“You are the consciousness through which everything is known. And that cannot know itself; it is itself.” Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks
The prism through which we look is not our ego, assets, accomplishments, status, material acquisitions, social class/level, intellectual prowess or the attachment to our “stuff.” No, this identification to the ego is an illusion. Is this perception difficult to comprehend? For some . . . of course it is . . . for others, it is the key to a profound awareness of your basic existence. In Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle states this premise in simple terms, “So you cannot become an object to yourself. That is the very reason the illusion of egoic identity arose – because mentally you made yourself into an object. And then you begin to have a relationship with yourself, and tell others and yourself your story.” Does any of this sound familiar?
The recognition in perception of acknowledging the essence of consciousness is the key to knowing who you are. Once that threshold is crossed, the responsibility presents itself individually for each of us. We all arrive differently, it really doesn’t make any difference how we get there . . . just so we utilize the inertia, energy, timelessness, and present awareness capitulating in the surrender of the identity with ego. Put another way, once again by Eckhart Tolle from Stillness Speaks, “When you perceive without interpretation, you can then sense what it is that is perceiving. The most we can say in language is … that there is a field of alert stillness in which the perception happens.”
When your life is out of control, making no sense, a monotonous roller-coaster of tedium or a depressing sequence of lack-luster events . . . the responsibility rests upon the individual to change what isen’t working. How do we do that? The first step is the desire for change, the second is a change of behaviour embracing these profound words of Buddha, “Do not speak – unless it improves on silence.”
Looking at yourself in whatever stage of life you may be experiencing, is a delicate practice in personal evolution. Yes . . . this can be postponed or never attempted. The work, none the less, will need to be done either at this specific time or another . . . you are accountable for the choice, the work, the revelation, the consciousness, the awareness and the privilege of knowing who you are in essence, as Ralph Waldo Emerson so adroitly understood with these words, “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” Take this moment and answer the question . . . do you know what to do with this precious time, and more importantly… do you even care? JLR