Most people, in their restless search for something
significant to happen to them, continuously miss the insignificant, which
may not be insignificant at all. The philosopher Nietzsche, in a rare
moment of deep stillness, rote, For happiness, how little suf fices for
happiness!.... the least ting precisely , the gentlest thing, the lightest thing,
a lizard's rustling, a breath, a wisk, an eye glance little maketh up the
best happiness. Be still. Why is it the least thing that makes up the best happiness? Because true
happiness is not caused by the thing or event, although this is how it first
appears. The thing or event is so subtle, so unobtrusive, that it takes up
only a small part of your consciousness and the rest is inner space,
consciousness itself unobstructed by form. Inner space consciousness
and who you are in your essence are one and the same. In other words,
the form of little things leaves room for inner space. And it is from inner
space, the unconditioned consciousness itself, that true happiness, the joy
of Being, emanates. T o be aware of little, quiet things, however , you
need to be quiet inside. A high degree of alertness is required. Be still. Look. Listen. Be present.Here is anther way of finding inner space: Become conscious of being
conscious. Say or think I Am and add nothing to it. Be aware of the
stillness that follows the I Am. Sense your presence, the naked, unveiled,
unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor , good
or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all
form.A New Earth
C A N  Y O U  H E A R  T H E  M O U N T A I N
S T R E A M ? A Zen Master was walking in silence with one of his disciples along a
mountain trail. When they came to an ancient cedar tree, they sat down
under it for a simple meal of some rice and vegetables. After the meal,
the disciple, a young monk who had not yet found the key to the mystery
of Zen, broke the silence by asking the Master , Master , how do I enter
Zen? He was, of course, inquiring how to enter the state of consciousness
which is Zen. The Master remained silent. Almost five minutes passed while the
disciple anxiously waited for an answer . He was about to ask another
question when the Master suddenly spoke. Do you hear the sound of that
mountain stream? The disciple had not been aware of any mountain stream. He had been
too busy thinking about the meaning of Zen. Now as he began to listen
for the sound, his noisy mind subsided. At first he heard nothing. Then,
his thinking gave way to heightened alertness, and suddenly he did hear
the hardly perceptible murmur of a small stream in the far distance. Y es, I can hear it now , he said. The master raised his finger and, with a look in his eyes that in some way
was both fierce and gentle, said, Enter Zen from there. The disciple was stunned. It was his first satori a flash of enlightenment. He knew what Zen was without knowing what it was that he knew! They continued on their journey in silence. The disciple was amazed at
the aliveness of the world around him. He experienced everything as if
for the first time. Gradually , however , he stated thinking again. The alert
stillness became covered up again by mental noise, and before long hehad another question. Master , he said, I have been thinking. What would
you
have said if I hadn't been able to hear the mountain stream? The master
stopped, looked at him, raised his finger and said, Enter Zen from there.A New Earth
R I G H T  A C T I O N
The ego asks, How can I make this situation fulfill my needs or how
can I get to some other situation that will fulfill my needs. Presence is a state of inner spaciousness. When you are present, you ask:
How do I respond to the needs of this situation, of this moment? In fact,
you don't even need to ask the question. Y ou are still, alert, open to what
is. Y ou bring a new dimension into the situation: Space. Then you look
and you listen. Thus you become one with the situation. When instead of
reacting against a situation, you mer ge with it, the solution arises out o
the situation itself. Actually , it is not you, the person, who is looking and
listening, but the alert stillness itself. Then, if action is possible or
necessary , you take action or rather right action happens through you. Right action is action that is appropriate to the whole. When the action is
accomplished, the alert, spacious stillness remains. There is nobody who
raises his arms in a gesture of triumph shouting a defiant Y eah! There is
no one ho says, Look, I did that. All creativity comes out of inner spaciousness. Once the creation has
happened and something has come into form, you have to be vigilant so
that the notion of me or mine does not arise. If you take credit for what
you accomplished, the ego has returned, and the spaciousness has
become obscured.A New Earth
P E R C E I V I N G  W I T H O U T  N A M I N G
Most people are only peripherally aware of the world that surrounds
them, especially if their surroundings are familiar . The voice in the head
absorbs the greater part of their attention. Some people feel more alive
when they travel and visit unfamiliar places or foreign countries because
at those times sense perception experiencing takes up more of heir
consciousness than thinking. They become more present. Others remain
completely possessed by the voice in the head even then. Their
perceptions and experiences are distorted by instant judgments. They
haven't really gone anywhere. Only their body is traveling, while they
remain where they have always been: in their head. This is most people's reality: As soon as something is perceived, it is
named, interpreted, compared with something else, liked, disliked, or
called good or bad by the phantom self, the ego. They are imprisoned in
thought forms, in object consciousness. Y ou do not awaken spiritually until the compulsive and unconscious
naming ceases, or at least you become aware of it and thus are able to
observe it as it happens. It is through this constant naming that the ego
remains in place as the unobserved mind. Whenever it ceases and even
when you just become aware of it, there is inner space, and you are not
possessed by the mind anymore. Choose an object close to you a pen, a chair , a cup, a plant and explore it
visually , that is to say , look at it with great interest, almost curiosity . A void any objects with strong personal associations that remind you of
the past, such as where you bought it, who gave it to you, and so on. Also avoid anything that has writing on it such as a book or a bottle. It
would stimulate thought. W ithout straining, relaxed but alert, give your
complete attention to the object, every detail of it. If thoughts arise, don't
get involved in them. It is not the thoughts you are interested in, but the
act of perception itself. Can you take the thinking out of the perceiving? Can you look without the voice in your head commenting, drawingconclusions, comparing, or trying to figure something out? After a
couple of minutes or so, let your gaze wander around the room or
wherever you are, your alert attention lighting up each thing that it rests
upon. Then, listen to any sounds that may be present. Listen to them in the
same way as you looked at the things around you. Some sounds may be
natural water , wind, birds while others are man?made. Some may be
pleasant, others unpleasant. However don't dif ferentiate between good
and bad. Allow each sound to be as it is, without interpretation. Here too,
relaxed but alert attention is the key . When you look and listen tin this way , you may become aware of a
subtle and at first perhaps a hardly noticeable sense of calm. Some
people feel it as a stillness in the background. Others call it peace. When
consciousness is no longer totally absorbed by thinking, some of it
remains in its formless, unconditioned, original state. This is inner space.A New Earth
W H O  I S  T H E  E X P E R I E N C E R ? What you see and hear , taste, touch, and smell are, of course, sense
objects. They are what you experience. But who is the subject, the
experiencer? If you now say , for example, W ell, of course, I , Jane Smith,
senior accountant, forty?five years old, divorced, mother of two,
American, am the subject, the experiencer , you are mistaken. Jane Smith
and whatever else becomes identified with the mental concept of Jane
