Chapter One
SILENCE & STILLNESSWhen you lose touch with inner stillness, youlose touch with yourself. When you lose touchwith yourself, you lose yourself in the world.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, isinseparable from stillness. This is the I Am thatis deeper than name and form.
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Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness?The inner space or awareness in which the wordson this page are being perceived and becomethoughts. Without that awareness, there wouldbe no perception, no thoughts, no world.
You are that awareness, disguised as a person.
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The equivalent of external noise is the inner noiseof thinking. The equivalent of external silence isinner stillness.
Whenever there is some silence around you-listento it. That means just notice it. Pay attentionto it. Listening to silence awakens the dimensionof stillness within yourself, because it is onlythrough stillness that you can be aware of silence.
See that in the moment of noticing the silencearound you, you are not thinking. You are aware,but not thinking.
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When you become aware of silence, immediatelythere is that state of inner still alertness. You arepresent. You have stepped out of thousands ofyears of collective human conditioning.
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Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awarenessrest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rootedin Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
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When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness,you become still yourself. You connect with it ata very deep level. You feel a oneness with whateveryou perceive in and through stillness. Feelingthe oneness of yourself with all things is true love.
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Silence is helpful, but you don''t need it in order tofind stillness. Even when there is noise, you canbe aware of the stillness underneath the noise, ofthe space in which the noise arises. That is theinner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.
You can become aware of awareness as the backgroundto all your sense perceptions, all yourthinking. Becoming aware of awareness is thearising of inner stillness.
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Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence.How? By dropping your inner resistance to thenoise, by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptancealso takes you into that realm of inner peace thatis stillness.
Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is-no matter what form it takes-you are still,you are at peace.
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Pay attention to the gap-the gap between twothoughts, the brief, silent space between words in aconversation, between the notes of a piano or flute,or the gap between the in-breath and out-breath.
When you pay attention to those gaps, awarenessof "something" becomes - just awareness. Theformless dimension of pure consciousness arisesfrom within you and replaces identification withform.
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True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is wherecreativity and solutions to problems are found.
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Is stillness just the absence of noise and content?No, it is intelligence itself-the underlying consciousnessout of which every form is born. Andhow could that be separate from who you are?
The form that you think you are came out of thatand is being sustained by it.
It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass;of all flowers, trees, birds, and all other forms.
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Stillness is the only thing in this world that has noform. But then, it is not really a thing, and it isnot of this world.
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When you look at a tree or a human being in stillness,who is looking? Something deeper than theperson. Consciousness is looking at its creation.
In the Bible, it says that God created the worldand saw that it was good. That is what you seewhen you look from stillness without thought.
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Do you need more knowledge? Is more informationgoing to save the world, or faster computers,more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it notwisdom that humanity needs most at this time?
But what is wisdom and where is it to be found?Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Justlook and just listen. No more is needed. Beingstill, looking, and listening activates the nonconceptualintelligence within you. Let stillnessdirect your Words and actions.
Chapter Two
BEYOND THE THINKING MINDThe human condition: lost in thought.
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Most people spend their entire life imprisonedwithin the confines of their own thoughts. Theynever go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalizedsense of self that is conditioned by the past.
In you, as in each human being, there is a dimensionof consciousness far deeper than thought. Itis the very essence of who you are. We may callit presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness.In the ancient teachings, it is the Christwithin, or your Buddha nature.
Finding that dimension frees you and the worldfrom the suffering you inflict on yourself andothers when the mind-made "little me" is all youknow and runs your life. Love, joy, creativeexpansion, and lasting inner peace cannot comeinto your life except through that unconditioneddimension of consciousness.
If you can recognize, even occasionally, thethoughts that go through your mind as simplythoughts, if you can witness your own mental-emotionalreactive patterns as they happen, thenthat dimension is already emerging in you as theawareness in which thoughts and emotions happen-the timeless inner space in which the contentof your life unfolds.
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The stream of thinking has enormous momentumthat can easily drag you along with it. Everythought pretends that it matters so much. It wantsto draw your attention in completely.
Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don''t takeyour thoughts too seriously.
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How easy it is for people to become trapped intheir conceptual prisons.
The human mind, in its desire to know, understand,and control, mistakes its opinions andviewpoints for the truth. It says: this is how it is.You have to be larger than thought to realize thathowever you interpret "your life" or someone else''slife or behavior, however you judge any situation,it is no more than a viewpoint, one of many possibleperspectives. It is no more than a bundle ofthoughts. But reality is one unified whole, inwhich all things are interwoven, where nothingexists in and by itself. Thinking fragments reality-it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces.
The thinking mind is a useful and powerful tool,but it is also very limiting when it takes over yourlife completely, when you don''t realize that it is onlya small aspect of the consciousness that you are.
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Wisdom is not a product of thought. The deepknowing that is wisdom arises through the simpleact of giving someone or something your fullattention. Attention is primordial intelligence,consciousness itself. It dissolves the barriers createdby conceptual thought, and with this comesthe recognition that nothing exists in and by itself.It joins the perceiver and the perceived in a unifyingfield of awareness. It is the healer of separation.
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Whenever you are immersed in compulsivethinking, you are avoiding what is. You don''t wantto be where you are. Here, Now.
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Dogmas - religious, political, scientific - ariseout of the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulatereality or the truth. Dogmas are collectiveconceptual prisons. And the strange thing is thatpeople love their prison cells because they give thema sense of security and a false sense of "I know."
Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanitythan its dogmas. It is true that every dogmacrumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventuallydisclose its falseness; however, unless thebasic delusion of it is seen for what it is, it will bereplaced by others.
What is this basic delusion? Identification withthought.
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Spiritual awakening is awakening from the dreamof thought.
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The realm of consciousness is much vaster thanthought can grasp. When you no longer believeeverything you think, you step out of thought andsee clearly that the thinker is not who you are.
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The mind exists in a state of "not enough" andso is always greedy for more. When you areidentified with mind, you get bored and restlessvery easily. Boredom means the mind is hungryfor more stimulus, more food for thought, and itshunger is not being satisfied.
When you feel bored, you can satisfy the mind''shunger by picking up a magazine, making aphone call, switching on the TV, surfing the web,going shopping, or-and this is not uncommontransferring the mental sense of lack and itsneed for more to the body and satisfy it briefly byingesting more food.
Or you can stay bored and restless and observewhat it feels like to be bored and restless. As you
Continues...
Excerpted from Stillness Speaksby Eckhart Tolle Copyright © 2003 by Eckhart Tolle. Excerpted by permission.
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