Presence alone can dissolve patterns of unconsciousness. Eckhart Tolle, in the 10 week web seminar being hosted by Oprah Winfrey, puts total emphasis on experiencing Presence. He says you can call it what you want – consciousness, awareness, God – but that it permeates the universe. And that it alone can dissolve the patterns of ego identification that causes so much suffering.
And how do we discover Presence? He said we discover it by going deep within, which is prompted by suffering. In fact, he says that if it were not for suffering, people would only identify with outer form, that they would never experience the formlessness.
Last night, while having dinner with some friends, I brought this topic up for discussion. One person at the table said something quite astute: “Living on the surface is suffering.” How true! Living on the surface is a shallow existence, devoid of meaning, inspiration, and creativity. It is also living in a perpetual state of fear, since no outer form can last forever. If you live solely on the surface, you and your world are doomed to a painful and certain oblivion.
But what Tolle means by the title of his book, A New Earth, is basically a new humanity, a new consciousness. But if discovering the inner realms of Presence comes from suffering, then the world undoubtedly has a lot of suffering to go through if it is going to make this transition. So in this respect, world disasters might be the transition into a higher realm of being for the entire world. Great suffering leads to great peace.
The Mayans point to the year 2012 as the end of the world as we know it. That portends a lot of destruction. But what will rise from the ashes, from the suffering, is the important issue.
One friend at the table last night told a story of a man whose life was a personification of destruction. Although his outer world was nothing but failure, his inner world sustained him with the Presence of his Divine Beloved. And when he got to the point where nothing on the outer level held any meaning for him, the outer world came together for him. He finally succeeded in his career, finally got a good car, finally found a happy relationship with a woman, finally found success in his music.
Will the world end as we know it to make way for a New Humanity? Will people be reduced to eating the bark off of trees, as Meher Baba foretold? Will the world’s addiction to outer form be broken to usher in a new age?
How to survive such a transformation or conflagration? What if the hunger and suffering of the great depression of 1929 was magnified 100 times? How would you cope?
There is only one possibility. Go within. One thing not to do is to hold onto attachments of form. Rather, you do it by holding onto that which doesn’t perish.
There is nothing anyone can do to avoid physical suffering when a disaster hits. But you can avoid the psychological and emotional suffering. You do this by recognizing the eternal and formlessness of your true essence. You do this by discovering the infinite presence that pervades the outer universe and the inner worlds of consciousness.
In truth, each of us is part of an infinite energy that permeates the universe, that permeates the depths of our being. Each of us is a temporary expression of this universal energy. Each of us is a part of an infinite ocean of consciousness, outside of which nothing exists. For how can there be anything outside of that which is infinite?
Infinity is always happening, expressing itself in an infinite number of ways. When we can be aware of this “happening,” free from the egocentric point of view, we can experience the eternal within us. We can live as we are meant to live. We don’t need to run in fear of the world coming to an end. We can be real human beings.
Some people live in fear and hide under the covers when the lights go out. Other say, “I love you” and take off their clothes.
Some see it as a threat. Others see it as an opportunity.
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