Oprah Winfrey interviews Eckhart Tolle

During the week I saw an advertisement about Oprah Winfrey interviewing Eckhart Tolle on his book "A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose".

Having listened to Eckhart Tolle's "Power of Now", some of which I found incredibly heavy going, I knew this interview was a must!

I followed the link to the Oprah Winfrey site and found that Oprah and Eckhart were doing a 10 week course focusing on different aspects of his book. 

Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual teacher, is quietly spoken, a deep thinker, with profound ideas.  While I find his work incredibly heavy going... his wisdom is compelling.

Here are a few gems I absorbed from the interview:

• all creative works come from the space of stillness -- it's about getting in touch with the stillness within, where there is no mental noise, and out of the stillness, when the time is right, you will get the feeling or a strong sense that something wants to be created e.g. a book, piece of art, a major move
• a strong knowing not based on a decision-making process but rather a realisation that something is going to happen, be created
• need to look at what the greater purpose is, what does the greatest purpose want from me?  rather than what do I want from life?
• what does life want from me, is a much more powerful question to ask rather than what do I want from life
• an important part of asking what life wants from me is to be ready to receive the answer.  It may not come immediately
• need to practise moments of stillness so we are not continuously absorbed in the incessant mental noise called thinking, most of which is unnecessary and repetitive
• you cannot rely only on your thinking processes to produce something powerful and original.  Inspiration needs to come from somewhere deeper
• a flower is an access point into inner stillness.  A flower is fragile, less dense and spirit can flow through it more freely
• when you contemplate a flower without too much interference of your thinking mind, you get into that point of stillness.  Flowers are not anxious or concerned about anything... and you can be like that too when you get in touch with the flower.  Contemplating a flower without thought gets you in touch with a deeper dimension of yourself
• be present with the perception rather than labelling it.  Perceive the flower and see it through a background of just stillness -- of consciousness
• "and so many people are so trapped in this continuous mental noise that absorbs their whole attention all the time.  Every thought absorbs the stream of thinking, absorbs their attention, they don't see that the world around them is vitally alive"... as people grow older the world around them becomes lifeless and dead
• we live too much in our head... we are not present!
• be aware of what your mind is saying and realise that is only a small part of the consciousness
• we are conditioned by our past
• "you don't become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that's already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge, but it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness"
• no matter how good your intentions are, when you are still trapped in the ego it will always take you into conflict eventually -- by comparing yourself with others, judging others
• you can think positively but that is not enough because eventually something negative will come along to challenge the positive
• you have to go deeper to a place within yourself that is unconditioned... where the spirit exists within you... and you can only do that by becoming still
• when you feel, you don't need a definition.  It is about sensing it not defining it
• when your mind becomes still there is a beautiful perception of everything... things you may never have seen before
• when you're not naming, you're not carrying around the burden of a heavy ego, personality, a person with its problems, with its past, with its future -- you'll become a more conscious presence perceiving the beauty around you
• sense perceptions, become acutely conscious of perceptions which means looking, hearing and touching -- that brings you into the present moment.
• the more you bring those moments of presence into your life, the more your old conditioning becomes eroded gradually
• power can only flow into your life when you're completely present with what you're doing now.  And this is why most people's lives do not have this power because they're always living for the next thing and next thing, or living in the past.  They tend to devalue the present moment
• happiness comes from a deeper place within you that you can only access in the present moment
• dissatisfaction is not a good place or a good starting point for changing your life.  You need to find a place of acceptance.  No matter where you are, come to terms and become friendly with the present moment.  Because if you do not become friendly with the present moment, you're not friendly with life because life is only now.  If you're not friendly with life, life cannot support you
• making peace with the present moment doesn't mean you approve of the situation.  But you must make peace with the moment in order to get yourself out of it.  Resisting the present moment is only going to cause more of it (similar things)

I'm enclosing a link to the interview -- it is a very long interview so will take quite a while to download.  If you have a slow connection you may experience some difficulty downloading.
The MP3:
http://flv.oprah.com/podcast/ane/webcast-MP3-2008-03-04.mp3

I'm looking forward to next week's interview.

Let me know what you think about this interview and Eckhart Tolles thoughts... you can do so by clicking on the comment link below and leaving your thoughts.

Best wishes
Jeanne

PS have you signed up for my free 5 step e- course "Uncovering Your Dreams"... you can do so at:
http://www.aspirationsplus.com/udpromotion1.html

and have you received your complimentary copy "#1 Ingredient To Fast Track Your Success!"  You can do so when you subscribe to Aspirations Plus at
http://www.aspirationsplus.com/information-support-subscription.html

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