Smith are all objects of experience, not the experiencing subject. Every experience has three possible ingredients: sense perceptions,
thoughts or mental images, and emotions. Jane Smith, senior accountant,
forty?five years old, mother of two, divorced, American these are all
thoughts and therefore part of what you experience the moment you
think these thoughts. They and whatever else you can say and think
about yourself are objects, not the subject. They are experience, not the
experiencer . Y ou can add a thousand more definitions (thoughts) of who
you are and by doing so will certainly increase the complexity of the
experience of yourself (as well as your psychiatrist's income) but, in this
way , you will not end up with the subject, the experiencer who is prior to
all experience but without whom there would be no experience. So who is the experiencer? Y ou are. And who are you? Consciousness. And what is consciousness? This question cannot be answered. The
moment you answer it, you have falsified it, made it into another object. Consciousness, the traditional word for which is spirit, cannot be known
in the normal sense of the word, and seeing it is futile. All knowing is
within the realm of duality subject and object, the knower and the
known. the subject, the I, the knower without which nothing could be
known, perceived, thought, or felt, must remain forever unknowable. This is because the I has no form. Only forms can be known, and yet
without the formless dimension, the world of form could not be. It is the
luminous space in which the world arises and subsides. That space is the
life that I Am. It is timeless. I Am timeless, eternal. What happens in thatspace is relative and temporary: pleasure and pain, gain and loss, birth
and death. The greatest impediment to the discovery of inner space, the greatest
impediment to finding the experiencer , is to become so enthralled by the
experience that you lose yourself in it. It means consciousness is lost in
its
own dream. Y ou get taken in by every thought, every emotion, and every
experience to such a degree that you are in fact in a dreamlike state. This
has been the normal state of humanity for thousands of years. Although you cannot know consciousness, you can become conscious of
it as yourself. Y ou can sense it directly in any situation, no matter where
you are. Y ou can sense it here and now as your very Presence, the inner
space in which the words on this page are perceived and become
thoughts. It is the underlying I Am. The word you are reading and
thinking are the foreground, and the I Am is the substratum, the
underlying background to every experience, thought, feeling.A New Earth
T H E  B R E A T H
Discover inner space by creating gaps in the stream of thinking. W ithout
those gaps, your thinking becomes repetitive, uninspired, devoid or any
creative spark, which is how it still is for most people on the planet. Y ou
don't need to be concerned with the duration of those gaps. A few
seconds is good enough. Gradually , they will lengthen by themselves,
without any ef fort on your part. More important than their length is to
bring them in frequently so that your daily activities and your stream of
thinking become interspersed with space. Someone recently showed me the annual prospectus of a lar ge spiritual
or ganization. When I looked through it, I was impressed by the wide
choice of interesting seminars and workshops. It reminded me of a
smor gasbord, on of those Scandinavian buf fets where you can take your
pick from a huge variety of enticing dishes. The person asked me
whether I could recommend one or two courses. I don't know , I said. They all look so interesting. But I do know this, I added. Be aware of
your breathing as often as you are able, whenever you remember . Do that
for one year , and it will be more powerfully transformative than
attending all of these courses. And it's free. Being aware of your breathing takes attention away from thinking and
creates space. It is one way of generating consciousness. Although the
fullness of consciousness is already there as the unmanifested, we are
here to bring consciousness into this dimension. Be aware of your breathing. Notice the sensation of the breath. Feel the
air moving in and out of your body . Notice how the chest and abdomen
expand and contract slightly with the in and out breath. One conscious
breath is enough to make some space where before there was the
uninterrupted succession of one thought after another . One conscious
breath (two or three would be even better), taken many times a day , is an
excellent way of bringing space into your life. Even if you meditated on
your breathing for two hours or more, which some people do, one breathis all you ever need to be aware of, indeed ever can be aware of. The rest
is memory or anticipation, which is to say , thought. Breathing isn't really
something that you do but something that you witness as it happens. Breathing happens by itself. The intelligence within the body is doing it. All you have to do is watch it happening. There is no strain or ef fort
involved. Also, notice the brief cessation of the breath, particularly the
still point at the end of the out? breath, before you start breathing in
again. Many people's breath is unnaturally shallow . The more you are aware of
the breath, the more its natural depth will reestablish itself. Because breath has no form as such, it has since ancient times been
equated with spirit ?the formless one Life. God formed man of dust from
the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man
became a living creature. The German word for breathing atmen is
derived from the ancient Indian (Sanskrit) word Atman, meaning the
indwelling divine spirit or God within. The fact that breath has no form is one of the reasons why breath
awareness is an extremely ef fective way of bringing space into your life,
of generating consciousness. It is an excellent meditation object precisely
because it is not an object; has no shape or form. The other reason is that
breath is one of the most subtle and seemingly insignificant phenomena,
the least thing that according to Nietzsche makes up the best happiness. Whether or not you practice breath awareness as an actual formal
meditation is up to you. Formal meditation, however , is no substitute for
bringing space consciousness into everyday life. Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment the key
to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath ,
you are absolutely present. Y ou may also notice that you cannot think
and be
aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind. But far
from being in a trance or half asleep, you are fully awake and highly
alert. Y ou are not falling below thinking, but rising above it. And if you
look more closely , you will find that those two things coming fully into
the present moment and ceasing thinking without loss of consciousness
are actually one and the same: the arising of space consciousness.A New Earth
A D D I C T I O N S
A long?standing compulsive behavior pattern may be called an
addiction, and an addiction lives inside you as a quasi?entity or sub? personality , an ener gy field that periodically takes you over completely . It even takes over your mind, the voice in your head, which then
becomes the voice of the addiction. It may be saying, Y ou've had a rough
day . Y ou deserve a treat. Why deny yourself the only pleasure that is left
in your life? And so, if you are identified with the internal voice due to
lack of awareness, you find yourself walking to the fridge and reaching
for that rich chocolate cake. At other times, the addiction may bypass the
thinking mind completely and you suddenly find yourself puf fing on a
cigarette or holding a drink. How did that get into my hand? T aking the
cigarette out of the packet and lighting it, or pouring yourself a drink
were actions performed in complete unconsciousness. If you have a compulsive behavior pattern such as smoking, overeating,
drinking, TV watching, Internet addiction, or whatever it may be, this is
what you can do: When you notice the compulsive need arising in you,
stop and take three conscious breaths. This generates awareness. Then
for a few minutes be aware of the compulsive ur ge itself as an ener gy
field inside you. Consciously feel that need to physically or mentally
ingest or consume a certain substance or the desire to act out some form
