PAST PAIN: DISSOLVING THE PAIN-BODY - раздел Образование, Acclaim for THE POWER OF NOW
As Long As You Are Unable To Access The Power Of The Now, Eve...
As long as you are unable to access the power of the Now, every
emotional pain that you experience leaves behind a residue of pain
that lives on in you. It merges with the pain from the past, which was
already there, and becomes lodged in your mind and body. This, of
course, includes the pain you suffered as a child, caused by the
unconsciousness of the world into which you were born.
This accumulated pain is a negative energy field that occupies your
body and mind. If you look on it as an invisible entity in its own right,
you are getting quite close to the truth. It’s the emotional pain-body.
It has two modes of being: dormant and active. A pain-body may be
dormant 90 percent of the time; in a deeply unhappy person, though,
it may be active up to 100 percent of the time. Some people live
almost entirely through their pain-body, while others may experience
it only in certain situations, such as intimate relationships, or
situations linked with past loss or abandonment, physical or emotional
hurt, and so on. Anything can trigger it, particularly if it resonates with
a pain pattern from your past. When it is ready to awaken from its
dormant stage, even a thought or an innocent remark made by
someone close to you can activate it.
Some pain-bodies are obnoxious but relatively harmless, for example
like a child who won’t stop whining. Others are vicious and destructive
monsters, true demons. Some are physically violent; many more are
emotionally violent. Some will attack people around you or close to
you, while others may attack you, their host. Thoughts and feelings
you have about your life then become deeply negative and self-
destructive. Illnesses and accidents are often created in this way.
Some pain-bodies drive their hosts to suicide.
When you thought you knew a person and then you are suddenly
confronted with this alien, nasty creature for the first time, you are in
for quite a shock. However, it’s more important to observe it in
yourself than in someone else. Watch out for any sign of unhappiness
in yourself, in whatever form — it may be the awakening pain-body.
This can take the form of irritation, impatience, a somber mood, a
desire to hurt, anger, rage, depression, a need to have some drama in
your relationship, and so on. Catch it the moment it awakens from its
dormant state.
The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in
existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously
identify with it. It can then rise up, take you over, “become you,” and
live through you. It needs to get its “food” through you. It will feed on
any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything
that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness,
hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness. So the
pain-body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your
life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on. Pain
can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite
indigestible.
Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain. You
become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you
want to suffer pain, or both. There isn’t really much difference
between the two. You are not conscious of this, of course, and will
vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you
will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain
going, for yourself and others. If you were truly conscious of it, the
pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody
is consciously insane.
The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually
afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found
out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as
well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you.
But if you don’t face it, if you don’t bring the light of your
consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and
again. The pain-body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that
you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an insubstantial
phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence.
Some spiritual teachings state that all pain is ultimately an illusion,
and this is true. The question is: Is it true for you? A mere belief
doesn’t make it true. Do you want to experience pain for the rest of
your life and keep saying that it is an illusion? Does that free you from
the pain? What we are concerned with here is how you can realize
this truth — that is, make it real in your own experience.
So the pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for
what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you,
and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher
dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are
now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it
cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer
replenish itself through you. You have found your own innermost
strength. You have accessed the power of Now.
What happens to the pain-body when we become conscious enough
to break our identification with it?
Unconsciousness creates it; consciousness transmutes it into itself. St.
Paul expressed this universal principle beautifully: “Everything is
shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to
the light itself becomes light.” Just as you cannot fight the darkness,
you cannot fight the pain-body. Trying to do so would create inner
conflict and thus further pain. Watching it is enough. Watching it
implies accepting it as part of what is at that moment.
The pain-body consists of trapped life-energy that has split off from
your total energy field and has temporarily become autonomous
through the unnatural process of mind identification. It has turned in
on itself and become anti-life, like an animal trying to devour its own
tail. Why do you think our civilization has become so life-destructive?
But even the life-destructive forces are still life-energy.
