Consciousness

[Woollycardi]

Hi,
I hope this is the right forum to post this. In an effort to try and address some long term mental health destructive stuff I have been listening to a lot of Eckhart Tolle and I wondered if anyone here is interested in this too?
Thanks.

[nightshade]

Haven't particularly studied him but he is a big name in mindfulness and meditation..

I think it's totally relevant in relation to mental health...particularly anxiety and depression...the whole basis being about practicisino stillness and being at peace in the moment..important to practice daily until you are able to reach a state of calm whenever and wherever needed.

[Vitalogy]

I really like Eckhart Tolle too. His story is very inspiring, he himself spent years in depression feeling suicidal at times. I find it so relaxing to listen to him, hours and hours on all subjects on Youtube. Then practicing meditation after. I haven't found that so easy, must keep at it though, I was supprised at how hard it actually was to clear the mind of chatter.

[nightshade]

It is very hard...the idea being not to try too hard to clear as then your brain is 'active' and consciously trying...

Let it kind of wander and gently let it come back ...a mantra sometimes helps...

[Woollycardi]

Yes, i have been listening a lot to his youtube videos as well and also find it really relaxing. It really makes sense that if we can stay in the moment we let go of regrets and future anxiety, I guess I have spent most of my life dwelling over stuff and panicking as I thought this would sort it out in my head but I realise now that actually isn't a very healthy way to be!

[Vitalogy]

That's it, a mantra, focusing on the breathing or as someone just recommended to me visualising the flame of a candle, I think I'll give that one a go.
It's like the brain is battling to stay active and all your true self wants to do is be. Must keep practicing. Best wishes to you all.

[nightshade]

If you can keep practising and going with it it really does help. ...as you say most anxieties come from past hurt and future concern....dealing with now helps immensely...meditation helps cope with the learnt physical responses to stress and anxiety....it's a no brainer really....

[nightshade]

I always like the mantra 'I am'

[Vitalogy]

This is Tina Turner practising her mantra, would take more practising for sure.

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

Eckhart Tolle has a gentle, calm way about him that’s appealing. I don’t know how closely his worldview corresponds to reality but it’s certainly a way of thinking about the world - and how to orient oneself within it - that’s freeing and uplifting.

(And I rather like the way he pauses and goes into a sort of trance before answering questions like a modern day Delphic Oracle!)

I agree with previous posters who value his ‘Power of Now’ message. If there is one thing I’m bad at, it’s letting go of the past.

I’m not saying he’s original, though it doesn’t matter anyway because helpful ideas are worth repackaging. He deserves his New Age guru crown.

Some musings of his I like:

As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action.

Man made God in his own image. The eternal, the infinite and the unnameable reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as my God or your God

All religions are equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them. You can use them in the service of the ego, or you can use them in the service of the Truth. If you believe only your religion is the Truth, you are using it in the service of the ego. Used in such a way, religion becomes ideology and creates an illusory sense of superiority as well as division and conflict between people.

I would like to think Eckhart Tolle is genuinely a good guy. I hope he’s not in the spiritual self-help business just to sell a shedload of books and pick up appearance fees. I don’t think he is. Surely the homely tank tops and waistcoats would go if he were more of a slave of Mammon? However he does apparently drive a Jaguar … I don’t know – it’s tricky!

[nightshade]

But jaguars are very nice!..shows good taste...

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

Maybe you are right nightshade! Quite possibly his enjoyment of the smooth purr of a Jaguar (or a smaller cat) humanises him and makes him less austere and saintly.

[Woollycardi]

Ha ha! Love that picture. I like what he says but I am far too cynical to put him on a pedestal. I find his voice really grounding though and I do find it helpful to consider that I may not be a complete slave to my mind.

[nightshade]

I think some of the most grounded people I know appreciate the finer things in life...the know how to embrace happinessential and joy as well as totally appreciating their human frailty...nothing to prove...

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

I’ve discovered that Tolle discusses this issue exactly – are the paths to spirituality and wealth mutually exclusive?

His take on it is: if wealth is an incidental by-product of you trying to do some good in the world and you don’t seek to find your sense of identity in the material goods your wealth enables you to buy that’s fine.

Looking at the video, I have the impression Tolle is sincere in what he has to say in this area.

I guess I was concerned he might be a figure like Gerald Ratner who called the items being sold by his chain of jewellery shops ‘crap’. He was in it purely for the money, not because he believed he was offering his customers something worthwhile.

But Tolle seems to be more like a surgeon, focussed on healing people and the money that comes along with that is not specifically sought.

[ScruffbagsRUs]

Has anyone looked into the works of Stuart Hameroff (an anaesthetist working in a hospital in Tuscon, AZ)) and Roger Penrose (British mathematician).

I've found their YouTube videos on their studies on consciousness, ORCH OR, microtubules etc, quite interesting.

Here's a few of their videos

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

Hi Scruffbags, I'm interested in the work of Penrose and Hameroff on the nature of consciousness. I started a thread about free will some time back which touched on their ideas. I hope it's ok to link to it.

Thread about Free Will

I'm intrigued to find someone else on MN who is curious about this sort of stuff!