of compulsive behavior . Then take a few more conscious breaths. After
that you may find that the compulsive ur ge has disappeared ? for the
time being. or you may find that it still overpowers you, and you cannot
help but indulge or act it out again. Don't make it into a problem. Make
the addiction part of your awareness practice in the way described above. As awareness grows, addictive patterns will weaken and eventually
dissolve. Remember , however , to catch any thoughts that justify the
addictive behavior , sometimes with clever ar guments, as they arise in
you mind. Ask yourself, Who is talking here? And you will realize the
addiction is talking. As long as you know that,as long as you are present as the observer of your mind, it is less likely to
trick you into doing what it wants.A New Earth
I N N E R  B O D Y  A W A R E N E S S
Another simple but highly ef fective way of finding space in you life is
closely linked to the breath. Y ou will find that by feeling the subtle flow
of air in and out of the body as well as the rise and fall of your chest and
abdomen, you are also becoming aware of the inner body . Y our attention
may then shift from the breath to that felt aliveness within you, dif fused
throughout the body . Most people are so distracted by their thoughts, so identified with the
voices in their heads, they can no longer feel the aliveness within them. T o be unable to feel the life that animates the physical body , the very life
that you are, is the greatest deprivation that can happen to you. Y ou then
begin to look not only for substitutes for that natural state of well?being
within, but also for something to cover up the continuous unease that you
feel when you are not in touch with the aliveness that is always there but
usually overlooked. Some of the substitutes people seek out are drug? induced highs, sensory overstimulation such as excessively loud music,
thrills or dangerous activities, or an obsession with sex. Even drama in
relationships is used as a substitute for that genuine sense of aliveness. The most sought?after cover?up for the continuous background unease
are intimate relationships: a man or a woman who is going to make me
happy . It is, of course, also one of the most frequently experienced of all
the letdowns. And when the unease surfaces again, people will usually
blame their partner for it. T ake two or three conscious breaths. Now see if you can detect a subtle
sense of aliveness that pervades your entire inner body . Can you feel
your body from within, so to speak? Sense briefly specific parts of your
body . Feel your hands, then your arms feet, and legs. Can you feel your
abdomen, chest, neck and head? What about your lips? Is there life in
them? Then become aware again of the inner body as a whole. Y ou may
want to close your eyes initially for this practice, and once you can feel
your body , open your eyes, look around, and continue to feel your bodyat the same time. Some readers may find there is no need to close their
eyes; they can in fact feel their inner body as they read this.A New Earth
I N N E R  A N D  O U T E R  S P A C E
Y our inner body is not solid but spacious. It is not your physical form but
the life that animates the physical form. It is the intelligence that created
and sustains the body , simultaneously coordinating hundreds of dif ferent
functions of such extraordinary complexity that the human mind can
only understand a tiny fraction of it. When you become aware of it, what
is really happening is that the intelligence is becoming aware of itself. It
is the elusive life that no scientist has ever found because the
consciousness that is looking for it is it. Physicists have discovered that the apparent solidity of matter is an
illusion created by our senses. this includes the physical body , which we
perceive and think of as form, but 99.99% of which is actually empty
space. This is how vast the space is between the atoms compared to their
size,and there is as much space again within each atom. The physical
body is no more than a misperception of who you are. In many ways, it
is a microcosmic version of outer space. T o give you an idea of how vast
the space ins between celestial bodies, consider this: light traveling at a
constant speed of 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second takes
just over one second to travel between the earth and the moon; light from
the sun takes about eight minutes to reach the earth. Light from our
nearest neighbor in space, a star called Proxima Centauri, which is the
sun that is closest to our own sun, travels for 4.5 years before it reaches
the earth. This is how vast the space is that surrounds us. And then there
is the inter galactic space, whose vastness defies all comprehension. Light
from the galaxy closest to our own, the Andromeda Galaxy , takes 2.4
million years to reach us. Isn't it amazing that your body is just as
spacious as the universe? So your physical body , which is form reveals itself as essentially
formless when you go deeper into it. It becomes a doorway into inner
space. Although inner space has no form, it is intensely alive. That
empty space is life in its fullness, the unmanifested Source out of which
all manifestation flows. The traditional word for that Source is God.Thoughts and words belong to the world of form; they cannot express the
formless. So when you say , I can feel my inner body that is a
misperception created by thought. What is really happening is hat the
consciousness that appears as the body the consciousness that I Am is
becoming conscious of itself. When I no longer confuse who I am with a
temporary form of me, then the dimension of the limitless and the eternal
God can express itself through me and guide me. it also fees me from
dependency on form. However , a purely intellectual recognition or belief
I am not this form does not help. The all?important question is: At this
moment, can I sense the presence of inner space, which really means,
can I sense my own Presence, or rather , the Presence that I Am? Or we an approach this truth sing a dif ferent pointer . Ask yourself, Am I
aware not only of what is happening at this moment, but also of the Now
itself as the living timeless inner space in which everything happens? Although this question seems to have nothing to do with the inner body ,
yo may be surprised that by becoming aware of the space of Now , you
suddenly feel more alive inside. Y o are feeling the aliveness of the inner
boy the aliveness that is an intrinsic part of th joy of Being. W e have to
enter the body to go beyond it and find out that we are not that. As much as possible in everyday life, use awareness of the inner body to
create space. When waiting, when listening to someone, when pausing to
look at the sky , a tree, a flower , your partner , or child, feel the aliveness
within at the same time. This means part of your attention or
consciousness remains formless, an the rest is available for the outer
world of form. Whenever you inhabit your body in this way , it serves as
an anchor for staying present in the Now . It prevents you from losing
yourself in thinking, in emotions, or in external situations. When you think, feel, perceive, and experience, consciousness is born
into form. It is reincarnating ? into a thought, a feeling, a sense
perception, an experience. The cycle of rebirths that Buddhists hope to
get out of eventually is happening continuously , and it is only at this
moment through the power of Now that you can get out of it. Through
complete acceptance of the form of Now , you become internally aligned
with space, which is the essence of Now . Through acceptance, you
become spacious inside. Aligned with space instead of form: That brings
true perspective and balance into your life.A New Earth
N O T I C I N G  T H E  G A P S
Throughout the day , there is a continuously changing succession of
things that you see and hear . In the first moment of seeing something or
hearing a sound and more so if it is unfamiliar before the mind names or
interprets what your see or hear , there is usually a gap of alert attention
in which the perception occurs. That is the inner space. Its duration
dif fers from person to person. It is easy to miss because in many people
those spaces are extremely short, perhaps only a second or less. This is what happens: A new sight or sound arises, and in the first