When you start to disidentify and become the watcher, the pain-body
will continue to operate for a while and will try to trick you into
identifying with it again. Although you are no longer energizing it
through your identification, it has a certain momentum, just like a
spinning wheel that will keep turning for a while even when it is no
longer being propelled. At this stage, it may also create physical
aches and pains in different parts of the body, but they won’t last.
Stay present, stay conscious. Be the ever-alert guardian of your inner
space. You need to be present enough to be able to watch the pain-
body directly and feel its energy. It then cannot control your thinking.
The moment your thinking is aligned with the energy field of the pain-
body, you are identified with it and again feeding it with your
thoughts.
For example, if anger is the predominant energy vibration of the pain-
body and you think angry thoughts, dwelling on what someone did to
you or what you are going to do to him or her, then you have become
unconscious, and the pain-body has become “you.” Where there is
anger, there is always pain underneath. Or when a dark mood comes
upon you and you start getting into a negative mind-pattern and
thinking how dreadful your life is, your thinking has become aligned
with the pain-body, and you have become unconscious and vulnerable
to the pain-body’s attack. “Unconscious,” the way that I use the word
here, means to be identified with some mental or emotional pattern.
It implies a complete absence of the watcher.
Sustained conscious attention severs the link between the pain-body
and your thought processes and brings about the process of
transmutation. It is as if the pain becomes fuel for the flame of your
consciousness, which then burns more brightly as a result. This is the
esoteric meaning of the ancient art of alchemy: the transmutation of
base metal into gold, of suffering into consciousness. The split within
is healed, and you become whole again. Your responsibility then is
not to create further pain.
Let me summarize the process. Focus attention on the feeling inside
you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think
about it — don’t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’t judge or
analyze. Don’t make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present,
and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you.
Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of “the one
who observes,” the silent watcher. This is the power of the Now, the
power of your own conscious presence. Then see what happens.
For many women, the pain-body awakens particularly at the time
preceding the menstrual flow. I will talk about this and the reason for
it in more detail later. Right now, let me just say this: If you are able
to stay alert and present at that time and watch whatever you feel
within, rather than be taken over by it, it affords an opportunity for
the most powerful spiritual practice, and a rapid transmutation of all
past pain becomes possible.
Все темы данного раздела:
A GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
Eckhart Tolle
NAMASTE PUBLISHING
and
NEW WORLD LIBRARY
NOVATO, CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER THREE: Moving Deeply into the Now
Don’t Seek Your Self in the Mind
End the Delusion of Time
Nothing Exists Outside the Now
The Key to the Spiritual Dimension
Accessing the Power of the Now
CHAPTER SIX: The Inner Body
Being Is Your Deepest Self
Look beyond the Words
Finding Your Invisible and Indestructible Reality
Connecting with the Inner Body
Transformation through the Body
About the Author
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO
THE PAPERBACK EDITION
Six years after it was first published, The Power of Now continues to
play its part in the urgent task of the tr
THE ORIGIN OF THIS BOOK
I have little use for the past and rarely think about it; however, I
would briefly like to tell you how I came to be a spiritual teacher and
how this book came int
THE TRUTH THAT IS WITHIN YOU
This book represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be
conveyed in words, with individuals and small groups of spiritual
seekers during the past ten year
THE GREATEST OBSTACLE TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Enlightenment — what is that?
A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years.
One day a stranger walked by. “Spare some change?” mumbled the
FREEING YOURSELF FROM YOUR MIND
What exactly do you mean by “watching the thinker”?
When someone goes to the doctor and says, “I hear a voice in my
head,” he or she will most likely be sent to a
ENLIGHTENMENT: RISING ABOVE THOUGHT
Isn’t thinking essential in order to survive in this world?
Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific
task, and when the task is co
EMOTION: THE BODY’S REACTION TO YOUR MIND
What about emotions? I get caught up in my emotions more than I do
in my mind.
Mind, in the way I use the word, is not just thought. It includes your
emot
CREATE NO MORE PAIN IN THE PRESENT
Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of
learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?
