Quotes from: Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle

Posted May 14th, 2008 by Rosalie

Quotes from: Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle (Chapter 1 and 2)

Quotes from the book: Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle (Chapter 1 and 2)

Because the thoughts came out of stillness, they have power, the power to
take you back into the same stillness from which they arose. That stillness
is also inner peace. And that stillness and peace is the essence of your
being. It is the stillness that will save and transform the world. (From the
Introduction of the book)

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Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or
awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become
thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts,
no world. You are that awareness, disguised as a person. (Chapter 1)

______________________

Whenever there is some silence around you - listen to it. That means just
notice Pay attention to it. Listening to silence awakens the dimension of
stillness within yourself, because it is only through stillness that you can
be aware of silence. (Chapter 1)

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Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How
still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you
stillness. (Chapter 1)

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Pay attention to the gap - the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent
space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or
flute, or the gap between the in-breath and out-breath. When you pay
attention to those gaps, awareness of "something" becomes - just awareness.
The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and
replaces identification with form. (Chapter 1)

______________________

Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their
own thoughts. They never go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalized sense
of self that is conditioned by the past.

In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far
deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it
presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness. In the ancient
teachings, it is the Christ within, or your Buddha nature.

Finding that dimension frees you and the world from the suffering you
inflict on yourself and others when the mind-made "little me" is all you
know and runs your life. Love, joy, creative expansion, and lasting inner
peace cannot come into your life except through that unconditioned dimension
of consciousness.

If you can recognize, even occasionally, the thoughts that go through your
mind as just thoughts, if you can witness your own mental-emotional reactive
patterns as they happen, then that dimension is already emerging in you as
the awareness in which thoughts and emotions happen - the timeless inner
space in which the content of your life unfolds. (Chapter 2 page 13)

______________________

The stream of thinking has enormous momentum that can easily drag you along
with it. Every thought pretends that it matters so much. It wants to draw
your attention in completely.

Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too
seriously. (Chapter 2 page 14)

______________________

The next step in human evolution is to transcend thought. This is now our
urgent task. It doesn't mean not to think anymore, but simply not to be
completely identified with thought, possessed by thought. (Chapter 2 page
20)

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Shared with Love and Light, Rosalie xo

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