Y ou
accuse and blame, attack, defend, or justify yourself, and it's all
happening on autopilot. Something is obviously much more important to
you now than the inner peace that a moment ago you said was all you
wanted, and you're not an immortal spirit anymore either . The deal, the
money , the contract, the loss or threat of loss are more important. T o
whom? T o the immortal spirit that you said you are? No, to me. The
small me that seeks security tor fulfillment in things that are transient
and gets anxious or angry because it fails to find it. W ell, at least now
you know who you really think you are. If peace is really what you want, then you will choose peace. If pace
mattered to you more than anything else and if you truly knew yourself
to be spirit rather than a little me, you would remain nonreactive and
absolutelyalert when confronted with challenging people or situations. Y ou would
immediately accept the situation and thus become one with it rather than
separate yourself from it. Then out of your alertness would come a a
response. Who you are (consciousness), not who you think you are (a
small me), would be responding. It would be powerful and ef fective and
would make no person or situation in to an enemy . The world always makes sure that you cannot fool yourself for long
about who you really think you are by showing you what truly matters to
you. How you react to people and situations, especially when challenges
arise, is the best indicator of how deeply you know yourself. The more limited, the more narrowly egoic the view of yourself, the
more you will see, focus on, and react to the egoic limitations, the
unconsciousness in others. Their faults or what you perceive as their
faults become to you their identity . His means you will see only the ego
in them and thus strengthen the ego in yourself. Instead of looking
through the ego in others, you are looking at the ego. Who is looking at
the ego? The ego in you. V ery unconscious people experience their own ego through its reflection
in others. When you realize that what you react to in others is also in you
(and sometimes only in you), you begin to become aware of your own
ego. At that stage, you may also realize that you were doing to others
what you thought others were doing to you. Y ou cease seeing yourself as
a victim. Y ou are not the ego, so when you become aware of the ego in you, it
does not mean you know who you are it means you know who you are
not. But it is through knowing who you are not that the greatest obstacle
to truly knowing yourself is removed. Nobody can tell you who you are. It would just be another concept, so it
would not change you. Who you are requires no belief. In fact, every
belief is an obstacle. It does not even require your realization, since you
already are who you are. But without realization, who you are does not
shine forth into this world. It remains in the unmanifested which is, of
course your true home. Y ou are then like an apparently poor person who
does not know he has a bank account with $100 million in it and so his
wealth remains an unexpressed potential.A New Earth
A B U N D A N C E
Who you think you are is also intimately connected with how you see
yourself treated by others. Many people complain that others do not treat
them well enough. I don't get any respect, attention, recognition,
acknowledgment, they say . I'm being taken for granted. When people are
kind, they suspect hidden motives. Others want to manipulate me, take
advantage of me. Nobody loves me. Who they think they are is this: I am a needy 'little me' whose needs are
not being met. This basic misperception of who they are creates
dysfunction in all their relationships. They believe they have nothing to
give and that the world or other people are withholding from them what
they need. Their entire reality is based on an illusory sense of who they
are. It sabotages situations, mar all relationships. If the thought of lack
whether it be money , recognition, or love has become part of who you
think you are, you will always experience lack. Rather than acknowledge
the good that is already in your life, all you see is lack. Acknowledging
the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance. The fact is: Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you
are withholding from the world. Y ou are withholding it because deep
down you think you are small and that you have nothing to give. T ry this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality:
Whatever you think people are withholding from you ? praise,
appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on give it to them. Y ou don't
have it? Just act as if you had it, and it will come. Then, soon after you
start giving, you will start receiving. Y ou cannot receive what you don't
give. Outflow determines inflow . Whatever you think the world is
withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow
out, you won't even know that you have it. This includes abundance. The
law that outflow determines inflow is expressed by Jesus in this powerful
image: Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down,
shaken together , running over , will be put into your lap.The source of all abundance is not outside you. It is part of who you are. However , start by acknowledging and recognizing abundance without. See the fullness of life all around you. The warmth of the sun on your
skin, the display of magnificent flowers outside a florist's shop, biting
into a
succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from
the sky . The fullness of life is there at every step. The acknowledgment
of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance
within. Then let it flow out. When you smile at a a stranger , there is
already a minute outflow of ener gy . Y ou become a giver . Ask yourself
often: What can I give here; how can I be of service to this person, this
situation. Y ou don't need to own anything to feel abundant, although if
you feel abundant consistently things will almost certainly come to you. Abundance comes only to those who already have it. It sounds almost
unfair , but of course it isn't. It is a universal law . Both abundance and
scarcity are inner states that manifest as your reality . Jesus puts it like
this: For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who
has not, even what he has will be taken away .A New Earth
K N O W I N G  Y O U R S E L F  A N D  K N O W I N G
A B O U T  Y O U R S E L F
Y ou may not want to know yourself because you are afraid of what you
may find out. Many people have a secret fear that they are bad. But
nothing you can find out about yourself is you. Nothing you can know
about you is you. While some people do not want to know who they are because of fear ,
others have a insatiable curiosity about themselves and want to find out
more and more. Y ou may be so fascinated with yourself that you spend
years in psychoanalysis, delve into every aspect of your childhood,
uncover secret fears and desires, and find layers upon layers of
complexity in the makeup of your personality and character . After ten
years, the therapist may get tired of you and your story and tell you that
your analysis is now complete. Perhaps he sends you away with a five? thousand?page dossier . This is all about you. This is who you are. As you
carry the heavy file home, the initial satisfaction of at last knowing
yourself gives way quickly to a feeling of incompleteness and a lurking
suspicion that there must be more to who you are than this. And indeed
there is more not perhaps in quantitative terms of more facts but in the
qualitative dimension of depth. There is nothing wrong with psychoanalysis or finding out about your
past as long as you don't confuse knowing about yourself with knowing
yourself. The five?thousand?page dossier is about yourself: the content
of your mind which is conditioned by the past. Whatever you learn
through psychoanalysis or self?observation is about you. It is not you. It
is content,
not essence. Going beyond ego is stepping out of content. Knowing
yourself is being yourself, and being yourself is ceasing to identify with
content.Most people define themselves through the content of their lives. Whatever you perceive, experience, do, think, or feel is content. Content
is what absorbs most people's attention entirely , and it is what they
identify with. When you think or say , my life, you are not referring to the
life that you are but with the life that you have, or seem to have. Y ou are
referring to content your age, health, relationships, finances, work and
living situation, as well as your mental?emotional state. The inner and
outer circumstances of your life, your past and your future, all belong to
the realm of content as do events, that is to say , anything that happens. What is there other than content? That which enables the content to be
the inner space of consciousness.A New Earth
C H A O S  A N D  H I G H E R  O R D E R
When you know yourself only through content, you will also think you
know what is good or bad for you. Y ou dif ferentiate between events that
are good for me and those that are bad. This is a fragmented perception
of the wholeness of life in which everything is interconnected, in which
every event has its necessary place and function within the totality . The