The greater part of human pa
EGO IDENTIFICATION WITH THE PAIN-BODY
The process that I have just described is profoundly powerful yet
simple. It could be taught to a child, and hopefully one day it will be
one of the first things c
THE ORIGIN OF FEAR
You mentioned fear as being part of our basic underlying emotional
pain. How does fear arise, and why is there so much of it in people’s
lives? And isn’t a certain
THE EGO’S SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS
Another aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the
egoic mind is a deep-seated sense of lack or incompleteness, of not
being whole. In some peop
DON’T SEEK YOUR SELF IN THE MIND
I feel that there is still a great deal I need to learn about the workings
of my mind before I can get anywhere near full consciousness or
spiritual enlightenment.
END THE DELUSION OF TIME
It seems almost impossible to disidentify from the mind. We are all
immersed in it. How do you teach a fish to fly?
Here is the key: End the delusion of time. Time
NOTHING EXISTS OUTSIDE THE NOW
Aren’t past and future just as real, sometimes even more real, than
the present? After all, the past determines who we are, as well as
how we perceive and behave i
THE KEY TO THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
In life-threatening emergency situations, the shift in consciousness
from time to presence sometimes happens naturally. The personality
that has a past and a futur
ACCESSING THE POWER OF THE NOW
A moment ago, when you talked about the eternal present and the
unreality of past and future, I found myself looking at that tree
outside the window. I had looked
LETTING GO OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
Learn to use time in the practical aspects of your life — we may call
this “clock time” — but immediately return to present-moment
awareness when those practical m
THE INSANITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental
disease if you look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for
example, in the form of ideol
NEGATIVITY AND SUFFERING HAVE THEIR ROOTS IN TIME
But the belief that the future will be better than the present is not
always an illusion. The present can be dreadful, and things can get
better in the future, and
FINDING THE LIFE UNDERNEATH YOUR LIFE SITUATION
I don’t see how I can be free now. As it happens, I am extremely
unhappy with my life at the moment. This is a fact, and I would be
deluding myself if I tried to c
ALL PROBLEMS ARE ILLUSIONS OF THE MIND
It feels as if a heavy burden has been lifted. A sense of lightness. I
feel clear. . . but my problems are still there waiting for me, aren’t
they? They haven’t be
A QUANTUM LEAP IN THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
I have had glimpses of this state of freedom from mind and time that
you describe, but past and future are so overwhelmingly strong that I
cannot keep them out for
THE JOY OF BEING
To alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by
psychological time, you can use a simple criterion. Ask yourself: Is
there joy, ease, and lightness
LOSS OF NOW: THE CORE DELUSION
Even if I completely accept that ultimately time is an illusion, what
difference is that going to make in my life? I still have to live in a
world that is complete
AND DEEP UNCONSCIOUSNESS
What do you mean by different levels of unconsciousness?
As you probably know, in sleep you constantly move between the
phases of dreamless sleep and the dream sta
WHAT ARE THEY SEEKING?
Carl Jung tells in one of his books of a conversation he had with a
Native American chief who pointed out to him that in his perception
most white people have tens
DISSOLVING ORDINARY UNCONSCIOUSNESS
So how can we be free of this affliction?
Make it conscious. Observe the many ways in which unease,
discontent, and tension arise within you through unnecessary
FREEDOM FROM UNHAPPINESS
Do you resent doing what you are doing? It may be your job, or you
may have agreed to do something and are doing it, but part of you
resents and resists it. Are yo
WHEREVER YOU ARE, BE THERE TOTALLY
Can you give some more examples of ordinary unconsciousness?
See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought,
about a situation you find you
THE INNER PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE’S JOURNEY
I can see the truth of what you are saying, but I still think that we
THE PAST CANNOT SURVIVE IN YOUR PRESENCE
You mentioned that thinking or talking about the past unnecessarily is
one of the ways in which we avoid the present. But apart from the
past that we remember and
IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS
You keep talking about the state of presence as the key. I think I
understand it intellectually, but I don’t know if I have ever truly
experienced it. I wonder — i
BEAUTY ARISES IN THE STILLNESS OF YOUR PRESENCE
What you have just described is something that I occasionally
experience for brief moments when I am alone and surrounded by
nature.