moment of perception, there is a brief cessation in the habitual stream of
thinking. Consciousness is diverted away form thought because it is
required for sense perception. A very unusual sight or sound may leave
you speechless ? even inside, that is to say , bring about a longer gap. The frequency and duration of those spaces determine your ability to
enjoy life, to feel an inner connectedness with other human beings as
well as nature. It also determines the degree to which you are free of ego
because ego implies complete unawareness of the dimension of space. When you become conscious of these brief spaces they happen naturally ,
they will lengthen, and as they do, you will experience with increasing
frequency the joy of perceiving with little or no interference of thinking. The world around you then feels fresh, new , and alive. The more you
perceive life through a mental screen of abstraction and
conceptualization, the more lifeless and flat the world around you
becomes.A New Earth
L O S E  Y O U R S E L F  T O  F I N D  Y O U R S E L F
Inner space also arises whenever you let go of the need to emphasize
your form?identity . That need is of the ego. It is not a true need. W e have
already touched briefly upon this. Whenever you relinquish one of these
behavior patterns, inner space emer ges. Y ou become more truly yourself. T o the ego it will seem as if you were losing yourself, but the opposite is
the case. Jesus already taught that you need to lose yourself to find
yourself. Whenever you let go of one of these patterns, you de? emphasize who you are on the level of form and who you are beyond
form emer ges more fully . Y ou become less, so you can be more. Here are some ways in which people unconsciously try to emphasize
their form?identity . If you are alert enough, you may be be to detect
some of these unconscious patterns within yourself: demanding
recognition for something you did and getting angry or upset if you don't
get it; trying to get attention by talking about your problems, the story of
your illnesses, or making a scene; giving your opinion when nobody has
asked for it and it makes no dif ference to the situation; being more
concerned with how the other person sees you than with the other
person, which is to say , using other people for egoic reflection or as as
ego enhancers; trying to make an impression on others through
possessions, knowledge, good looks, status, physical strength,and so on;
bringing about temporary ego inflation through angry reaction against
something to someone; taking things personally , feeling of fended;
making yourself right and others wrong through futile mental or verbal
complaining; wanting to be seen, or to appear important. Once you have detected such a pattern within yourself, I suggest that you
conduct an experiment. Find out what it feels like and what happens if
you let go of that pattern. Just drop it and see what happens. De?emphasizing who you are on the level of form is another way of
generating consciousness. Discover the enormous power hat flowsthrough you into the world when you sot emphasizing your form? identity .A New Earth
S T I L L N E S S
It has been said:Stillness is the language God speaks, and everything else
is a bad translation. Stillness is really another word for space. Becoming
conscious of stillness whenever we encounter it in our lives will connect
us with the formless and timeless dimension within ourselves, that which
is beyond thought, beyond ego. It may be the stillness that pervades the
world of nature, or the stillness in your room in the early hours of the
morning, or the silent gaps in between sounds. Stillness has no form that
is why through thinking we cannot become aware of it. Thought is form. Being aware of stillness means to be still. T o be still is to be conscious
without thought. Y ou are never more essentially , more deeply , yourself,
than when you are still. When you are still, you are who you were before
you temporarily assumed this physical and mental form called a person. Y ou are also who you will be when the form dissolves. When you are
still, you are
who you are beyond your temporal existence: consciousness
unconditioned, formless, eternal.C H A P T E R  N I N E  Y O U R  I N N E R  P U R P O S E
As soon as you rise above mere survival, the question of meaning and
purpose becomes of paramount importance in your life. Many people
feel caught up in the routines of daily living that seem to deprive their
life of significance. Some believe life is passing them by or has passed
them by already . Others feel severely restricted by the demands of their
job an supporting a family or by their financial or living situation. Some
are consumed by acute stress, others by acute boredom. Some are lost in
frantic doing; others are lost in stagnation. Many people long for the
freedom and expansion that prosperity promises. Others already enjoy
the relative freedom that comes with prosperity and discover that even
that is not enough to endow their lives with meaning. There is no
substitute for finding true purpose. But the true or primary purpose of
your life cannot be found on the outer level. It does not concern what
you do but what you are that is to say , your state of consciousness. So the most important thing to realize is this: Y our life has an inner
purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is
primary . Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary . While this book
speaks mainly of your inner purpose, this chapter and the next will also
address the question of how to align outer purpose and inner purpose in
your life. Inner and outer , however , are so intertwined that is almost
impossible to speak of one without referring to the other . Y our inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. Y ou share that
purpose with every other person on the planet because it is the purpose
of humanity . Y our inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the
whole, the universe and its emer ging intelligence. Y our outer purpose
can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding
and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for
fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success. W ithout that
alignment, you can still
achieve certain things through ef fort, struggle, determination, and sheer
hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endeavor , and it
invariably ends in some form of suf fering.A New Earth
A W A K E N I N G
A wakening is a shift in consciousness in which thinking and awareness
separate. For most people it is not an event but a process they under go. Even those rare beings who experience a sudden, dramatic, and
seemingly irreversible wakening will still go through a process in which
the new state of consciousness gradually flows into and transforms
everything they do and so becomes integrated into their lives. Instead of being lost in your thinking, when you are awake you
recognize yourself as the awareness behind it. Thinking then ceases to be
a self?serving autonomous activity that takes possession of you and runs
your life. A wareness takes over from thinking. Instead of being in char ge
or your life, thinking becomes the servant of awareness. A wareness is
conscious connection with universal intelligence. Another word for it is
Presence: consciousness without thought. The initiation of the awakening process is an act of grace. Y ou cannot
make it happen nor can you prepare yourself for it or accumulate credits
toward it. There isn't a tidy sequence of logical steps that leads toward it,
although the mind would love that. Y ou don't have to become worthy
first. It may come to the sinner before it comes to the saint, but not
necessarily . That's why Jesus associated with all kinds of people, not just
the respectable ones. There is nothing you can do about awakening. Whatever you do will be the ego trying to add awakening or
enlightenment to itself as its most prized possession and thereby making
itself more important and bigger . Instead of awakening, you add the
concept of awakening to your mind, or the mental image of what an
awakened or enlightened person is like, and then try to live up to that
image. Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other
people have of you is inauthentic living another unconscious role the ego
