Eckhart Tolle

Tape 5 

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[I don't teach Buddhism, as such, but there is such truth in it that the illusion deriving your sense of self from identification with form.]   

Jesus probably also taught it because we only really have fragments of Jesus' teachings.   He used the strange expression, "Deny thyself."   I suspect that hasn't been taken down correctly and then mistranslated.  He probably said something like, "Dissolve illusion of self, negate that illusion."    

September 5th

Unconditioned presence

Perhaps you've lived your life not realizing that prior to all the conditioning and conditions, there is an unconditioned presence that is totally and vibrantly free and loving.  Maybe you've been locked in roles, job titles, beliefs, religions, or thought-based identities.  This unconditioned presence is what you are - right now - before you think about who or what you are.

Thought might respond, "There is nothing here."  The mind is so busy looking for something other than simple presence, so busy thinking about life and complicating it, that this unconditioned presence is missed.

Thought places conditions on your experience:  "If my wife would stop nagging, I would be happy."  "If my boss would appreciate me more, I would be satisfied with this job."  Do you see the game the conditioned mind plays?  Don't judge these thoughts.  To condemn thought is just more conditioned mind.  Thought says, "If I could only quiet my conditioned mind, I would be at peace."

Don't make an enemy out of thought.  Notice that the conditioned mind is doing exactly what it is supposed to do.  It is thinking.  Simply notice the space in which all of that is happening.  Notice this unchanging presence that is always and already here ëunder' all that conditioning.  This presence is unconditioned because it has no interest in placing conditions on your experience.  It is naturally and effortlessly at one with what is - regardless of what the conditioned mind is doing.

Michael Brown

From PART V: 2. 

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Authentic facilitators are born into this world, not trained by it. They are raised by Life and not by the living. It is challenging to train an authentic facilitator because it is challenging to teach someone how to become nobody and nothing. The world conditions us into believing we are supposed to be somebody or something to be of any value at all, and that the more others know of who and what we are, the more valuable our worldly status is. It is therefore challenging to teach someone how to betray this ingrained belief system, and themselves, for the benefit of another, which is one of the tasks an authentic facilitator is required to carry out. Facilitation, in this context, is by its nature ego-destroying, because it is about agreeing to assist others in destroying their manufactured egos. Therefore, only those with an authentic ego death-wish entertain this responsibility. Possibly the most appropriate word to describe the resonance of a facilitator is the word, mirroring. The task of an authentic facilitator is to reflect what we cannot, and in most cases, do not choose to perceive about ourselves. To accomplish this function they are required to be nothing and nobody. Instead, they become an empty available space, allowing themselves to be filled with the energy of whatever we hide from ourselves. They are as neutral, as clear, and as honest as a mirror. A good metaphor in describing an authentic facilitator is a chameleon-mirror. A chameleon-mirror does not use its ability to change its appearance for the purpose of camouflaging itself, instead it uses this ability to reveal to those who come in close contact with it what they are hiding from themselves.        

Chapter 85

'I am': The Foundation of all Experience

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Q: Listen Sir. I am coming to you because I am in trouble. I am a poor soul lost in a world I do not understand. I am afraid of Mother Nature who wants me to grow, procreate and die. When I ask for the meaning and purpose of all this, she does not answer. I have come to you because I was told that you are kind and wise. You talk about the changeable as false and transient and this I can understand. But when you talk of the immutable, I feel lost. 'Not this, not that, beyond knowledge, of no use' -- why talk of it all? Does it exist, or is it a concept only, a verbal opposite to the changeable?

M: It is, it alone is. But in your present state it is of no use to you. Just like the glass of water near your bed is of no use to you, when you dream that you are dying of thirst in a desert. I am trying to wake you up, whatever your dream.