totality , whoever , is more than the surface appearance of things, more
than the sum total of its parts, more than whatever your life or the world
contains. Behind the sometimes seemingly random or even chaotic succession of
events in our lives as well as in the world lies concealed the unfolding of
a higher order and purpose. This is beautifully expressed in the Zen
saying The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place. W e can never
understand this higher order through thinking about it because whatever
we think about is content; whereas, the higher order emanates from the
formless realm of consciousness, from universal intelligence. But we can
glimpse it, and more than that, align ourselves with it, which means be
conscious participants in the unfolding of that higher purpose. When we go into a forest that has not been interfered with by man, our
thinking mind will see only disorder and chaos all around us. It won't
even be able to dif ferentiate between life (good) and death (bad)
anymore since everywhere new life grows out of rotting and decaying
matter . Only if we are
still enough inside and the noise of thinking subsides can we become
aware that there is a hidden harmony here, a sacredness, a higher order in
which everything has its perfect place and could not be other than what it
is and the way it is. The mind is comfortable in a landscaped park because it has been
planned through thought; it has not grown or ganically . There is an order
here that the mind can understand. In the forest, there is an
incomprehensible order that to the mind looks like chaos. It is beyondthe mental categories of god and bad. Y ou cannot understand it through
thought, but you can sense it when you let go of thought, become still
and alert, and don't try to understand or explain. Only then can you be
aware of he sacredness of the forest. As soon as you sense that hidden
harmony , that sacredness, you realize you are not separate from it, and
when you realize that, you become a conscious participant in it. In this
way , nature can help you become realigned with the wholeness of life.A New Earth
G O O D  A N D  B A D
At some point in their lives, most people become aware that there is not
only birth, growth, success, good health, pleasure, and winning, but also
loss, failure, sickness, old age, decay , pain and death. Conventionally
these are labeled good and bad, order and disorder . The meaning of
people's lives is usually associated with what they term the good, but the
good is continually threatened by collapse, breakdown, disorder;
threatened by meaninglessness and the bad, when explanations fail and
life ceases to make sense. Sooner or later , disorder will irrupt into
everyone's life no matter how many insurance policies he or she has. It
may come in the form of loss or accident, sickness, disability , old age,
death. However , the irruption of disorder into a person's life, and the
resultant collapse of a mentally defined meaning, can become the
opening into a higher order . The wisdom of this world is folly with God, says the Bible. What is the
wisdom of this world? The movement of thought, and meaning that is
defined exclusively by thought. Thinking isolates a situation or event and calls it good or bad, as if it had
a separate existence. Through excessive reliance on thinking, reality
becomes fragmented. This fragmentation is an illusion, but it seems very
real
while you are trapped in it. And yet the universe is an indivisible whole
in which all things are interconnected, in which nothing exists in
isolation. The deeper interconnectedness of all things and events implies that the
mental labels of good and bad are ultimately illusory . They always imply
a limited perspective and so are true only relatively and temporarily . This
is illustrated in the story of a wise man who won an expensive car in a
lottery . His family and friends were very happy for him and came to
celebrate. Isn't it great! they said. Y ou are so lucky . The man smiled and
said Maybe. For a few weeks he enjoyed driving the car . Then one day adrunken driver crashed into his new car at an intersection and he ended
up in the hospital, with multiple injuries. His family and friends came to
see him and said, That was really unfortunate. Again the man smiled and
said, Maybe. While he was still in the hospital, one night there was a
landslide and his house fell into the sea. Again his friends came the next
day and said, W eren't you lucky to have been here in hospital. Again he
said, Maybe. The wise man's maybe signifies a refusal to judge anything that happens. Instead of judging what is, he accepts it and so enters into conscious
alignment with the higher order . He knows that often it is impossible for
the mind to understand what place or purpose a seemingly random event
has in the tapestry of the whole. But there are no random events, nor are
there events or things that exist by and for themselves, in isolation. The
atoms that make up your body were once for ged inside stars, and the
causes of even the smallest event are virtually infinite and connected
with the whole in incomprehensible ways. If you wanted to trace back
the cause of any event, you would have to go back all the way to the
beginning of creation. The cosmos is not chaotic. The very word cosmos
means order . But this is not an order the human mind can ever
comprehend, although it can sometimes glimpse it.A New Earth
N O T  M I N D I N G  W H A T  H A P P E N S
J. Krishnamurti, the great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher , spoke
and traveled almost continuously all over the world for more than fifty
years attempting to convey through words ? which are content that which
is beyond words, beyond content. At one of his talks in the later part of
his life, he surprised his audience by asking, Do you want to know my
secret? Everyone became very alert. Many people in the audience had
been coming
to listen to him for twenty or thirty years and still failed to grasp the
essence of his teaching. Finally , after all these years, the master would
give them the key to understanding. This is my secret, he said. I don't
mind what happens. He did not elaborate, and so I suspect most of his audience were even
more perplexed than before. The implications of this simple statement,
however , are profound. When I don't mind what happens, what does that imply? It implies that
internally I am in alignment with what happens. What happens, of
course, refers to the suchness of this moment, which always already is as
it is. It refers to content, the form that this moment the only moment
there ever is takes. T o be in alignment with what is means to be in a
relationship of inner nonresistance with what happens. It mean not to
label it mentally as good or bad, but to let it be. Does this mean you can
no longer take action to bring abut change in your life? On the contrary . when the basis for your actions is inner alignment with the present
moment, your actions become empowered by the intelligence of Life
itself.A New Earth
I S  T H A T  S O ? The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high
regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it
happened that the teenage daughter of his next?door neighbor became
pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to
the identity of the father , she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the
Zen Master . In great anger the parents rushed over to Hakuin and told
him with much shouting and accusing that their daughter had confessed
that he was the father . All he replied was, Is that so? News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The Master
lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. Nobody came to see him
anymore. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the parents
brought the baby to Hakuin. Y ou are the father , so you look after him. The Master took loving care of the child. A year later , the mother
remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was
the young man who worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they
went to see Hakuin to apologize and ask for for giveness. W e are really
sorry . W e have come to
take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father . Is
that so? is all he would may as he handed the baby over to them. The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in
exactly the same way: Is that so? He allows the form of the moment,
good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a participant in human
drama. T o him there is only this moment, and this moment is as it is. Events are not personalized. He is nobody's victim. He is so completely
at one with what happens that what happens has no power over him
anymore. Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what
happens, and the world will determine your happiness and unhappiness. The baby is looked after with loving care. Bad turns into good through
the power of nonresistance. Always responding to what the present
moment requires, he lets go of the baby when it is time to do so.Imagine briefly how the ego would have reacted during the various
stages of the unfolding of these events.A New Earth
T H E  E G O  A N D  T H E  P R E S E N T  M O M E N T