plays. So if there is nothing you can do about wakening, if it has either already
happened or not yet happened, how can it be the primary purpose of yourlife? Does not purpose imply that you can do something about it? Only the first awakening, the first glimpse of consciousness without
thought, happens by grace, without any doing on your part. If you find
this book incomprehensible or meaningless, it has not yet happened to
you. If something within you responds to it, however , if you somehow
recognize the truth in it, it means the process of awakening has begun. Once it has done so, it cannot be reversed, although it can be delayed by
the ego. For some people, the reading of this book will initiate the
awakening process. For others, the function of this book is to help them
recognize that they have already begun to awaken and to intensify and
accelerate the process. Another function of this book is to help people
recognize the ego within them whenever it tries to regain control and
obscure the arising awareness. For some, the awakening happens as they suddenly become aware of the
kinds of thoughts they habitually think, especially persistent negative
thoughts that they may have been identified with all of their lives. Suddenly there is an awareness that is aware of thought but is not part of
it. What is the relationship between awareness and thinking? A wareness is
the space in which thoughts exist when that space has become conscious
of itself. Once you have had a glimpse of awareness or Presence, you know it
firsthand. It is no longer just a concept in your mind. Y ou can then make
a conscious choice to be present rather than to indulge in useless
thinking. Y ou can invite Presence into your life, that is to say , make
space. W ith the grace of awakening comes responsibility . Y ou can either
try to go on as if nothing has happened, or you can see its significance
and recognize the arising of awareness as the most important thing that
can happen to you. Opening yourself to the emer ging consciousness and
bringing this light into this world then becomes the primary purpose of
your life. I want to know the mind of God, Einstein said. The rest are details. What
is the mind of God? Consciousness. What does it mean to know the mind
of God? T o be aware. What are the details? Y our outer purpose, and
whatever happens outwardly .So while you are perhaps still waiting for something significant to
happen in your life, you may not realize that the most significant thing
that
can happen to a human being has already happened within you: the
beginning of the separation process of thinking and awareness. Many people who are going through the early stages of the awakening
process are no longer certain what their outer purpose is. What drives the
world no longer drives them. Seeing the madness of our civilization so
clearly , they may feel somewhat alienated from the culture around them. Some feel that they inhabit a no?man's land between two worlds. They
are no longer run by the ego, yet the arising awareness has not yet
become fully integrated into their lives. Inner and outer purpose have not
mer ged.A New Earth
A  D I A L O G U E  O N  I N N E R  P U R P O S E
The following dialogue condenses numerous conversations I have had
with people who were looking for their true life purpose. Something is
true when it resonates with and expresses your innermost Being, when it
is alignment with your inner purpose. This is why I am directing their
attention to their inner and primary purpose first. I don't know exactly what it is, but I want some change in my life. I want
expansion; I want to be doing something meaningful and, yes, I want
prosperity and the freedom that comes with it. I want to do something
significant, something that makes a dif ference tin the world. But if you
asked me what exactly I want, I would have to say that I don't know . Can
you help me find my life purpose? Y our purpose is to sit here and talk to me, because that's where you are
and that's what you are doing. Until you get up and do something else. Then, that becomes your purpose. So my purpose is to sit in my of fice for the next thirty years until I retire
or get laid of f? Y ou are not in your of fice now , so that's not your purpose. When you do
sit in your of fice and do whatever you do, then that is your purpose. Not
for the next thirty years, but for now . I think here is some misunderstanding here. For you, purpose means
what you are doing now; for me it means having an overall aim in life,
something big and significant that gives meaning to what I do, something
that makes a dif ference. Shuf fling papers in the of fice is not it. I know
that. As long as your are unaware of Being, you will seek meaning only
within the dimension of doing and of future, that is to say , the dimension
of time. And whatever meaning or fulfillment you find will dissolve orturn out to have been a deception. Invariably , it will be destroyed by
time. Any meaning we find on that level is true only relatively and
temporarily . For example, if caring for your children gives meaning to
your life, what happens to that meaning when they don't need you and
perhaps don't even listen to you anymore? If helping others gives
meaning to your life, you depend on others being worse of f than yourself
so that your life can continue to be meaningful and you can feel good
about yourself. If the desire to excel, win, or succeed at this or that
activity provides you with meaning, what if you never win or your
winning streak comes to an end one day , as it will? Y ou would then have
to look to your imagination or memories a very unsatisfactory place to
bring some meager meaning into your life. Making it in whatever field is
only meaningful as long as there are thousands or millions of others who
don't make it, so you need other human beings to fail so that your life
can have meaning. I am not saying here that helping others, caring for you children, or
striving for excellence in whatever field are not worthwhile things to do. For many people, they are an important part of their outer purpose, but
outer purpose alone is always relative, unstable, and impermanent. This
does not mean that you should not be engaged in those activities. It
means you should connect them to your inner , primary purpose, so that a
deeper meaning flows into what you do. W ithout living in alignment with your primary purpose, whatever
purpose you come up with, even if it is to create heaven on earth, will be
of the ego or become destroyed by time. Sooner or later , it will lead to
suf fering. If you ignore your inner purpose, no matter what you do, even
if it looks spiritual, the ego will creep into how you do it, and so the
means will corrupt the end. The common saying The road to hell is
paved with good intentions points to this book or walking across the
room. The main purpose for turning the pages is to turn the pages; the
secondary purpose is to find a phone number . The main purpose for
walking across the room is to walk across the room; the secondary
purpose is to pick up a book at the
other end, ad the moment you pick up the book, that becomes your main
purpose.Y ou may remember the paradox of time we mentioned earlier: Whatever
you do takes time, and yet it is always now . So while your inner purpose
is to negate time, your outer purpose necessarily involves future and so
could not exist without time. But it is always secondary . Whenever you
become anxious or stressed, outer purpose has taken over , and you lost
sight of your inner purpose. Y ou have for gotten that your state of
consciousness is primary , all else secondary . W ould living like this not stop me form looking to achieve something
great? My fear is that I will remain stuck with doing little things for the
rest of my life, things that are of no consequence. I'm afraid of never
rising above mediocrity , never daring to achieve anything great, not
fulfilling my potential. The great arises out of small things that are honored and cared for . Everybody's life really consists of small things. Greatness is a mental
abstraction and a favorite fantasy of the ego. The paradox is that the
foundation for greatness is honoring the small things of the present
moment instead of pursuing the idea of greatness. The present moment is
always all in the sense that it is always simple, but concealed within it
lies the greatest power . Like the atom, it is one of the smallest things yet