Yes. Zen masters use
REALIZING PURE CONSCIOUSNESS
Is presence the same as Being?
When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that
Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious
CHRIST: THE REALITY OF YOUR DIVINE PRESENCE
Don’t get attached to any one word. You can substitute “Christ” for
presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-
essence or the Self, as it is
BEING IS YOUR DEEPEST SELF
You spoke earlier about the importance of having deep roots within or
inhabiting the body. Can you explain what you meant by that?
The body can become a point of a
LOOK BEYOND THE WORDS
I don’t like the word sin. It implies that I am being judged and found
guilty.
I can understand that. Over the centuries, many erroneous views and
interpr
FINDING YOUR INVISIBLE AND INDESTRUCTIBLE REALITY
You said that identification with our physical form is part of the
illusion, so how can the body, the physical form, bring you to a
realization of Being?
CONNECTING WITH THE INNER BODY
Please try it now. You may find it helpful to close your eyes for this
practice. Later on, when “being in the body” has become natural and
easy, this will no longe
TRANSFORMATION THROUGH THE BODY
Why have most religions condemned or denied the body? It seems
that spiritual seekers have always regarded the body as a hindrance
or even as sinful.
Why
SERMON ON THE BODY
What you perceive as a dense physical structure called the body,
which is subject to disease, old age, and death, is not ultimately real
— is not you. It is a misp
HAVE DEEP ROOTS WITHIN
The key is to be in a state of permanent connectedness with your
inner body — to feel it at all times. This will rapidly deepen and
transform your life. The more c
BEFORE YOU ENTER THE BODY, FORGIVE
I felt very uncomfortable when I tried to put my attention on the inner
body. There was a feeling of agitation and some nausea. So I haven’t
been able to experienc
YOUR LINK WITH THE UNMANIFESTED
What is the relationship between presence and the inner body?
Presence is pure consciousness — consciousness that has been
reclaimed from the mind, from the world
SLOWING DOWN THE AGING PROCESS
In the meantime, awareness of the inner body has other benefits in
the physical realm. One of them is a significant slowing down of the
aging of the physical body.
STRENGTHENING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Another benefit of this practice in the physical realm is a great
strengthening of the immune system, which occurs when you inhabit
the body. The more consciousnes
LET THE BREATH TAKE YOU INTO THE BODY
At times, when my mind has been very active, it has acquired such
momentum that I find it impossible to take my attention away from it
and feel the inner body. Thi
CREATIVE USE OF MIND
If you need to use your mind for a specific purpose, use it in
conjunction with your inner body. Only if you are able to be conscious
without thought can you use y
THE ART OF LISTENING
When listening to another person, don’t just listen with your mind,
listen with your whole body. Feel the energy field of your inner body
as you listen. That takes
GOING DEEPLY INTO THE BODY
I can feel the energy inside my body, especially in my arms and legs,
but I don’t seem to be able to go more deeply, as you suggested
earlier.
Make it int
THE SOURCE OF CHI
Is the Unmanifested what in the East is called chi, a kind of universal
life energy?
No, it isn’t. The Unmanifested is the source of chi. Chi is the inner
DREAMLESS SLEEP
You take a journey into the Unmanifested every night when you enter
the phase of deep dreamless sleep. You merge with the Source. You
draw from it the vital energy
OTHER PORTALS
The Now can be seen as the main portal. It is an essential aspect of
every other portal, including the inner body. You cannot be in your
body without being intense
SILENCE
Are there any other portals apart from those you just mentioned?
Yes, there are. The Unmanifested is not separate from the
manifested. It pervades this world, but
THE TRUE NATURE OF SPACE AND TIME
Now consider this: If there were nothing but silence, it wouldn’t exist
for you; you wouldn’t know what it is. Only when sound appears does
silence come into being
CONSCIOUS DEATH
Apart from dreamless sleep, which I mentioned already, there is one
other involuntary portal. It opens up briefly at the time of physical
death. Even if you have m
ENTER THE NOW FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE
I always thought that true enlightenment is not possible except
through love in a relationship between a man and a woman. Isn’t this
what makes us whole again? How
LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIPS
Unless and until you access the consciousness frequency of presence,
all relationships, and particularly intimate relationships, are deeply
flawed and ultimately d
ADDICTION AND THE SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS
Why should we become addicted to another person?