The most important, the primordial relationship in your life is your
relationship with the Now , or rather with whatever form the Now takes,
that is to say , what is or what happens. If your relationship with the Now
is dysfunctional, that dysfunction will be reflected in every relationship
and every situation you encounter . The ego could be defined simply in
this way: a dysfunctional relationship with the present moment. It is at
this moment that you can decide what kind of relationship you want to
have with the present moment. Once you have reached a certain level of consciousness, (and if you are
reading this, you almost certainly have), you are able to decide what kind
of a relationship you want to have with the present moment. Do I want
the present moment to be my friend or my enemy? The present moment
is inseparable from life, so you are really deciding what kind of a
relationship you want to have with life. Once you have decided you want
the present moment to be your friend, it is up to you to make the first
move: become friendly toward it, welcome it no matter in what disguise
it comes, and soon you will see the results. Life becomes friendly toward
you; people become helpful, circumstances cooperative. One decision
changes your entire reality . But that one decision you have to make again and again and again until it
becomes natural to live in such a way . The decision to make the present moment into your friend is the end of
the ego. The ego can never be in alignment with the present moment,
which is to say , aligned with life, since its very nature compels it to
ignore, resist, or devalue the Now . T ime is what the ego lives on. The
stronger the ego, the more time takes over your life. Almost every
thought you think is then concerned with past or future, and you sense of
self depends on the past for your identity and on the future for its
fulfillment. Fear , anxiety , expectation, regret, guilt, anger are the
dysfunctions of the time?bound state of consciousness.There are three ways in which the ego will treat the present moment: as a
means to and end, as an obstacle, or as an enemy . Let us look at them in
turn, so that when this pattern operates in you, you can recognize it and
decide again. T o the ego, the present moment is, at best, only useful as a means to an
end. It gets you to some future moment that is considered more
important, even though the future never comes except as the present
moment and is therefore never more than a thought in your head. In other
words, you aren't ever fully here because you are always busy trying to
get elsewhere. When this pattern becomes more pronounced, and this is very common,
the present moment is regarded and treated as if it were an obstacle to be
overcome. This is where impatience, frustration, and stress arise, and in
our culture, it is many people's everyday reality , their normal state. Life,
which is now , is seen as a problem, and you come to inhabit a world of
problems that all need to be solved before you can be happy , fulfilled, or
really start living or so you think. The problem is: For every problem that
is solved, another one pops up. As long as the present moment is seen as
an obstacle, there can be no end to problems. I'll be whatever you want
me to be, says Life or the Now . I'll treat you the way you treat me. If you
see me as a problem, I will be a problem to you. If you treat me as an
obstacle, I will be an obstacle. At worst, and this is also very common, the present moment is treated as
if it were an enemy . When you hate what you are doing, complain about
your surroundings, curse things that are happening or have happened, or
when your internal dialogue consists of shoulds and shouldn'ts, of
blaming and accusing, when you are ar guing with what is, ar guing with
that which is always already the case. you are making Life into an enemy
and Life says, W ar is what you want, and war is what you get. External
reality , which always reflects back to you your inner state, is then
experienced as hostile. A vital question to ask yourself frequently is: What is my relationship
with the present moment? Then become alert to find out the answer . Am
I treating the Now as no more than a means to an end? Do I see it as an
obstacle? Am I making it into an enemy? Since the present moment is all
you ever have, since Life is inseparable from the Now , what the questionreally means is: What is my relationship with Life? This question is an
excellent way of unmasking the ego in you and bringing you into the
state of Presence. Although the question doesn't embody the absolute
truth (Ultimately , I and the present moment are one), it is a useful pointer
in the right direction. Ask yourself it often until you don't need it
anymore. How do you go beyond a dysfunctional relationship with the present
moment? The most important thing is to see it in yourself, in your
thoughts and actions. In the moment of seeing, of noticing that your
relationship with the Now is dysfunctional, you are present. The seeing
is the arising Presence. The moment you see the dysfunction, it begins to
dissolve. Some people laugh out loud when they see this. W ith the seeing
comes the power of choice the choice of saying yes to the Now , of
making it into your friend.A New Earth
T H E  P A R A D O X  O F  T I M E
On the surface, the present moment is what happens. Since what happens
changes continuously , it seems that every day of your life consists of
thousands of moments in which dif ferent things happen. T ime is seen as
the endless succession of moments, some good, some bad. Y et, if you
look more closely , that is to say , through your own immediate
experience, you find that there are not many moments at all. Y ou that
there is only ever this moment. Life is always now . Y our entire life
unfolds in this constant Now . Even past or future moments only exist
when you remember or anticipate them, and you do so by thinking about
them in the only moment there is: this one. Why does it appear then as if there were many moments? Because the
present moment is confused with what happens, confused with content. The space of Now is confused with what happens in that space. The
confusion of the present moment with content gives rise not only to the
illusion of time, but also to the illusion of ego. There is a paradox here. On the one hand, how can we deny the reality of
time? Y ou need it to go from here to there, to prepare a meal, build a
house, read this book. Y ou need time to grow up, to learn new things. Whatever you do seems to take time. everything is subject to it and
eventually this bloody tyrant time, as Shakespeare calls it, is going to kill
you. Y ou could compare it to a raging river that drags you along with it,
or a fire in which everything is consumed. I recently met some old friends, a family I had not seen in a long time,
and I was shocked when I saw them. I almost asked, Are you ill? What
happened? Who did this to you? The mother , who walked with a cane,
seemed to have shrunk in size, her face shriveled like an old apple. The
daughter , who had been full of ener gy , enthusiasm, and the expectations
of youth when I last saw her , seemed worn out, tired after bringing up
three children. Then I remembered: Almost thirty years had passed sincewe last met. T ime had done this to them. And I'm sure they were just as
shocked when they saw me. Everything seems to be subject to time, yet it all happens in the Now . That is the paradox. Wherever you look, there is plenty of circumstantial
evidence for the reality of time a rotting apple, your face in the bathroom
mirror compared to your face in a photo taken thirty years ago yet you
never find any direct evidence, you never experience time itself. Y ou
only ever experience the present moment, or rather what happens in it. If
you go by direct evidence only , then there is no time, and the Now is all
there ever is.A New Earth
E L I M I N A T I N G  T I M E
Y ou cannot make the egoless state into a future goal and then work
toward it. All you get is more dissatisfaction, more inner conflict,
because it will always seem that you have not arrived yet, have not
attained that state yet. When freedom from ego is your goal for the
future, you give yourself
more time, and more time means more ego. Look carefully to find out if
your spiritual search is a disguised form of ego. Even trying to get to get
rid of your self can be a disguised search for more if the getting rid of
your self is made into a future goal. Giving yourself more time is
precisely this: giving your self more time. T ime, that is to say , past and
future, is what the false mind?made self, the ego, lives on, and time is in
your mind. It isn't something that has an objective existence out there. It
is a mind structure needed for sensory perception, indispensable for
practical purposes, but the greatest hindrance to knowing yourself. T ime
is the horizontal dimension of life, the surface layer of reality . Then there
is the vertical dimension of depth, accessible to you only through the
portal of the present moment. So instead of adding time to yourself, remove time. The elimination of
time from your consciousness is the elimination of ego. It is the only true
spiritual practice. When we speak of the elimination of time, we are, of course, not