contains enormous power . Only when you align yourself with the present
moment do you have access to that power . Or it may be more true to say
that it then has access to you and through you to tis world. Jesus was
referring to this power when he said, It is not I but the Father within me
who does the works. And I can of my own self do nothing. Anxiety ,
stress, and negativity cut you of f from that power . The illusion that you
are separate form the power that runs the universe returns. Y ou feel
yourself to be alone again, struggling against something or trying to
achieve this or that. But why did anxiety , stress, or negativity arise? Because you turned away from the present moment. And why did you do
that? Y ou thought something else was more important. Y ou for got your
main purpose. One small error , one misperception, creates a world of
suf fering. Through the present moment you have access tot he power of life itself,
that which has traditionally been called God. As soon as you turn
away form it, God ceases to be a reality in your life, and and all you are
left with is the mental concept of God, which some people believe in andothers deny . Even belief in God is only a poor substitute for the living
reality of God manifesting every moment of your life. W ould complete harmony with the present moment not imply the
cessation of all movement? Doesn't the existence of any goal imply that
there is a temporary disruption in that harmony with the present moment
and perhaps a reestablishment of harmony at a higher or more complex
level once the goal has been attained? I imagine that the sapling that
pushes its way through the soil can't be in total harmony with the present
moment either because it has a goal: It wants to become a big tree. Maybe once it has reached maturity it will lie in harmony with the
present moment. The sapling doesn't want anything because it is at one with the totality ,
and the totality acts through it. Look at the lilies of the field, how they
grow said Jesus, They toil not, neither do they spin. Y et even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. W e could say that the
totality Life wants the sapling to become a tree, but the sapling doesn't
see itself as separate from life and so wants nothing for itself. It is one
with what Life wants. That's why it isn't worried or stressed. And if it has
to die prematurely , it dies with ease. It is as surrendered in death as it is
in life. It senses, no matter how obscurely , its rootedness in Being, the
formless and eternal one Life. Like the T aoist sages of ancient China, Jesus likes to draw your attention
to nature because he sees a power at work in it that humans have lost
touch with. It is the creative power of the universe. Jesus goes on to say
that if God clothes simple flowers in such beauty , how much more will
God clothe you. That is to say , that while nature is a beautiful expression
of the evolutionary impulse of the universe, when humans become
aligned with the intelligence that underlies it, they will express that same
impulse on a higher , more wondrous level. So be true to life by being true to your inner purpose. As you become
present and thereby total in what you do, your actions become char ged
with spiritual power . At first there may be no noticeable change in what
you do only the how changes. your primary purpose is now to enable
consciousness to flow into what you do. The secondary purpose is
whatever you want toachieve through the doing. Whereas the notion of purpose before was
always associated with future, there is now a deeper purpose hat can only
be found in the present, through the denial of time. When you meet with people, at work or wherever it my be, give them
your fullest attention. Y ou are no longer there primarily as a person, but
as a field of awareness, of alert Presence. The original reason for
interacting with the other person buying or selling something, requesting
or giving information, and so on now becomes secondary . The field of
awareness that arises between you becomes the primary purpose for the
interaction. That space of awareness becomes more important than what
you may be talking about, more important than physical or thought
objects. The human Being becomes more important than the things of
this world. It does not mean you neglect whatever needs to be done on a
practical level. In fact, the doing unfolds no only more easily , but more
powerfully when the dimension of Being is acknowledged and so
becomes primary . The arising of that unifying field of awareness
between human beings is the most essential factor in relationships on the
new earth. Is the notion of success just an egoic illusion? How do we measure true
success? The world will tell you that success is achieving what you set out to do. It will tell you that success is winning, that finding recognition and/or
prosperity are essential ingredients in any success. All or some of the
above are usually by?products of success, but they are not success. The
conventional notion of success is concerned with the outcome of what
you do. Some say that success is the result of a combination of hard
work and luck, or determination and talent, or being in the right place at
the right time. While any of these may be determinants of success, they
are not its essence. What the world doesn't tell you because it doesn't
know is that you cannot become successful. Y ou can only be successful. Don't let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a
successful present moment. And what is that? There is a sense of quality
in what you do, even the most simple action. Quality implies care and
attention, which comes with awareness. Quality requires your Presence. Let's say that you are a businessperson and after two years of intense
stress and strain you finally manage to come out with a product orservice
that sells well and makes money . Success? In conventional terms, yes. In
reality , you spent two years polluting your body as well as the earth with
negative ener gy , made yourself and those around you miserable, and
af fected many others you never even met. The unconscious assumption
behind all such action is that success is a future event, and that the need
justifies the means. But the end and he means are one. And if the means
did not contribute to human happiness, neither will the end. The
outcome, which is inseparable from the actions that led to it, is already
contaminated by those actions and so will create further unhappiness. This is karmic action, which is the unconscious perpetuation of
unhappiness. As you already know , your secondary or outer purpose lies within the
dimension of time, while your main purpose is inseparable from the Now
and therefore requires the negation of time. How are they reconciled? By
realizing that your entire life journey ultimately consists of the step you
are taking at this moment. There is always only this one step, an so you
give it your fullest attention. This doesn't mean you don't know where
you are going; it just means this step is primary , the destination
secondary . And what you encounter at your destination once you get
there depends on the quality of this one step. Another way of putting it:
What the future holds for you depends on your state of consciousness
now . When doing becomes infused with the timeless quality of Being, that is
success. Unless Being flows into doing, unless you are present, you lose
yourself in whatever you do. Y ou also lose yourself in thinking, as well
as in your reactions to what happens externally . What exactly do you mean when you say , Y ou lose yourself? The essence of who you are is consciousness. When consciousness (you)
becomes completely identified with thinking and thus for gets its
essential nature, it loses itself in thought. When it becomes identified
with mental?emotional formations such as wanting and fearing the
primary motivating forces of the ego it loses itself in those formations. Consciousness also loses itself when it identifies with acting and reacting
to what happens. Every thought, every desire or fear , every action or
reaction, is then infused with a false sense of self that is incapable ofsensing the simple joy of Being and so seeks pleasure, and sometimes
even pain, as substitutes for it. This is living in for getfulness of Bing. In
that state of
