Eckhart Tolle — “Stillness Speaks”

Perhaps we can discuss more than the teachings of ET in order to give this topic some more 'life', Dave. I like various authors and find it refreshing and informative to have many points of views to ponder.

"If you have constant thoughts about the way someone treated you, or a bad experience you went through, and keep regurgitating it in your mind, then the memory of this experience is never released. The thought will just keep gaining energy, and so the brain will keep on repeating it, which again will begin to disturb your peace of mind.

The experience you are thinking about is not happening now, so you are free to let it go; it is the letting go of it that frees you. The memory, which again is just a thought form in your mind, begins to run out of energy and so your mind is then able to release this experience and become free of what was disturbing you. It is not the past experience that is hurting you; it is you holding on to it that is."

I feel that we can become prisoners of our own minds.

 

I take your point Emmalee.

This particular thread is called:

Eckhart Tolle “Stillness Speaks.”

I started it to give members the opportunity to examine his concept of an inner narrative that can keep us entrapped.

Many are unaware of the narrative that haunts them, as it runs as a loop recording in the back of their minds.

My focus is not on my past, but on consolidating the actual methodology of recognising the ‘pain body’ as it emerges, in order to reject it.
Recognition is the first step towards enlightenment.
Perhaps this thread has run its course??

But I am very open to the work of other authors, psychologists, or philosophies that can help in this regard.

Thank you for your input, and do you have any such authors in mind?

 

No, I don't think this thread has run its course, Dave. By all means, carry on, it is a wonderful topic. I have a few things going on in my life, so any time spent here is limited at best. When I do pop in, this thread is my first stop.

 

@Jazzer

Sorry Dave, I forgot to mention one of my favorite authors. My interests, since getting tinnitus, have mostly been on meditation and mindfulness.

One of my favorite authors.....

https://www.mindfulnesscds.com

 

I'll add a quote, even though it is not from ET. Hope this sits well with you, Dave.

“We must be willing to encounter darkness and despair when they come up and face them, over and over again if need be, without running away or numbing ourselves in the thousands of ways we conjure up to avoid the unavoidable.”

― Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

 

Yes Em - I read about him devising his eight step programme on mindfulness which he introduced at a university hospital in Massachusetts to patients whose severe mental illnesses were resistant to change.

I have read about him, but must look into his concepts.

 

I find his concepts interesting....

"Kabat-Zinn has defined mindfulness meditation as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”. By focusing on the breath, the idea is to cultivate attention on the body and mind as it is moment to moment, and so help with pain, both physical and emotional."

We all see things as we are, in my opinion. When someone writes out a long post, with words and concepts that they are passionate about, they must also realize that others will see it from their own perpesctives. We can only hope to share our perspectives and perhaps learn something new along the way.

Meditation, mindfulness and yoga are what make life, with tinnitus, livable for me. Someone else may not see how this could be at all. So be it. It is all good.

 

Thank you Emmalee - I have been reading some of his quotes and listening to some video teachings.

I need to do a bit more study but will come back.

 

Being from Massachusetts and going to college there, besides New Hampshire, I'm very familiar with Dr. Kabat-Zinn early days, but rather not go into details.

Back then, he wouldn't claim that his study was the answer for very severe pain. With his medical study, he knew that medical intervention and/or heavy pain mediations was needed. I can't take any pain meds, because my tinnitus becomes super sonic with a very high-pitched whistle.

For me, when just having hearing loss tinnitus, the best mindfulness was undertaking a project with accomplishment. I almost forgot that I had tinnitus as loud as a fire alarm, when building sets of 1975 and 1968 Topps baseball cards. Also reading novels of personal experiences helped.

Now with also having somatic and pulsatile tinnitus and unbearable pain, there is nothing that going to help me and I know that all do understand.

I have not left my home in 5 years, except to go doctors/dentists. Been hanging by a thread for years. About two years ago, I developed hypertension and had a hypertension crisis. Recently, I experienced another hypertension crisis and loss all eye sight in left eye again, but this time it can't be fixed. Right eye sometimes become very blurry.

Hugs.

 

I assume that everybody on Tinnitus Talk suffers to some extent, however, to what degree and to what intensity is a very salient question.