referring to clock time, which is the use of time for practical purposes,
such as making an appointment or planning a trip. It would be almost
impossible to function in this world without clock time. What we are
speaking of is the elimination of psychological time, which is the egoic
mind's endless preoccupation with past and future and its unwillingness
to be one with life by living in alignment with the inevitable isness of the
present moment. Whenever a habitual no to life turns into a yes, whenever you allow this
moment to be as it is, you dissolve time as well as ego. For the ego tosurvive, it must make time past and future more important than the
present moment. The ego cannot tolerate becoming friendly with the
present moment except briefly just after it got what it wanted. But
nothing can satisfy the ego for long. As long as it runs your life, there are
two ways of being unhappy . Not getting what you want is one. Getting
what you want is the other . Whatever is or happens is the form that the Now takes. As long as you
resist it internally , form, that is to say , the world, is an impenetrable
barrier that separates you from who you are beyond form, separates you
from the formless one Life that you are. When you bring an inner yes to
the form the Now takes, that very form becomes a doorway into the
formless. The separation between the world and God dissolves. When you react against the form that Life takes at this moment, when
you treat the Now as a means, an obstacle, or an enemy , you strengthen
your own form identity , the ego. Hence the ego's reactivity . What is
reactivity? Becoming addicted to reaction. The more reactive you are,
the more entangled you become with form. The more identified with
form, the stronger the ego. Y our Being then does not shine through form
anymore or only barely . Though nonresistance to form, that in you which is beyond form emer ges
as an all?encompassing Presence, a silent power far greater than your
short?lived form identity , the person. It is more deeply who you are than
anything in the world of form.A New Earth
T H E  D R E A M E R  A N D  T H E  D R E A M
Nonresistance is the key to the greatest power in the universe. Through
it, consciousness (spirit) is freed form its imprisonment in form. Inner
nonresistance to form whatever is or happens is a denial of the absolute
reality of form. Resistance makes the world and the things of the world
appear more real, more solid, and more lasting than they are, including
your own form identity , the ego. It endows the world and the ego with a
heaviness and an absolute importance that makes you take yourself and
the world very seriously . The play of form is then misperceived as a
struggle for survival, and when that is your perception, it becomes your
reality . The many things that happen, the many forms that life takes on, are of an
ephemeral nature. They are all fleeting. Things, bodies and egos, events,
situations, thoughts, emotions, desires, ambitions, fears, drama... they
come, pretend to be all?important, and before you know it they are gone,
dissolved into the no?thingness out of which they came. Where they ever
real? W ere they ever more than a dream, the dream of form? When we wake up in the morning, the night's dream dissolves, and we
say , Oh, it was only a dream. It wasn't real. But something in the dream
must have been real otherwise it could not be. When death approaches,
we may look back on our life and wonder if it was just another dream. Even now you may look back on last year's vacation or yesterday's
drama and see that it is very similar to last night's dream. There is the dream, and there is the dreamer of the dream. The dream is a
short?lived play of forms. It is the world relatively real but not absolutely
real. Then there is the dreamer , the absolute reality in which the forms
come and go. The dreamer is not the person. The person is part of the
dream. The dreamer is the substratum in which the dream appears, that
which makes the dream possible. It is the absolute behind the relative,
the timeless behind time, the consciousness in and behind form. The
dreamer is consciousness itself who you are.T o awaken within the dream is our purpose now . When we are awake
within the dream, the ego?created earth?drama comes to an end and a
more benign and wondrous dream arises. This is the new earth.A New Earth
G O I N G  B E Y O N D  L I M I T A T I O N
In each person's life there comes a time when he or she pursues growth
and expansion on the level of form. This is when you strive to overcome
limitation such as physical weakness or financial scarcity , when you
acquire new skills and knowledge, or through creative action bring
something new into this world that is life?enhancing for yourself as well
as others. This may be a piece of music or a work of art, a book, a
service you provide, a function you perform, a business or or ganization
that you set up or make a vital contribution to. When you are Present, when your attention is fully in the Now , that
Presence will flow into and transform what you do. There will be quality
and power in it. Y ou are present when what you are doing is not
primarily a means to an end (money , prestige, winning) but fulfilling in
itself, when there is joy and aliveness in what you do. And, of course,
you cannot be present unless you become friendly with the present
moment. That is the basis for ef fective action, uncontaminated by
negativity . Form means limitation. W e are here not only to experience limitation,
but also to grow in consciousness by going beyond limitation. Some
limitations can be overcome on an external level. There may be other
limitations in your life that you have to learn to live with. They can only
be overcome internally . Everyone will encounter them sooner or later . Those limitations either keep you trapped in egoic reaction, which means
intense unhappiness, or you rise above them internally by
uncompromising
surrender to what is. That is what they are here to teach. The surrendered
state of consciousness opens up the vertical dimension in your life, the
dimension of depth. Something will then come forth from that dimension
into this world, something of infinite value that otherwise would have
remained unmanifested. Some people who surrendered to severelimitation become healers or spiritual teachers. Others work selflessly to
lessen human suf fering or bring some creative gift into this world. In the late seventies, I would have lunch every day with one or two
friends in the cafeteria of the graduate center at Cambridge University ,
where I was studying. A man in a wheelchair would sometimes sit at a
nearby table, usually accompanied by three or four people. One day ,
when I was sitting at a table directly opposite me, I could not help but
look at him more closely , and I was shocked by what I saw . He seemed
almost totally paralyzed. His body was emaciated, his head permanently
slumped forward. One of the people accompanying him was carefully
putting food in his mouth a great deal of which would fall out again and
be caught on a small plate another man was holding under his chin. Occasionally the wheelchair? bound man would produce unintelligible
croaking sounds, and someone would hold an ear close to his mouth and
then amazingly would interpret what he was trying to say . Later I asked my friend whether he know who he was. Of course, he
said, He is a professor of mathematics, and the people with him are his
graduate students. He has motor neuron disease that progressively
paralyzes every part of the body . He has been given five years at the
most. It must be the most dreadful fate that can befall a human being. A few weeks later , as I was leaving the building, he was coming in, and
when I held the door open for his electric wheelchair to come trough, our
eyes met. W ith surprise I saw that his eyes were clear . There was no
trace in them of unhappiness. I know immediately he had relinquished
resistance; he was living in surrender . A number of years later when buying a newspaper at a kiosk, I was
amazed to see him on the front page of a popular international news
magazine. Not only was he still alive, but he had by then become the
world's most famous theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking. There was
a beautiful line in the article that confirmed what I had sensed when I
had looked into
his eyes many years earlier . Commenting upon his life, he said (now with
the help of the voice synthesizer), Who could have wished for more?A New Earth
T H E  J O Y  O F  B E I N G
Unhappiness or negativity is a disease on our planet. What pollution is
on the outer level is negativity on the inner . It is everywhere, not just in
places where people don't have enough, but even more so where they
have more than enough. Is that surprising? No. The af fluent world is
even more deeply identified with form, more lost in content, more
trapped in ego. People believe themselves to be dependent on what happens for their
happiness, that is to say dependent on form. They don't realize that what
happens is the most unstable thing in the universe. It changes constantly . They look upon the present moment as either marred by something that
has happened and shouldn't have or as deficient because of something