for getfulness of who you are, every success is no more than a passing
delusion. Whatever you achieve, soon you will be unhappy again, or
some new problem or dilemma will draw your attention in completely . How do I go from realizing what my inner purpose is to finding out what
I am supposed to do on the outer level? The outer purpose varies greatly form person to person, and no outer
purpose lasts forever . It is subject to time and then replaced by some
other purpose. The extent to which dedication to the inner purpose of
awakening changes the external circumstances of your life also varies
greatly . For some people, there is a sudden or gradual break with their
past: their work, living situation, relationship everything under goes
profound change. Some of the change may be initiated by themselves,
not through an agonizing decision? making process but by a sudden
realization or recognition: This is what I have to do. The decision arrives
ready?made, so to speak. It comes through awareness, not through
thinking. Y ou wake up one morning and you know what to do. Some
people find themselves walking out of an insane work environment or
living situation. So before you discover what is right for you on the
external level, before you discover what works, what is compatible with
the awakening consciousness, you may have to find out what is not right,
what no longer works, what is incompatible with your inner purpose. Other kinds of change may suddenly come to you from without. A
chance meeting brings new opportunity and expansion into your life. A
long?standing obstacle or conflict dissolves. Y our friends either go
through this inner transformation with you or drift out of your life. Some
relationships dissolve, others deepen. Y ou may get laid of f from your
job, or you become an agent for positive change at your workplace. Y our
spouse leaves you, or you reach a new level of intimacy . Some changes
may look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is
being created in your life for something new to emer ge. There may be a period of insecurity and uncertainty . What should I do? As the ego is no longer running your life, the psychological need for
external security , which is illusory anyway , lessens. Y ou are able to livewith uncertainty , even enjoy it. When you become comfortable with
uncertainty , infinite possibilities open up in your life. It means fear is no
longer a dominant factor in what you do and no longer prevents you
from taking
action to initiate change. The Roman philosopher T acitus rightly
observed that the desire for safety stands against every great and noble
enterprise. If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear . If it is
perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and
creativity . Many years ago, as a result of a strong inner impulse, I walked out of an
academic career that the world would have called promising, stepping
into complete uncertainty; and out of that, after several years, emer ged
my new incarnation as a spiritual teacher . Much later , something similar
happened again. The impulse came to give up my home in England and
move to the W est Coast of North America. I obeyed that impulse,
although I didn't know the reason for it. Out of that move into
uncertainty came The Power of Now , most of which was written in
California and British Columbia while I didn't have a home of my own. I
had virtually no income and lived on my savings, which were quickly
running out. In fact, everything fell into place beautifully . I ran out of
money just when I as getting close to finishing writing. I bought a lottery
ticket and won $1,000, which kept me going for another month. Not everybody , whoever , will have to go through drastic change in their
external circumstances. At the other end of the spectrum you have people
who stay exactly where they are and keep doing whatever they are doing. For them, only the how changes, not the what. This is not due to fear or
inertia. What they are doing already is a perfect vehicle for
consciousness to come into this world, and it needs no other . They too
bring into manifestation the new earth. Shouldn't this be the case for everybody? If fulfilling your inner purpose
is being at one with the present moment, why should anybody feel the
need to remove themselves from their current work or living situation? Being at one with what is doesn't mean you no longer initiate change or
become incapable of taking action. But the motivation to take action
comes from a deeper level, not from egoic wanting or fearing. Inner
alignment with the present moment opens your consciousness and bringsit into alignment with the whole, of which the present moment is an
integral part. The hole, the totality of life, then acts through you. What do you mean by the whole? On the one hand, the whole comprises all that exists. It is the world or
the cosmos. But all things in existence, from microbes to human beings
to galaxies, are not really separate things or entities, but form part of a
web of interconnected multidimensional processes. There are two reasons why we don't see this unity , why we see things as
separate. One is perception, which reduces reality to what is accessible to
us through the small range of our senses: what we can see, hear , smell,
taste, and touch. But when we perceive without interpreting or mental
labeling, which means without adding thought to our perceptions, we can
actually still sense the deeper connectedness underneath our perception
of seemingly separate things. The other more serious reason for the illusion of separateness is
compulsive thinking. It is when we are trapped in incessant streams of
compulsive thinking that the universe really disintegrates for us, and we
lose the ability to sense the interconnectedness of all that exists. Thinking cuts reality up into lifeless fragments. Extremely unintelligent
and destructive action arises out of such a fragmented view of reality . However , there is an even deeper level to the hole than the
interconnectedness of everything in existence. At that deeper level, all
things are one. it is the Source, the unmanifested one Life. It is the
timeless intelligence that manifests as a universe unfolding in time. The whole is made up of existence and Being, the manifested and the
unmanifested, the world and God. So when you become aligned with the
whole, you become a conscious part of the interconnectedness of the
whole and its purpose: the emer gence of consciousness into this world. As a result, spontaneous helpful occurrences, chance encounters,
coincidences, and synchronistic events happen much more frequently . Carl Jung called synchronicity an acausal connecting principle. This
means there is no causal connection between synchronistic events on our
surface level of reality . It is an outer manifestation of an underlying
intelligence behind the world of appearances and a deeper connectednessthat our mind cannot understand. But we can be conscious participants in
the unfolding of that intelligence, the flowering consciousness. Nature exists in a state of unconscious oneness with the whole. This, for
example, is why no virtually no wild animals were killed in the tsunami
disaster of 2004. Being more in touch with the totality than humans, they
could sense the tsunami's approach long before it could be seen or heard
and so had time to withdraw to higher terrain. Perhaps even that is
looking at it from a human perspective. They probably just found
themselves moving to higher terrain. Doing this because of that is the
mind's way of cutting up reality; whereas nature lies in unconscious
oneness with the whole. It is our purpose and destiny to bring a new
dimension into this world by living in conscious oneness with the totality
and conscious alignment with universal intelligence. Can the whole use the human mind to create things or bring about
situations that are in alignment with its purpose? Y es, whenever there is inspiration, which translates as in spirit, and
enthusiasm, which means In God, there is a creative empowerment hat
goes far beyond what a mere person is capable of.C H A P T E R  T E N  A  N E W  E A R T H
Astronomers have discovered evidence to suggest that the universe came
into existence fifteen billion years ago in a gigantic explosion and has
been expanding ever since. Not only has it been expanding, but it is also