All we have to go by is the information shared and our intuitive understanding of ‘what that condition might feel like.’

From my own observation, a very few members write in such a way that it makes coping with tinnitus sound like a ‘breeze.’

Most suffer much more than that.

Greg’s situation is clearly appalling; the combination of chronic nerve pain from various sources, and constant hateful noise must be unbearable, and yet, bear it he must, because there is no alternative.

My own situation feels unbearable, a combination of severe noise, physical frailty, loss of balance, and emotional torment from primary infantile ‘brain washing’ is horrible.
Somehow I cope.

I have absolutely no question that Greg’s condition is far far worse - off the scale.

All we can do, it seems, is look to and try to discover practices that might alleviate or mitigate our own experience.

Spiritual teachers like Kabot-Zin and Tolle suggest that a degree of acceptance to ‘what is,’ can be beneficial. That resisting ‘what is’ makes things worse. There must be some degree of acceptance of the unavoidable, otherwise we would not still be here.

But that is probably of little consolation, if any.

We all experiment, do we not?

Emmalee finds that a combination of yoga, mindfulness and other remedies helps her.
I find that daily meditation, hypnotherapy, understanding and absorbing certain philosophical concepts by spiritual teachers helps me.

These practices can sometimes help us to maintain a degree of hope.

One feels tempted to say “what a life ?!”
And yet I have so far managed to survive.
In my case, my responsibility to others feels imperative.

Love and best wishes to all of us that suffer,
Dave xx

 

I have days when I wonder how I will make it, yet I always do. If not for my strong belief in acceptance, I may not have made it this far.

When it comes to tinnitus, no one wins, there is no contest. Some with very low noise cannot cope, they need complete silence. Some with off the chart noise manage to cope and live their lives, despite it.

We all walk the same path, yet it is very different.

 

@emmalee suggested a few days back that we could widen our source material on this thread to incorporate the teaching of other philosophers.
I am quite sure she is right.
I took this quote from a website called Wisdom Works.
I think it is very good, and thank you Emmalee for your suggestion.

“In the exploration of philosophic principles one thing is absolutely certain: speaking with complete honesty, from the heart is essential otherwise you are just turning over ideas, ideas that have their merits, but if not taken to heart fail to have a transformative effect.

The Stoics speak of pathe, the passions that captivate heart and mind. Being a therapeutic philosophy, they are exploring the means by which one overcomes these passions. There is no doubt that it's the individual ego that experiences them. The Stoics speak of eupathe, which might be translated as good feelings. These are not imported as a rival to the passions but are what is there when the passions are dissolved. They are dissolved in the recognition that we are not alone but part of the whole, and it's in this recognition that compassion has its part to play. The prefix com means together with, and therefore compassion is that form of pathe that arises in the knowledge of unity. When this occurs providence has an opportunity to play its part.”

 

To be a contributor to this forum we have all obviously lost our silence.
We cannot even achieve ‘quiet.’
What a bitter pill to take.
I can think of little worse.
And then to make matters far worse, it took no time at all to discover that there is no medical remedy, and possibly never will be.
The problem is so complex.

For me the problem became a psychological / philosophical one.
Is there anything that the sufferer can do to ease his or her torment, suffering, pain - of being ‘stuck with’ an eternal abhorrent internal noise.

All I have found is meditation and (so called) mindfulness.
The term is really a misnomer - the method being to deprive the mind of its continuous flood of overthinking, in order to relax more deeply, and accomplish a state of relaxed acceptance.
The noise is already ‘there’ - we can either try to find a way to live with it, or ‘go to war’ with it.

For some of us, a concept like the one printed below may help to some degree.

 

@Jazzer, I reckon that for many with tinnitus one of the main problems is a too narrow focus on self. In terms of Fritz Perls and gestalt therapy, the best way forward is to expand the ego into the wider environment, become involved in things outside oneself. It's chicken and egg in that tinnitus can lead to greater and greater self-absorption. Interestingly, Perls called his therapy 'concentration' therapy.

 

Yes, I agree.

Shifting focus is absolutely crucial.

Meditation is just one way of shifting focus of course, initially onto the breath and then on to ‘stillness.’

We all become experimenters.