that has not happened but should have. Ad so they miss the deeper
perfection that is inherent in life itself, a perfection that is always already
there, that lies beyond what is happening or not happening, beyond form. Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than
any form and untouched by time. The joy of Being, which is the only true happiness, can not come to you
through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event through
anything that happens. That joy cannot come to you ever . It emanates
form the formless dimension within you, from consciousness itself and
thus is one with who you are.A New Earth
A L L O W I N G  T H E  D I M I N I S H M E N T  O F  T H E
E G O
The ego is always on guard against any kind of perceived diminishment. Automatic ego?repair mechanisms come into ef fect to restore the mental
form of me. When someone blames or criticizes me, that to the ego is a
diminishment of self, and it will immediately attempt to repair its
diminished sense of self through self?justification, defense, or blaming. Whether the other person is right or wrong is irrelevant to the ego. It is
much more interested in self?preservation than in the truth. This is the
preservation of the psychological form of me. Even such a normal thing
as shouting something back when another driver calls you idiot is an
automatic and unconscious ego?repair mechanism. One of the most
common ego?repair
mechanisms is anger , which causes a temporary but huge ego inflation. All repair mechanisms make perfect sense to the ego but are actually
dysfunctional. Those that are most extreme in their dysfunction are
physical violence ad self?delusion in the form of grandiose fantasies. A powerful spiritual practice is consciously to allow the diminishment of
ego when it happens without attempting to restore it. I recommend that
you experiment with this from time to time. For example, when someone
criticizes you, blames you, or calls you names, instead of immediately
retaliating or defending yourself do nothing. Allow the self? image to
remain diminished and become alert to what that feels like deep inside
you. For a few seconds, it may feel uncomfortable, as if you had shrunk
in size. Then you may sense an inner spaciousness that feels intensely
alive. Y ou haven't been diminished at all. In fact, you have expanded. Y ou may then come to an amazing realization: When you are seemingly
diminished in some way and remain in absolute non?reaction, not just
externally but also internally , you realize that nothing real has been
diminished, that through becoming less, you become more. When you no
longer defend or attempt to strengthen the form of yourself, you step out
of identification with form, with mental self?image. Through becomingless (in the ego's perception), you in fact under go an expansion and make
room for Being to come forward. T rue power , who you are beyond form,
can then shine through the apparently weakened form. this is what Jesus
means when he says, Deny yourself or T urn the other cheek. This does not mean, of course, that you invite abuse or turn yourself into
a victim of unconscious people. Sometimes a situation may demand that
you tell someone to back of f in no uncertain terms. W ithout egoic
defensiveness, there will be power behind your words, yet no reactive
force. If necessary , you can also say not to someone firmly and clearly ,
and it will be what I call a high?quality no that is free of all negativity . If you are content with being nobody in particular , content not to stand
out, you align yourself with the power of the universe. What looks like
weakness to the ego is in fact the only true strength. This spiritual truth is
diametrically opposed to the values of our contemporary culture and the
way it conditions people to behave. Instead of trying to be the mountain, teaches the ancient T ao T e Ching,
Be the valley of the universe. In this way , you are restored to wholeness
and so All things will come to you. Similarly , Jesus, in one of his parables, teaches that When you are
invited, go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes, he
may say to you, friend, move up higher . Then you will be honored in the
presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Another aspect of this practice is to refrain from attempting to strengthen
the self by showing of f, wanting to stand out, be special, make an
impression, or demand attention. It may include occasionally refraining
from expressing your opinion when everybody is expressing his or hers,
and seeing what that feels like.A New Earth
A S  W I T H O U T ,  S O  W I T H I N
When you look up at the clear sky at night, you may easily realize a truth
at once utterly simple and extraordinarily profound. What is that you
see? The moon, planets, starts, the luminous band of the Milky W ay ,
perhaps a comet or even the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy two million
light years away . Y es, but if you simplify even more, what do you see? Objects floating in space. So what does the universe consist of? Objects
and space. If you don't become speechless when looking out into space on a clear
night, you are not really looking, no aware of the totality of what is there. Y ou are probably only looking at at the objects and perhaps seeking to
name them. If you have ever experienced a sense of awe when looking
into space, perhaps even felt a deep reverence in the face of this
incomprehensible mystery , it means you must have relinquished for a
moment your desire to explain and label and have become aware not
only of the objects in space but of the infinite depth of space itself. Y ou
must have become still enough inside to notice the vastness in which
these countless worlds exist. The feeling of awe is not derived from the
fact that there are billions of worlds out there, but the depth that contains
them all. Y ou cannot see space, of course, nor can you hear , touch, taste, or smell
it, so how do you even know it exists? This logical?sounding question
already contains a fundamental error . The essence of space is no? thingness,
so it doesn't exist in the normal sense of the word. Only things forms
exist. Even calling it space can be misleading because by naming it, you
make it into an object. Let us put it like this: There is something within you that has an af finity
with space; that is why you can be aware of it. A ware of it? That's not
totally true either because how can you be aware of space if there is
nothing there to be aware of?The answer is both simple and profound. When you are aware of space,
you are not really aware of anything, except awareness itself the inner
space of consciousness. Through you, the universe is becoming aware of
itself! When the eye finds nothing to see, that no?thingness is perceived as
space. When the ear finds nothing to hear , that no?thingness is perceived
as stillness. When the senses, which are designed to perceive form, meet
an absence of form, the formless consciousness that lies behind
perception and makes all perception, all experience, possible, is not
longer obscured by form. When you contemplate the unfathomable depth
of space or listen to the silence in the early hours just before sunrise,
something within you resonates with it as if in recognition. Y ou then
sense the vast depth of space as your own depth, and you know that
precious stillness that has no form to be more deeply who you are than
any of the things that make up the content o your life. The Upanishads, the ancient scriptures of India, point to the same truth
with these words:
What cannot be seen with the eye, but that whereby the eye can see:
know that alone to be Brahman the Spirit and not what people here
adore. What cannot be heard with the ear but that whereby the ear can
hear: know that alone to be Brahman the Spirit and not what people here
adore .... What cannot be thought with the mind but that whereby the
mind can think: know that alone to be Brahman the Spirit and not what
people here adore. God, the scripture is saying, is formless consciousness and the essence of
who you are. Everything else is form, is what people here adore. The twofold reality of the universe, which consists of things and space
thingness and no?thingness is also your own. A sane, balanced, and
fruitful human life is a dance between the two dimensions that make up
reality: form and space. Most people are so identified with the dimension
of form, with sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotion, that the vital
hidden half is missing from their lives. Their identification with form
keeps them trapped in ego. What you see, hear , feel, touch, or think about is only one half of reality ,
so to speak. It is form. In the teaching of Jesus, it is simply called theworld, and the other dimension is the kingdom of heaven or eternal life. Just as space enables all tings to exist and just as without silence there
could be no sound, you would not exist without the vital formless
dimension that is the essence of who you are. W e could say God if the
word had not been so misused. I prefer to call it Being. Being is prior to
existence. Existence is form, content, what happens. Existence is the
foreground of life; Being is the background, as it were. The collective disease of humanity is that people are so engrossed in