growing in complexity and becoming more and more dif ferentiated. Some scientists also postulate that this movement from unity to
multiplicity will eventually become reversed. The universe will then stop
expanding and begin to contract again and finally return to the
unmanifested, the inconceivable nothingness out of which it came and
perhaps repeat the cycles of birth, expansion, contraction, and death
again and again. For what purpose? Why does the universe go to all the
bother of existing? asks physicist Stephen Hawking, realizing at the
same time that no mathematical model could ever supply the answer . If you look within rather than only without, however , you discover that
you have an inner and an outer purpose, and since you are a microcosmic
reflection of the macrocosm, it follows that the universe too has an inner
and outer purpose inseparable from yours. The outer purpose of the
universe is to create form and experience the interaction of forms the
play , the dream, the drama, or whatever you choose to call it. Its inner
purpose is to awaken to its formless essence. Then comes the
reconciliation of outer and inner purpose: to bring that essence
consciousness into the world of form and thereby transform the world. The ultimate purpose of that transformation goes far beyond anything the
human mind can imagine or comprehend. And yet, on this planet at this
time, that transformation is the task allotted us. That is the reconciliation
of outer and inner purpose, the reconciliation of the world and God. Before we look at what relevance the expansion and contraction of the
universe has to your own life, we need to bear in mind here that nothing
we say about the nature of the universe should be taken as an absolute
truth. Neither concepts nor mathematical formulae can explain the
infinite. No thought can encapsulate the vastness of the totality . Reality
is a unified whole, but thought cuts it up into fragments. This gives rise
to fundamental misperceptions., for example, that there are separate
things and events, or that this is the cause of that. Every thought implies
a perspective, and every perspective, by its very nature, implies
limitation, which ultimately means that it is not true, at least notabsolutely . Only the whole is true, but the whole cannot be spoken or
thought. Seen from beyond the limitations of thinking and therefore
incomprehensible to the human mind, everything is happening now . All
that ever has been or will be is now , outside of time, which is a mental
construct. As an illustration of relative and absolute truth, consider the sunrise and
sunset. when we say the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening,
that is true but only relatively . In absolute terms, it is false. Only from
the limited perspective of an observer on or near the planet's surface does
the sun rise and set. If you were far out in space, you would see that the
sun neither rises nor sets, but that it shines continuously . And yet, even
after realizing that, we can continue to speak of the sunrise or sunset, still
see its beauty paint it, write poems about it, even though we now know
that it is a relative rather than an absolute truth. So let us continue to speak for a moment of another relative truth: the
coming into form of the universe and its return to the formless, which
implies the limited perspective of time, and see what relevance this has
to your own life. The notion of my own life is, of course, another limited
perspective created by thought, another relative truth. There is ultimately
no such thing as your life, since you and life are not two, but one.A New Earth
A  B R I E F  H I S T O R Y  O F  Y O U R  L I F E
The coming into manifestation of the world as well as its return to the
unmanifested its expansion and contraction are two universal movements
that we could call the outgoing and the return home. Those two
movements are reflected through the universe in many ways, such as in
the incessant expansion and contraction of your heart, as well as in the
inhalation and exhalation of your breath. They are also reflected in the
cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Each night, without knowing it, you
return to the unmanifested Source of all life when you enter the stage of
deep, dreamless sleep, and then reemer ge again in the morning,
replenished. Those two movements, the outgoing and the return are also reflected in
each person's life cycles. Out of nowhere, so to speak, you suddenly
appear in this world. Birth is followed by expansion. There is not only
physical growth, but also growth of knowledge, activities, possessions,
experiences. Y our sphere of influence expands and life becomes
increasingly complex. This is a time when you are mainly concerned
with finding or pursuing your outer purpose. Usually there is also a
corresponding growth of the ego, which is identification with all the
above things, and so your form identity becomes more and more defined. This is also the time when outer purpose growth tends to become
usurped by the ego, which unlike nature does not know when to stop in
its pursuit of expansion and has a voracious appetite for more. And then just when you thought you made it or that you belong here, the
return movement begins. Perhaps people close to you begin to die,
people who were a part of your world. Then your physical form
weakens; your sphere of influence shrinks. Instead of becoming more,
you now become less, and the ego reacts to this with increasing anxiety
or depression. Y our world is beginning to contract, ad you may find you
are not in control anymore. Instead of acting upon life, life now acts
upon you by slowlyreducing your world. The consciousness that identified with form is now
experiencing the sunset, the dissolution of form. And then one day , you
too disappear . Y our armchair is still there. But instead of you sitting in it,
there is just an empty space. Y ou went back to where you came from just
a few years ago. Each person's life each life?form, in fact represents a world, a unique
way in which the universe experiences itself.
_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:

        Most people, in their restless search for something
significant to happen to them, continuously miss the insignificant, which
may not be insignificant at all. The philosopher Nietzsche, in a rare
moment of deep stillness, rote, For happiness, how little suf fices for
happiness. the least ting precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing,
a lizard's rustling, a breath, a wisk, an eye glance little maketh up the
best happiness. Be still. Why is it the least thing that makes up the best happiness. Because true
happiness is not caused by the thing or event, although this is how it first
appears. The thing or event is so subtle, so unobtrusive, that it takes up
only a small part of your consciousness and the rest is inner space,
consciousness itself unobstructed by form. Inner space consciousness
and who you are in your essence are one and the same. In other words,
the form of little things leaves room for inner space. And it is from inner
space, the unconditioned consciousness itself, that true happiness, the joy
of Being, emanates. T o be aware of little, quiet things, however, you
need to be quiet inside. A high degree of alertness is required.
The key to true happiness is not the event or thing, but the subtle, unobtrusive, and gentle things in life.
What is the key to true happiness, according to the philosopher Nietzsche?
The primary purpose is to awaken to one's true nature and bring consciousness into the world.
What is the primary purpose of human life, according to the text?
The main obstacle is the compulsive and unconscious naming of things, and it can be overcome by becoming aware of your breath and the present moment.
What is the main obstacle to finding inner space, and how can it be overcome?
The ego is a reflection of the universe, and the universe is a reflection of the ego. The ego's existence is dependent on the universe, and the universe's existence is dependent on the ego.
What is the relationship between the ego and the universe, according to the text?
The author suggests that the universe is a unified, interconnected whole, and that human existence is a microcosmic reflection of this unity.
What is the author's message about the nature of the universe and its relationship to human existence?