Eckhart Tolle — “Stillness Speaks”

I would urge all those who suffer to download this inspirational book.
In many ways it targets precisely what we have to cope with.

Here are a couple of gems.....x

 

There is clearly no interest in this post, or this book, yet it is the single most helpful and encouraging item I have come across, for the severe tinnitus sufferer who is struggling with meditation.

 

Thank you for recommending this book. I ordered a sample through kindle for now...

I used to have many moment of "stillness" before getting tinnitus. I miss that, and hopefully after reading this book will regain those moments...Interestingly, Eckhart Tolle seems to have tinnitus himself.

 

Hi WS.
I am truly finding answers.
I meditate every morning in a lovely hot bath.
I hear my tinnitus of course - but I do not actively listen to it.
I no longer fret about the sounds.
They are just ‘there.’
I surrender to the stillness and find peace.
We can all find a place of safety
a condition of stillness.

Best wishes
Dave x
Jazzer

 

I've read a bit of Eckhart Tolle. He and Wayne Dyer were helpful to me when I was first getting into mindfulness meditation. There's an audiobook with a discussion between the two of them which is quite a good listen.

In a similar vein, the audio book "The Present Moment" by Noah Elkrief is very calming. It's all about questioning and disbelieving negative thoughts.

 

@Jazzer
Here's your stillness and tranquility.

 

Another gem from this amazing author.

 

The answer is unconditional love.

 

‘Animals are natural
mindfulness exponents.
They accept every moment
exactly as it is.‘

 

I have not added anything to this post regarding the philosophical teachings of Eckhart Tolle for over a year.

I sense that there is very little interest in his writing on this forum, which surprises me as I have found nothing of comparable assistance in coping with our shared predicament than what he has to say.

I am currently doing a lot of re-reading but will come back to this subject later.

 

Jazzer, in addition to tinnitus and hyperacusis, I have a condition called tsundoku. It means you have more books than you could read in a lifetime and I have this book! I'll definitely have a look... thank you!

I think Eckhart Tolle can maybe be a little intimidating for people who are new to that kind of spirituality... but he's truly inspiring and amazing.

 

Hi Mary.

Eckhart Tolle’s books are great - but I really got to grips with his philosophies as I watched more and more of his teachings on YouTube:

* We all run an endless narrative of our lives in our heads. Typically comprised of negative aspects. We are wasting our ‘present’ with endless thoughts.
* We all overthink our fears for the future.
* Thus we contaminate our present.
* We must practice acceptance of ‘what is.’
* The more we resist and despise our current condition, the more destructive power it will have.
* Practice ‘being without thinking.’
(Without Doing.)
* Recognise others for their humanity.
Do not judge people by assigning them into boxes.

Obviously I cannot do him justice by bullet pointing some of his ideas, perhaps I shouldn’t have tried, but these points have lived with me for some time now.

Perhaps the most salient advice is:

‘Recognise the ever present internal dialogue we all run, minute by minute, inside of our brains, which is mostly negative, critical, accusing, and find a way to ignore it by being more ‘present’ to this moment.’

Very difficult to start with - but can become easier with practice.

 

I have a bunch of his quotes on my wall.

“Your situation isn’t creating your suffering. Your resistance is.”

“All problems are illusions of the mind.”

“Presence removes time. Without time there is no suffering.”

“As there are no problems in the now, there is no illness either. The belief in a label that someone attaches to your condition keeps the condition in place, empowers it, and makes a seemingly solid reality out of a temporary imbalance. It gives it not only reality and solidity, but also a continuity in time that it did not have before. By focusing on this instance, and refraining from labeling it mentally, illness is reduced to one or several of these factors: physical pain, weakness, discomfort, or disability. That is what you surrender to. You do not surrender to the idea of illness. Allow this to force you into the present moment.”​

That’s one upside of getting this. You find a guy like Echart Tolle and the lessons you learn will serve you forever.

 

I got a lot out of listening to one of his books on CD some years ago. I've never forgotten his slant on existentialism although putting it into practice is very difficult. It is also in direct opposition to everything current western culture stands for.

I haven't read this book yet but it would probably be in a more accessible style for most.

https://www.amazon.com/Subtle-Art-Not-Giving-Counterintuitive/dp/0062457713

Stoicism, becoming less emotionally reactive. Again, completely at odds with today's trigger-warning outrage-mob culture.

 

The statement above is hugely powerful.
It does not represent a treatment.
It does not represent a cure.
It does not promote habituation.
It represents a willing acceptance of what ‘is.’
A state of inner non-resistance.
Stillness arises naturally.
You are at peace.

 

All of the books, videos, teachings of Ekhart Tolle contain secrets for healing not found elsewhere.

But this book in particular is an absolute gem.