what happens, so hypnotized by the world of fluctuating forms, so
absorbed in the content of their lives, they have for gotten the essence,
that which is beyond content, beyond form, beyond thought. They are so
consumed by time that they have for gotten eternity , which is their origin,
their home, their destiny . Eternity is the living reality of who you are. Some years ago when visiting China, I came upon a stupa on a
mountaintop near Guilin. It had writing embossed in gold on it, and I
asked my Chinese host what it meant. It means 'Buddha' he said. Why
are there two characters rather than one? I asked. One, he explained,
means 'man.' The other means 'no.' And the two together means
'Buddha'. I stood there in awe. The character of Buddha already
contained the whole teaching of the Buddha, and for those who have
eyes to see, the secret of life. Here are the two dimensions that make up
reality , thingness and no?thingness, form and the denial of form, which is
the recognition that form is not who you are.C H A P T E R  E I G H T  T H E  D I S C O V E R Y  O F
I N N E R  S P A C E
According to an ancient Sufi story , there lived a king in some Middle
Eastern land who was continuously torn between happiness and
despondency . The slightest thing would cause him great upset or provoke
an intense reaction, and his happiness would quickly turn into
disappointment and despair . A time came when the king finally got tired
of himself and of life, and he began to seek a way out. He sent for a wise
man who lived in his kingdom and who was reputed to be enlightened. When the wise man came, the king said to him, I want to be like you. Can you give me something that will bring balance, serenity , and
wisdom into my life? I will pay any price you ask. The wise man said, I may be able to help you. But the price is so great
that your entire kingdom would not be suf ficient payment for it. Therefore it will be a gift to you if you will honor it. The king gave his
assurances, and the wise man left. A few weeks later , he returned and handed the king an ornate box carved
in jade. The king opened the box and found a simple gold ring inside. Some letters were inscribed on the ring. The inscription read: This, too,
will pass. What is the meaning of this? asked the king. The wise man
said, W ear this ring always. Whatever happens, before you call it good or
bad, touch this ring and read the inscription. that way , you will always be
at peace. This, too, will pass. What is it about these simple words that makes them
so powerful? Looking at it superficially , it would seem while those
words may provide some comfort in a bad situation, they would also
diminish the enjoyment of the good things n life. Don't be too happy ,
because it won't last. This seems to be what they are saying when applied
in a situation that is perceived as good. The full import of these words becomes clear when we consider them in
the context of two other stories that we encountered earlier . The story of
the Zen Master whose only response was always Is that so? shows the
good that comes through inner nonresistance to events, that is to say ,
being atone with what happens. The story of the man whose comment was
invariably a laconic Maybe illustrates the wisdom of non?judgment, and
the story of the ring points to the fact of impermanence which, when
recognized, leads to non?attachment. Non?resistance, non?judgment, and
non?attachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened
living. Those words inscribed on the ring are not telling you that you should not
enjoy the good in your life, nor are they merely meant to provide some
comfort in times of suf fering. They have a deeper purpose: to make you
aware of the fleetingness of every situation, which is due to the
transience of all forms good or bad. When you become aware of the
transience of all forms, your attachment to them lessens, and you
disidentify from them to some extent. Being detached does not mean that
you cannot enjoy the good that the world has to of fer . In fact, you enjoy
it more. Once you see and accept the transience of all things and the
inevitability of change, you can enjoy the pleasures of the world while
they last without fear of loss or anxiety about the future. When you are
detached, you gain a higher vantage point from which to view the events
in your life instead of being trapped inside them. Y ou become like an
astronaut who sees the planet Earth surrounded by the vastness of space
and realizes a paradoxical truth: The earth is precious and at the same
time insignificant. The recognition that This, too will pass brings
detachment and with detachment another dimension comes into your lie
inner space. Through detachment, as well as non?judgment and inner
nonresistance, you gain access to that dimension. When you are no longer totally identified with forms, consciousness who
you are becomes freed form its imprisonment in form. This freedom is
the arising of inner space. It comes as a stillness, a subtle peace deep
within you, even in the face of something seemingly bad. This, too, will
pass. Suddenly , there is space around the event. There is also space
around the emotional highs and lows, even around pain. And above all,
there is space between your thoughts. And from that space emanates a
peace that is not of this world, because this world is form, and the peace
is space. This is the peace of God. Now you can enjoy and honor the things of this world without giving
them an importance and significance they don't have. Y ou can participate
in the dance of creation and be active without attachment to outcome andwithout placing unreasonable demands upon the world: Fulfill me, make
me
happy , make me feel safe, tell me who I am. The world cannot give you
those things, and when you no longer have such expectations, all self? created suf fering comes to an end. All such suf fering is due to an over? valuation of form and an unawareness of the dimension of inner space. When that dimension is present in your life, you can enjoy things,
experiences, and the pleasures of the sense without losing yourself in
them, without inner attachment to them, that is to say , without becoming
addicted to the world. The words This, too, will pass are pointers toward reality . In pointing to
the impermanence of all forms, by implication, they are also pointing to
the eternal. Only the eternal in you can recognize the impermanent as
impermanent. When the dimension of space is lost or rather not known, the things of
the world assume an absolute importance, a seriousness and heaviness
that in truth they do not have. When the world is not viewed from the
perspective of the formless, it becomes a threatening place, and
ultimately a place of despair . The Old T estament prophet must have felt
this when he wrote, All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter
it.A New Earth
O B J E C T  C O N S C I O U S N E S S  A N D  S P A C E
C O N S C I O U S N E S S
Most people's lives are cluttered up with things: material things, things to
do, things to think about. Their lives are like the history of humanity ,
which W inston Churchill defined as one damn thing after another . Their
minds are filled up with the clutter of thoughts one thought after another . This is the dimension of object consciousness that is many people's
predominant reality , and that is why their lives are so out of balance. Object consciousness needs to be balanced by space consciousness for
sanity to return to our planet and for humanity to fulfill its destiny . The
arising of space consciousness is the next stage in the evolution of
humanity . Space consciousness mans that in addition to being conscious of things
which always comes down to sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions
there is an undercurrent of awareness. A wareness implies that you are
not only conscious of things (objects), but you are also conscious of
being conscious. If you can sense an alert inner stillness in the
background while things happen in the foreground that's it! This
dimension is there in
everyone, but most people are completely unaware of it. Sometimes I
point to it by saying, Can you feel your own Presence? Space consciousness represents not only freedom from ego, but also
from dependency on the things of this world, from materialism and
materiality . It is the spiritual dimension which alone can give
transcendent and true meaning to this world. Whenever you are upset about an event, a person, or a situation, the real
cause is not the event, person, or situation but a loss of true perspective
that only space can provide. Y ou are trapped in object consciousness,
unaware of the timeless inner space of consciousness itself. The wordsThis, too, will pass when used as a pointer can restore awareness of that
dimension to you. Another pointer to the truth in you is contained in he following
statement: I am never upset for the reason I think.A New Earth
F A L L I N G  B E L O W  A N D  R I S I N G  A B O V E
T H O U G H T
When you are very tired, you may become more peaceful, more relaxed
than in your usual state. this is because thinking is subsiding, and so you
can't remember your mind?made problematic self anymore. Y ou are
moving toward sleep. When you drink alcohol or take certain drugs
