The Process of Inner Change One of Eckhart's most appealing teachings is regarding the process of inner change. In its simplicity and beauty it is comparable to the "supreme secret" of the Gita revealed in its last chapter where Krishna says to the disciple: Become My-minded, My lover and adorer, a sacrificer to Me, bow thyself to Me, to Me thou shalt come, this is My pledge and promise to thee, for dear art thou to me. Abandon all Dharmas97 and take refuge in Me alone. I will deliver thee from all sin and evil, do not grieve."98 95Talk at the Intensive "The Awareness That Is Beyond Thought: San Francisco. CA. November 18. 2000 96Sri Aurobind

Chronological Time and Psychological Time The explanation of the paradox that time is an aid as well as an obstacle lies in the distinction Eckhart makes between chronological time and psychological time. Chronological or clock time is, of course, needed, says Eckhart, in all practical tasks, such as learning a language, playing the piano, or even making a cup of tea. What Eckhart stresses is that, while using time is required in all such tasks— which may involve even planning for the future—it is necessary to return immediately to present-moment awareness when practical matters have been dealt with. Time becomes an obstacle if one loses 26

Evolution of Consciousness Sri Aurobindo and Eckhart are perhaps the only world-teachers who have adumbrated a leap in the evolution of consciousness and the consequent emergence of a new species of beings on the planet. Describing the evolution of consciousness with reference to the human being in primarily psychological terms, Eckhart says that the world comes into manifestation when consciousness takes on the disguise of innumerable forms on land, and in the sea and air, until the forms reach such a complexity that consciousness loses itself by identifying itself with the forms. Thus, consciousness in the human being is at present completely identified

1 Eckhart Comes to Me A few years ago, a friend, Dr. D.E. Mistry, sent me a copy of Eckhart's book, The Power of Now. The power of its words immediately gripped me. I intuitively felt that the words did not express some mental constructions based on theory but spiritual insights arising from Self-realization. Each time, to read the book was to enter a meditative state or what Eckhart would call the state of Presence. After several readings, the book still continues to exert the same influence on me. In 2001 I had the good fortune to attend a talk given by Eckhart in Palo Alto, California, and a weekend retreat at Esalen in Big Sur. His spoken words

Method of Spiritual Practice As stated a little earlier, Eckhart does not consider the term "practice" to be quite appropriate in spiritual life because practice implies personal effort of some sort, whereas enlightenment is not something 76 Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL. Vol. 20. p. 54. 77 Ibid .. p. 80. Page-112 that can be brought about by any egoic effort; it comes about as a result of the surrender of the ego and a cessation of the ego's seekings. Therefore, the question of method of spiritual practice is not quite relevant to Eckhart's teaching. What Eckhart teaches are portals for entering into the state of e

Note on Eckhart Tolle Eckhart Tolle, recognized as one of the foremost contemporary spiritual teachers, was born in 1948 in Germany where he spent the first thirteen years of his life. He graduated from the University of London, after which he was a research scholar and supervisor in physics at Cambridge University. Until his thirtieth year he lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety and depression, at times of a suicidal nature. One night, not long after his twenty-ninth birthday, he had a sudden and profound spiritual experience that radically transformed him and entirely changed the course of his life. Following this transformative experience, he dev

Portals into Enlightenment A unique aspect of Eckhart's teaching that I have found to be particularly helpful pertains to what he calls "portals" for entering directly and immediately (without the usual recourse to the practice of certain 21The Mother. Questions and Answers '57-58, 22 The Mother, Questions and Answers 1955, Page-16 techniques23) the consciousness beyond mind, and experiencing what he describes as a "raste of enlightenment" through connectedness with Being. Eckhart speaks of various such portals: The Now, or Presence, he considers the foremost portal, constituting an aspect of every other portal. To step into the

Mental Noise One characteristic of the mind that Eckhart has spoken about more often than perhaps any other teacher is the chatter or mental noise that takes place in the head almost all the time, a broader aspect of what Sri Aurobindo calls "the buzz of the physical mind."17 Eckhart 16 The Mother, Questions and Answers, 17 Sri Aurobindo distinguishes three main parts of the ordinary mind: proper, which is chiefly the thinking mind or impellent; the vitrify mind. which is a mind of dynamic will, ace ion and desire; and the physical mind, which is concerned with physical things only and is limi1 end to the physical view and experience of things. Closely

Mind, Thought, and Stillness The core of Eckhart's teachings is related to mind, thought, and stillness. The following statements, paraphrased from his writings and talks, encapsulate these central teachings: The ordinary or normal state of the human being is, at the present stage of the evolution of consciousness, a state of identification with mind and thought. In other words, the human being has ordinarily a mind-based or thought-based sense of self. From the spiritual viewpoint, this is a state of unconsciousness; one is lost in thought and lives in continual mental noise. Identification with the mind gives rise to a false self—the ego, a subst

Enlightenment Distinguished from Liberation From one viewpoint—prominent in Buddhism—enlightenment is essentially a state of living in present-moment awareness. No time is needed to enter such a state. From another perspective, found in Hindu thought, the enlightened state, usually referred to as Mufti or liberation, is one in which the time-bound illusory self of the ego has been abolished and replaced by the true and eternal Self, which is the Self of all beings and the one Reality of the universe. Whereas from the first viewpoint, enlightenment consists in entering the state of present-moment awareness, the second view regards enlightenment