Presence is - as Eckhart Tolle - "the cessation of thinking without loss of consciousness." This is a mental definition, that does not help, because the mind will not understand the presence. It may know something about, but will never understand. It is just beyond thought, beyond the object consciousness. There are many synonyms: Zen, Tao, emptiness, being, space consciousness and much more, but these are only other words that what it is, not make it more comprehensible. On the contrary - every other term obscures the reality of presence even more, because with every explanatory thought the mind gains new hope that it could understand the presence nonetheless.
There are gates into the presence, through which we may achieve this state directly, by simply crossing one of the gates and now are there.
What Eckhart Tolle does is very simple and very unusual: he describes how he experiences the state of presence. The state is self-explaining, it is the consciousness that recognizes itself and that is in the experience so clear that no doubt remains. His presentation is convincing in its truthfulness. And just as he describes his experiences, these can be understood if one steps through the gates of presence.
The experiences of the presence are full of of deep peace and quiet joy -and there are many experiences that are quite natural in this consciousness.
These are the qualities of life, living consciousness, which we ourselves are.
Therefore we can not learn, but only be aware of it. We are already there.
These experiences are also the gates into the presence. What this means practically, we will only understand if we experience the presence. Therefore, these descriptions sound repeatedly mystical or esoteric, although they are not. In fact, they are so simple and essential that the mind refuses to assess them as "important". The spiritual experience, explained, is therefore not-hing other than the portrayal of a natural condition, the description of a healthy mental-emotional-physical process. It is striking that there are
thousands of portrayals of pathological processes, for example the presentation of the history of schizophrenia or a pathogenesis of criminals -both as a scientific papers as well as novels or movies. Nobody would take that for esoteric, even if very few people are concerned. But there are hardly any descriptions of mentally healthy processes: why should we put this in the department of mysticism? I think it is because our culture has not yet really be seeking so, what mental health is at all. It starts only now with the realization of the new consciousness.
The main gateway to the presence, Eckhart Tolle describes is the stillness that is much more than the absence of acoustic stimuli. It is the stillness of the non-thinking, "No-Mind", the tangible formlessness, the stillness of consciousness, which in itself recognizes the vast space in which all forms appear. As we listen to the stillness - the stillness between the words and sentences, the stillness between sounds and behind, we listen to the presence itself. We listen to the stillness and we listen so intense that no thought takes place. Thus we find the stillness within ourselves so we find the difference between the perception of the objects of feeling and thinking, and the space within us where all this takes place, the space consciousness, which is always behind the object consciousness. We live in fact always in two levels, but most people are so obsessed with things that they useually do not recognize the space consciousness. By using the gates into the presence, we accept this fact and can deliberately live in two dimensions because we are aware of it.
Another gate, Eckhart Tolle repeatedly suggests, the acception of all phenomena in the now. Life is always now. Past is the memory of an earlier now and future is the projection of a coming now, it is just thinking, mental objects. If we refuse experiences in the now, we reject life itself and thus the space consciousness. And most people experience life as hostile, because they reject the now and believe that the future could improve life. As the thinking almost always is employed with past and future, it is largely synonymous with a permanent resistance against the now, ie against life. To accept the now - and thus is only meant the present moment - is a radical position on life - no exercise.
The third goal, which he repeatedly describes is the inner body, the direct sensation of feeling alive by sensing the inner energy field of your body. It
seems that people usually not feel themselves, but think themselves as an object. You have a relationship to yourself as an object of your own mind, thinking yourself being a brain that has a body. By feeling the inner body, we experience life beyond thoughts about life. We are life. If we are enounter life by thinking we mean to have a live.
It is important to understand that the application of the gates into the presence is no "method". Methods are used by the brain to move from here to anywhere. "First, I do this and then do I get there." The future comes back into play. The gates are nothing more than descriptions of the experiences that every person can make, who lives in the presence. It is so simple that it almost ridiculous - and yet so distant and seemingly unattainable, if you are stuck in object consciousness. I have mentioned these three portals into the space awareness here very compact. If you want more detail, please read the books by Eckhart Tolle and listen to his CDs.
At this point I would like to again get personally. I have already described that I listened to the audio books and lectures of Eckart Tolle again and again until I understood how Ican use the portals into the presence. It is not primarily caused by the contents - even if I considered them to be true and in all aspects felt understandable - it is what lies between and behind the formal words. It is his liberated spirit, the consciuousness that is no personal property of this man, but only communicates through him. And that meant that when I listened I almost always had the feeling, what he says, I might say just as well. The space consciuousness, which is becoming aware in me, loves the ideas, feels understood, recognizes and grows with each listening.
Solid is the experience of simple joy - not the joy about something, but the joy itself, the joy of living. And then there is peace, the time is almost tangible, sometimes more in the background, but supports every experience in the presence. And always happened this change: the fall from the Paradise and the new struggle to my feet.
A very valuable experience in these baths exchanges between consciousness and unconsciousness, sleep and awakening lies in the recognition of the reality of what is because only if I can admit that something is wrong with me that I blatantly expressed I am mad I can change the situation. The perception of the disease is the first - indispensable - step to health. This recognition
comes from the awakened level, is not part of the madness.
Wilhelm Reich writes in "The Murder of Christ":
You can leave trap. However, before we can break out of a prison we must first admit that we are in prison. The trap is the emotional structure of the human being, his character structure. (...)
The first task is to find the exit out of the trap. Any other the case is of no interest, apart from this one crucial question: Where is the exit from the trap?
I always catched myself again and I see it in others, with whom I talk about this: there is the tendency to appease oneself that "everything is o.k." I am surprised with how little the people - including me - are satisfied, out of fear of admitting that one sits in the trap. But the more I see the change, the more it gets clear: nothing is fine and there is no reason, even to defend the right to one’s own misfortune, because that noone will dispute this. It is an important distinction between the acceptance of what is now - that leads to the presence - and the denial of reality - that cements the object consciousness.
What is new in the books and lectures Eckhart Tolle and goes further than the understanding of other spiritual teachings: it is not religious, mystical or esoteric. He describes the pathway to the realization of presence with the language of modern Western thought. His way of thinking differs fundamentally from religious ideologies and can rather be seen than ratio-nal. The rational, functional thinking of Eckhart Tolle forms a bridge between what we call "enlightenment", and to what our culture accepts as a modern, scientific thinking. He describes the experience of presence, of being, of space consciousness - terms that he himself used instead to try the stimulus word "enlightenment" - as a knowledge that no more is describing a mythical status of a few specially gifted people, but as a truly tangible reality of completely normal, reasonable people.
Chapter 6