(provided they don't trigger your pain?body), you may also feel more
relaxed, more carefree, and perhaps more alive a for a while. Y ou may
start singing and dancing, which since ancient times are expressions of
the joy of life. Because you are less burdened by your mind, you can
glimpse the joy of Being. Perhaps this is the reason alcohol is also called
spirit. But there is a high price to pay: unconsciousness. Instead of rising
above thought, you have fallen below it. A few more drinks, and you will
have regressed to the vegetable realm. Space consciousness has little to do with being spaced out. Both states
are beyond thought. This they have in common. The fundamental
dif ference, however , is that in the former , you rise above thought; in the
latter , you fall below it. One is the next step in the evolution of human
consciousness, the other a regression to a stage we left behind eons ago.A New Earth
T E L E V I S I O N
W atching television is the favorite leisure activity or rather non? activity
for millions of people around the world. The average American, by the
time he is sixty years old, will have spent fifteen years staring at the TV
screen. In many other countries the figures are similar . Many people find watching TV relaxing. Observe yourself closely and
you will find that the longer the screen remains the focus of your
attention, the more your thought activity becomes suspended, and for
long periods you are watching the talk show , game show , sitcom, or even
commercials with almost no thought being generated by your mind. Not
only do you not remember your problems anymore, but you become
temporarily free of yourself and what could be more relaxing than that? So dos TV watching create inner space? Does it cause you to be present? Unfortunately , it does not. Although for long periods your mind may not
be generating any thoughts, it has linked into the thought activity of the
television show . It has linked up with the TV version of the collective
mind, and is thinking its thoughts. Y our mind is inactive only in the
sense that it is not producing thoughts. It is, however , continuously
absorbing thoughts and images that come through the TV screen. This
induces a trancelike passive state of heightened susceptibility , not unlike
hypnosis. That is why it lends itself to manipulation of public opinion, as
politicians and special?interest groups as well as advertisers know and
will pay millions of dollars to catch you in that state of receptive
unawareness. They want their thoughts to become your thoughts, and
usually they succeed. So when watching television, the tendency is for you to fall below
thought, not rise above it. T elevision has this in common with alcohol
and certain other drugs. While it provides some relief from your mind,
you again pay a high price: loss of consciousness. Like those drugs, it
too has a strong addictive quality . Y ou reach for the remote control to
switch of f and instead find yourself going through all the channels. Halfan hour or an hour later , you are still watching, still going through the
channels. The of f button is the only one your finger seems unable to
press. Y ou are still watching, usually not because anything of interest has
caught your attention, but precisely because there is nothing of interest to
watch. Once you are hooked, the more trivial, the more meaningless, it
is, the more addictive it becomes. If it were
interesting, thought provoking, it would stimulate your mind into
thinking for itself again, which is more conscious and therefore
preferable to a TV? induced trance. Y our attention would, therefore, no
longer be totally held captive by the images on the screen. The content of the program, if there is a certain quality to it, can to some
extent counteract and sometimes even undo the hypnotic, mind? numbing ef fect of the medium of TV . There are some programs that have
been extremely helpful to many people; have changed their lives for the
better , opened their heart, made them more conscious. Even some
comedy shows, although they may be about nothing in particular , can be
unintentionally spiritual by showing a caricature version of human folly
and the ego. They teach us not to take anything too seriously , to
approach life in a lighthearted way , and above all, they teach by making
us laugh. Laughter is extraordinarily liberating as well as healing. Most
of television, however , is as yet controlled by people who are totally
controlled by the ego, and so the TV's hidden agenda becomes control of
you by putting you to sleep, that is to say , making you unconscious. Y et
there is enormous and still lar gely unexplored potential in the medium of
television. A void watching programs and commercials that assault you with a rapid
succession of images that change every two or three seconds or less. Excessive TV watching and those programs in particular are lar gely
responsible for attention deficit disorder , a mental dysfunction now
af fecting millions of children worldwide. A short attention span makes
all your perceptions and relationships shallow and unsatisfying. Whatever you do, whatever action you perform in that state, lacks
quality , because quality requires attention. Frequent and prolonged TV watching not only makes you unconscious,
it also induces passivity and drains you of ener gy . Therefore, rather than
watching at random, choose the programs you want to see. Wheneveryou remember to do so, feel the aliveness inside your body as you watch. Alternatively , be aware of your breathing from time to time. Look away
from the screen at regular intervals so that it does not completely take
possession of your visual sense. Don't turn up the volume any higher
than necessary so that the TV doesn't overwhelm you on the auditory
level. Use the mute button during commercials. Make sure you don't go
to sleep
immediately after switching of f the set or , even worse, fall asleep with
the set still on.A New Earth
R E C O G N I Z I N G  I N N E R  S P A C E
Space between thoughts is probably already arising sporadically in your
life, and you may not even know it. A consciousness mesmerized by
experiences and conditioned to identify exclusively with form, that is to
say , object consciousness, finds it at first almost impossible to become
aware of space. This ultimately mean that you cannot become aware of
yourself, because you are always aware of something else. Y ou are
continuously distracted by form. Even when you seem to be aware of
yourself, you have made yourself into an object, a thought form, and so
what you are aware of is a thought, not yourself. When you hear of inner space, you may start seeking it, and because you
are seeking it as if you were looking for an object or for an experience,
you cannot find it. This is the dilemma of all those who are seeking
spiritual realization or enlightenment. Hence, Jesus said, The kingdom of
God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say , 'Lo, here
it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. If you are not spending all of your waking life in discontent, worry ,
anxiety , depression, despair , or consumed by other negative states; if you
are able to enjoy simple things like listening to he sound of the rain or
the wind; if you can see the beauty of clouds moving across the sky or be
alone at times without feeling lonely or needing the mental stimulus of
entertainment; if you find yourself treating a complete stranger with
heartfelt kindness without wanting anything from him or her ... it means
that a space has opened up, no matter how briefly , in the otherwise
incessant stream of thinking that is the human mind. When this happens
there is a sense of well? being, of alive peace, even though it may be
subtle. The intensity will vary from a perhaps barely noticeable
background sense of contentment to what the ancient sages of India
called ananda the bliss of Being. Because you have been conditioned to
pay attention only to form, you are probably not aware of it except
indirectly . For example, there is a common element in the ability to seebeauty , to appreciate simple things, to enjoy your own company , or to
relate to other people with loving kindness. This common
element is a sense of contentment, peace, and aliveness that is the
invisible background without which these experiences would not be
possible. Whenever there is beauty , kindness, the recognition of the goodness of
simple things in your life, look for the background to that experience
within yourself. But don't look for it as if you were looking for
something. Y ou cannot pin it down and say , Now I have it, or grasp it
mentally and define it in some way . It is like the cloudless sky . It has no
form. It is space; it is stillness, the sweetness of Being and infinitely
more than these words, which are only pointers. When you are able to
sense it directly within yourself, it deepens. So when you appreciate
something simple a sound, a sight, a touch when you see beauty , when
you feel loving kindness toward another , sense the inner spaciousness
that is the source and background to that experience. Many poets and sages throughout the ages have observed that true
happiness I call it the joy of Being is found in simple, seemingly
unremarkable things.
