Recently I had the pleasure to attend a talk by Eckhart Tolle. It was my first time seeing him in person and I felt so serene listening to him that it turned more into a meditation session than a lecture for me. However, the core ideas he was talking about were already very familiar to me as I’ve read his books and watched a lot of his videos online. The way he laid it out and tied everything together was still very harmonious and effective for making the points he was trying to make the audience see. 

Dimension Of Being

Tolle discussed the two dimensions that make up human reality: the human dimension and the being dimension. While the human dimension refers to our past, mental and emotional conditioning, desires, goals, and life situation, the being dimension is often overlooked. This dimension is our essential reality and is timeless and conscious.

Tolle suggests that our task as humans is to embody the being and awaken to our essence identity, which can bring lightness, peace, and intense aliveness. These moments may occur in nature or unexpectedly, and the continuous practice is to let go of habitual thinking and serve ourselves less.

The Obstacle Is The Way

The human conditioned entity, or ego, loves its problems and creates suffering unconsciously. Tolle explains that as awakening happens and presence begins to replace the person, the human becomes less dysfunctional and creates less unnecessary suffering. However, certain patterns remain, and the person undergoes a substantial transformation but never fully escapes mental conditioning. He emphasizes that challenges will continue to arise in life, but they will either make a person more unconscious or contribute to their awakening process. It’s up to us to keep the focus on our level of awareness during this journey if we want to minimize the time we spend in unconsciousness. 

We have an opportunity to become more present in the face of challenges, rather than reacting and becoming more unconscious. Ideally, the challenge simply rekindles the light of our awareness every time we encounter it. It works as a stimulus that reminds us to pay attention. To help make this process more natural and default in our lives, we have to do a lot of conscious deliberate work. It is akin to establishing a new habit but on a such fundamental level that it changes who we are altogether.