I am an Eckhart Tolle fan ever since I discovered The Power of Now many years ago. I just finished reading A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. I understand that Oprah Winfrey is promoting this book, which gives me hope, because taken to heart, it can certainly change the world.
I thought I would put a little excerpt here, and now, I struggle with how little. His message is clear. "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 these courses. And it's free." He is talking about the smorgasbord of workshops that exist today, and how to choose among them.
Now, I have attended more than my share of courses, and workshops. For awhile, I was an addict, one more course, and I will have the answer, will be "enlightened," whatever that means, and I think it is important to remember that we, always, everywhere, anywhere, can pause to notice our breath, or keep doing, and notice our breath. How is it now?
I put the jellyfish here for this post not just for its marvelous beauty - I love jellyfish, but, also, because when I stand at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, at the jellyfish exhibit, and watch them float effortlessly up and down, it reminds me of my own diaphragm, the bridge, as some have called it, to the soul.
The breath is the link between the conscious and the unconscious. We can control it, and we can't. It gives us a great deal of information about how we are, now, and now, and now.
Eckhart Tolle continues:
"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 dimention.
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 breath is all you ever need to be aware of, indeed ever can be aware of. The rest is memory and 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 effort involved. Also, notice the brief cessation of the breath, particularly the still point at the end of the outbreath, before you start breathing again."
Eckhart Tolle goes on, but I think right there I have given you enough entertainment for the weekend. Play with it like a toy. Enjoy. Sometimes I have the experience of "being breathed" and it is as exhilarating as it gets.
Be breathed! Enjoy!! Effortless!! Now and now and now!!
Play with the Play of Breath!! Now!!