practicing stillness/surrender with pursuing goals – such as a career, education etc.)  The key is being able to orient to the present moment in small ways through the day, and over time, deepening that awareness of the present moment as our foundation.  He notes that a balance between being and doing actually changes the nature of the doing – doing can be informed by the being… and a drive towards ‘compulsive doing’ can slip away.  The starting point for this balance is the allowance of more space (allowing moments of non-thinking – which can become more frequent as we begin to release our identification as our ‘stories’ or thoughts). The group members each shared some key messages that resonated with us, and one member shared her perspective that Tolle’s message linked very closely to a recent Krishnamurti-based retreat that she attended where Dr. Hillary Rodrigues emphasized similar teachings from K.  For example, choiceless awareness of all our senses can come very naturally to us, including our inner sense of self and thought. Releasing identification or association with the mentally fabricated self and becoming more acquainted with the space in which thoughts arise can help us to see the truth of this for ourselves.  It’s always interesting to see how closely K’s teachings resonates with a number of current day teachers. Thanks all for making this another enjoyable afternoon of discovery, and thank you to KECC for their support in hosting this event.