The reason why the romantic love relationship is such an intense and
universally sought-after experience is that i
FROM ADDICTIVE TO ENLIGHTENED RELATIONSHIPS
Can we change an addictive relationship into a true one?
Yes. Being present and intensifying your presence by taking your
attention ever more deeply into the Now:
RELATIONSHIPS AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
As the egoic mode of consciousness and all the social, political, and
economic structures that it created enter the final stage of collapse,
the relationships betw
WHY WOMEN ARE CLOSER TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Are the obstacles to enlightenment the same for a man as for a
woman?
Yes, but the emphasis is different. Generally speaking, it is easier for
a woman to
DISSOLVING THE COLLECTIVE FEMALE PAIN-BODY
Why is the pain-body more of an obstacle for women?
The pain-body usually has a collective as well as a personal aspect.
The personal aspect is the accumulated res
GIVE UP THE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOURSELF
When one is fully conscious, would one still have a need for a
relationship? Would a man still feel drawn to a woman? Would a
woman still feel incomplete without a
THE HIGHER GOOD BEYOND GOOD AND BAD
Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace?
Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive;
inner peace does not.
Is it not
THE END OF YOUR LIFE DRAMA
In that state of acceptance and inner peace, even though you may not
call it “bad,” can anything still come into your life that would be called
“bad” from a perspe
IMPERMANENCE AND THE CYCLES OF LIFE
However, as long as you are in the physical dimension and linked to
the collective human psyche, physical pain — although rare — is still
possible. This is not to
USING AND RELINQUISHING NEGATIVITY
All inner resistance is experienced as negativity in one form or
another. All negativity is resistance. In this context, the two words are
almost synonymous. Negat
THE NATURE OF COMPASSION
Having gone beyond the mind-made opposites, you become like a
deep lake. The outer situation of your life and whatever happens
there is the surface of the lake. So
TOWARD A DIFFERENT ORDER OF REALITY
I don’t agree that the body needs to die. I am convinced that we can
achieve physical immortality. We believe in death and that’s why the
body dies.
The b
ACCEPTANCE OF THE NOW
You mentioned “surrender” a few times. I don’t like that idea. It
sounds somewhat fatalistic. If we always accept the way things are,
we are not going to make any
FROM MIND ENERGY TO SPIRITUAL ENERGY
Letting go of resistance is easier said than done. I still don’t see
clearly how to let go. If you say it is by surrendering, the question
remains: “How?”
SURRENDER IN PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
What about people who want to use me, manipulate or control me?
Am I to surrender to them?
They are cut off from Being, so they unconsciously attempt to get
TRANSFORMING ILLNESS INTO ENLIGHTENMENT
If someone is seriously ill and completely accepts their condition and
surrenders to the illness, would they not have given up their will to
get back to health? Th
WHEN DISASTER STRIKES
As far as the still unconscious majority of the population is concerned,
only a critical limit-situation has the potential to crack the hard shell
of the ego and f
TRANSFORMING SUFFERING INTO PEACE
I read about a stoic philosopher in ancient Greece who, when he was
told that his son had died in an accident, replied, “I knew he was not
immortal.” Is that surre
THE WAY OF THE CROSS
There are many accounts of people who say they have found God
through their deep suffering, and there is the Christian expression
“the way of the cross,” which I s
THE POWER TO CHOOSE
What about all those people who, it seems, actually want to suffer? I
have a friend whose partner is physically abusive toward her, and her
previous relationship w
Document Outline
Author’s Preface to the Paperback Edition Introduction The Origin of This Book The Truth That Is Within You CHAPTER ONE : You Are Not Your Mind The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment Freeing Yourse
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