 

You seem like you have many disabling ailments and I’m very sorry We (Tinnitus Talk) appreciate reading your knowledge. You seem like a great person despite your suffering.

 

It is ages since I added anything to this thread.

To me, Eckhart Tolle is an absolute gem of philosophical wisdom.

A couple of years ago I received some extremely unpleasant post as a result of standing up for him and his teachings. I would just like to mention that his findings have been invaluable to me ever since I discovered him some years ago now, and they have helped me on an hour by hour, daily basis.

One of his gems for all of us who suffer with tinnitus.

“Silence is not necessary to find peace.
Meditate and find the stillness beneath all things.”

Hi to all my friends.

Dave xx
Jazzer

 

Tolle certainly wasn't for me. He's a huckster, and not authentic. I suppose he makes a lot of money off this and that. But everyone is different, if someone gets some value from him, that's their trip, not mine. Like L. Ron Hubbert, Tolle takes from multiple Asian/Eastern spiritual paths and packages it into yuppie bite size morsels.

Anyone who charges for spiritual help or guidance is by definition not an authentic spiritual person.

 

A couple of years ago Eckhart Tolle was roundly condemned on this site for addressing an audience of war veterans, many of whom were tragically handicapped by multiple amputations.

Reportedly, he claimed that a fulfilling life, was not beyond them - that they might still go on to achieve a condition of contentment and happiness.

This was designed to give them hope - that an adjustment was in fact possible.

Perhaps the complainant would have preferred to hear a message suggesting that any degree of acceptance and contentment would now be an impossibility.

At a subsequent meeting, a double amputee asked for the microphone, and addressing the audience stated, “I have never been happier.”

Dave x
Jazzer

 

What he says about amputation is logical in its own way. Those wounds heal, and the amputee may carry on with life. But what he doesn't discuss is the other side. That is the mental remains of war. It cannot be healed.

 

Hi @Elmer B Fuddled -- I would have to respectfully disagree with this. I hear where you're coming from, and I'm not sure healing can be 100%, but I think a lot of at least partial healing is possible. I think a person has to go outside conventional medicine and traditional psychotherapy to achieve their best results however.

I like going to YouTube looking into various energy medicine modalities. Donna Eden has some good videos. My favorite energy worker (teacher) however is a sweet English lady by the name of Prune Harris. Below is a link to one of her videos in case you're interested.

There's really a lot of combinations of different approaches a person can take to help bring greater calm into one's life. No one size fits all, but I think if a person is willing to do some research, various things can be found to achieve a greater sense of calm, and facilitate a lot of healing. Just being in nature can be very healing. For some people, I imagine just riding on horseback can also do wonders.

Calming the Nerves -- 3:26 min.

 

I have a problem here Elmer.

Would it ever be right to imply to anybody with either an ongoing physical and/or mental handicap that any degree of acceptance, composure, peace of mind is going to be impossible. That cannot be right, can it? The death of all hope?

 

This is great. Thanks for sharing.

 

I agree. Get away from these damn screens (hopefully I will for once listen to my own advice, LOL). This hit me like a brick the other day after posting some replies on Quora. Why was I doing this, those may have been posted by bots! I don't know those people anyway. Why was I even doing that when the beautiful outdoors was available, there's a great eBike here to ride, I have paper and pens to draw w/, there's film in my camera, my neighbors are around to talk to...

It's all about escape, and a virtual reality vs. reality itself. The computer and internet are fine tools, but they're powerfully addictive. They're a trap, and no different than drugs when we use them to escape. A little escape is OK every now and then, all things in moderation, but really, I am wasting my life being on (in) this computer so much.

 

Eckhart Tolle is a modern day philosopher, whose books have all become international best sellers.

‘A New Earth’ is an amazingly insightful read for anybody who suffers from emotional or mental problem. Here is an example of his timeless work:





I remember a lovely lady on Tinnitus Talk called @emmalee being a strong advocate of Eckhart Tolle a couple of years ago - I wonder if she is still an active member.

I miss you @emmalee. xx

 

Hi big D, my friend Jazzer, it is me Daniel. Greetings my brother.

I love this quote, it really touched me and I think I shall get this book and have me a read.

Your words have helped me so many times.

Sending you hugs and love, peace and joy.

Most Sincerely,
Daniel the Lion