_OceanofPDF.com_A_New_Earth_-_Tolle_Eckhart.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Y ou
accuse and blame, attack, defend, or justify yourself, and it's all
happening on autopilot. Something is obviously much more important to
you now than the inner peace that a moment ago you said was all you
wanted, and you're not an immortal spirit anymore either. The deal, the
money, the contract, the loss or threat of loss are more important. T o
whom. T o the immortal spirit that you said you are. No, to me. The
small me that seeks security tor fulfillment in things that are transient
and gets anxious or angry because it fails to find it. W ell, at least now
you know who you really think you are. If peace is really what you want, then you will choose peace. If pace
mattered to you more than anything else and if you truly knew yourself
to be spirit rather than a little me, you would remain nonreactive and
absolutelyalert when confronted with challenging people or situations. Y ou would
immediately accept the situation and thus become one with it rather than
separate yourself from it. Then out of your alertness would come a a
response. Who you are (consciousness), not who you think you are (a
small me), would be responding. It would be powerful and ef fective and
would make no person or situation in to an enemy. The world always makes sure that you cannot fool yourself for long
about who you really think you are by showing you what truly matters to
you. How you react to people and situations, especially when challenges
arise, is the best indicator of how deeply you know yourself. The more limited, the more narrowly egoic the view of yourself, the
more you will see, focus on, and react to the egoic limitations, the
unconsciousness in others. Their faults or what you perceive as their
faults become to you their identity. His means you will see only the ego
in them and thus strengthen the ego in yourself. Instead of looking
through the ego in others, you are looking at the ego. Who is looking at
the ego. The ego in you. V ery unconscious people experience their own ego through its reflection
in others. When you realize that what you react to in others is also in you
(and sometimes only in you), you begin to become aware of your own
ego. At that stage, you may also realize that you were doing to others
what you thought others were doing to you. Y ou cease seeing yourself as
a victim. Y ou are not the ego, so when you become aware of the ego in you, it
does not mean you know who you are it means you know who you are
not. But it is through knowing who you are not that the greatest obstacle
to truly knowing yourself is removed. Nobody can tell you who you are. It would just be another concept, so it
would not change you. Who you are requires no belief. In fact, every
belief is an obstacle. It does not even require your realization, since you
already are who you are. But without realization, who you are does not
shine forth into this world. It remains in the unmanifested which is, of
course your true home. Y ou are then like an apparently poor person who
does not know he has a bank account with $100 million in it and so his
wealth remains an unexpressed potential. A New Earth
A B U N D A N C E
Who you think you are is also intimately connected with how you see
yourself treated by others. Many people complain that others do not treat
them well enough. I don't get any respect, attention, recognition,
acknowledgment, they say. I'm being taken for granted. When people are
kind, they suspect hidden motives. Others want to manipulate me, take
advantage of me. Nobody loves me. Who they think they are is this: I am a needy 'little me' whose needs are
not being met. This basic misperception of who they are creates
dysfunction in all their relationships. They believe they have nothing to
give and that the world or other people are withholding from them what
they need. Their entire reality is based on an illusory sense of who they
are. It sabotages situations, mar all relationships. If the thought of lack
whether it be money, recognition, or love has become part of who you
think you are, you will always experience lack. Rather than acknowledge
the good that is already in your life, all you see is lack. Acknowledging
the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance. The fact is: Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you
are withholding from the world. Y ou are withholding it because deep
down you think you are small and that you have nothing to give. T ry this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality:
Whatever you think people are withholding from you. praise,
appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on give it to them. Y ou don't
have it. Just act as if you had it, and it will come. Then, soon after you
start giving, you will start receiving. Y ou cannot receive what you don't
give. Outflow determines inflow. Whatever you think the world is
withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow
out, you won't even know that you have it. This includes abundance. The
law that outflow determines inflow is expressed by Jesus in this powerful
image: Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. The source of all abundance is not outside you. It is part of who you are. However, start by acknowledging and recognizing abundance without. See the fullness of life all around you. The warmth of the sun on your
skin, the display of magnificent flowers outside a florist's shop, biting
into a
succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from
the sky. The fullness of life is there at every step. The acknowledgment
of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance
within. Then let it flow out. When you smile at a a stranger, there is
already a minute outflow of ener gy. Y ou become a giver. Ask yourself
often: What can I give here; how can I be of service to this person, this
situation. Y ou don't need to own anything to feel abundant, although if
you feel abundant consistently things will almost certainly come to you. Abundance comes only to those who already have it. It sounds almost
unfair, but of course it isn't. It is a universal law. Both abundance and
scarcity are inner states that manifest as your reality. Jesus puts it like
this: For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who
has not, even what he has will be taken away. A New Earth
K N O W I N G  Y O U R S E L F  A N D  K N O W I N G
A B O U T  Y O U R S E L F
Y ou may not want to know yourself because you are afraid of what you
may find out. Many people have a secret fear that they are bad. But
nothing you can find out about yourself is you. Nothing you can know
about you is you. While some people do not want to know who they are because of fear,
others have a insatiable curiosity about themselves and want to find out
more and more. Y ou may be so fascinated with yourself that you spend
years in psychoanalysis, delve into every aspect of your childhood,
uncover secret fears and desires, and find layers upon layers of
complexity in the makeup of your personality and character. After ten
years, the therapist may get tired of you and your story and tell you that
your analysis is now complete. Perhaps he sends you away with a five. thousand. page dossier. This is all about you. This is who you are. As you
carry the heavy file home, the initial satisfaction of at last knowing
yourself gives way quickly to a feeling of incompleteness and a lurking
suspicion that there must be more to who you are than this. And indeed
there is more not perhaps in quantitative terms of more facts but in the
qualitative dimension of depth. There is nothing wrong with psychoanalysis or finding out about your
past as long as you don't confuse knowing about yourself with knowing
yourself. The five.
The true self is not a concept or a belief, but rather the essence of one's being. The obstacle to knowing oneself is the ego, which is the greatest hindrance to self-awareness.
Who is the true self, and what is the obstacle to knowing oneself?
The key is non-resistance to the present moment, and it changes one's reality by allowing for a deeper connection with the universe and the elimination of the ego.
What is the key to inner alignment with the present moment, and how does it change one's reality?
The ego cannot align with the present moment, as it is always seeking to change or control the situation. This leads to reactivity and a sense of separation from the world.
What is the relationship between the ego and the present moment, and how does it manifest?
Recognizing the ego is crucial, as it is the source of all negativity, anxiety, and suffering. Once recognized, one can begin to transcend the ego and align with the universe.
What is the importance of recognizing the ego and its influence on one's life?
Abundance and fulfillment come from aligning with the present moment and the universe, rather than seeking external validation or material possessions. One can access this by letting go of egoic thinking and embracing the now, allowing oneself to be guided by the universe.
What is the true source of abundance and fulfillment, and how can one access it?