Having suffered lifelong from infantile maternal deprivation, schizoid phenomena, severe tinnitus, Parkinson’s disease, and most recently, bereavement, I need to tell you all that the philosophies and practical exercises given within these covers have helped me on all scores mentioned above.

Not a book to merely read casually, but a book to read slowly, to digest, to experiment with, a workbook as such.

Revered by thousands/millions worldwide there are obviously those who disapprove of him, and doubt his sincerity.

The handful of dissenting reviews I have read all display scant study, and obvious misunderstanding.

But of course we are all entitled to a view.

Here you have mine.

If I could afford to, I would buy a copy for everybody suffering from emotional trauma.

 

‘Some believe in Eckhart Tolle.
Some don’t.
It doesn’t even matter.
What matters is that
we are each free to choose.’

QED

 

“Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let it go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry or hard-done by person. You will then ignore, deny or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon.
It is also insane.”

E.T. ~

 

Like every subject under the sun, we will all take a personal view point.
I have studied mental ill health life long.
Not to obtain a degree - something far more pressing - to reverse the crushing primary messages I had absorbed from the appalling maternal deprivation from my desperately mentally ill mother.
The primary messages from our mothers, those first few minutes, hours, days, months, years are crucial to our belief in our selves.

If we are lucky - responded to with loving arms, smiles, cosseted when crying - we are absorbing the most blissful of all possible experiences.
We will be ‘set for life.’
However, if we are continually left to scream until pain and exhaustion take us over, the messages absorbed are likely to be:
you are worthless,
unworthy of love,
nothing,
vile,
filthy,
just die.
etc….
The unloved child may go through life
‘guilty of the crime of drawing breath.

Yes - this then becomes our identity, our reality.
Until and unless we can recognise and decode these subliminal messages, as they crop up on a daily basis, and see them for the lie that they are, we will go on believing what our ingrained criteria is telling us.
This internal condemning voice amounts to Freud’s super ego, and Tolle’s internal condemning voice, which he refers to as ‘the pain body.’
Once this identity has become established it is highly resistant to any change or remission.

The answer is to come to recognise this condemning voice - sometimes it presents as an appalling body of neat pain - as the ‘lie’ that it is, and over time adopt the truth that we are all born good, pristine, and naturally worthy of the love that is our birthright.

 

You have a twin brother, if I am remembering correctly, Dave. May I ask if he, too, was left to scream until pain and exhaustion took over? If yes, then did he suffer the same mental anguish as you?

Twins have been studied for decades and I find it so interesting.

“Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.” E. T. ~

 

Mick was more physically frail than I.
(6lb 2oz - to my 7lb 2oz)
Mum already had a five year old son Brian.
Mick was the chosen one throughout his life.
Put simply, mum could not cope with three.
I was frequently farmed out to an auntie.
Mick never presented any mental health problems.

As recently as one week ago he was astounded to hear me say that I have had distressing subliminal messages for all of my life.

Despite our vastly different experience, I would have to say that Mick is a very kind caring guy.

I would describe my older brother as very difficult, probably an Aspergers/Narcissist.
I hope I’m not boring you Emmalee.

(An item of trivia: when I was jazzing, one of my features was a lovely old melody called ‘Emaline.’
Incidentally - this is not a ‘chat-up’ line.)

 

@emmalee, just wanted to say hello and needed someone to talk to. I always valued your thoughts. You have a brilliant mind and have been so compassionate towards me and others.

I've been asked a few times "Are you a doctor?" I answered no, not a doctor, I have 4 years college study in mind, body and biology. Also attended January intersection and summer school which I found more of a benefit because both a theater stage and a patient medical bed was used.

College isn't needed for study of mind and body or body and mind, but use of a stage and medical bed taught me what reality ready is. A psychology course on abuse, meanness, being a victim and related conditions that are inherited or not was the best study I ever had. I continued study throughout life.

I read lots of philosophy books including Eastern Philosophy - and all the rational, abstract and methodical stuff'.

I don't believe cognitive therapy works - as thought or mental fixation to a more positive, realistic focus when one has serious physical pain.

All my professors and many philosophers believe that when someone has serious physical pain that can't be medically solved, there's no answers if pain meds can't be used. For me, pain meds makes my tinnitus go sonic - an unbearable very high pitch whistling. Most all with tinnitus can take some type of pain meds if needed, but I can't.

Hello Dave, @Jazzer - Wish peace for all and peace for you.

Sorry for any mistakes, only have one eye again and with the other- vision is weak. Plus in so much pain.

 

‘If only love and friendship had the power to heal, we would all be made whole once again.
As it is, we can at least be here for each other in a very real capacity.
Exchanges like these are invaluable to me.
Thank you for being my friends.’

 

@Jazzer, you were an adorable baby and I wish I could pick you up and hold you and make you feel you were cherished. I'm so sorry your mom was so incapable of love.

 

A very precious comment Mary.
Thank you so much.
My adorable Sylvie’s last words were: