Questioning one's former guru is not considered cool, here I am just about to do that, because self-honesty matters specially if you place yourself as a guru with millions of devotees all around the world.
Before meeting desteni in 2007, I was heavily into the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, a German born Canadian author and teacher, though not affiliated with any specific philosophy but he leans mostly towards newage, light worker type school of thought. The Power of Now is Eckhart Tolle's bestselling book which landed him in the Oprah Winfrey Show.
I fell deep into the teachings of The Power of Now. In essence, the book is a guide to overcome one's ego through the suggested tools of breathing, awareness of the physical body while not falling to one's emotional pain-body (the old pain) etc. On the surface, the book is harmless, I mean if you remain as breath all the time within the awareness of the body, I am sure the old emotional pain cannot overtake you, causing hell to yourself and to others.
However, there is a deep hole in the overall well presented teachings of Eckhart Tolle, the starting point. Its all done in the name of Self-Bliss and Self- Enlightenment. Call it selfish spiritualism, which seeks the bliss of self like any other form of bliss seeking spiritual activity while entirely ignoring the plight of the planet and rest of humanity. The Power of Now is all about making you feel good, while the rest is quietly ignored. "Let the Consciousness take care of them", would the implied reply of the Power of Now.
Self-responsibility is entirely missed. Eckhart Tolle in his book doesn't speak about how to take self-responsibility for self and for others as self. Merely listening to his blissful talks and just surrendering to "what-is" is all you got to do. Just Accept What Is.
Ignoring self-responsibility is a typical trademark of any spiritual newage movement, meaning, you don't have to worry about it, because some guru will take care of you, or the God will take care of you, or the Consciousness, the all pervading, all loving, all knowing Consciousness will take care of it all. You can just relax and focus on your self-bliss.
Breathing is cool, awareness of the body is cool, not reacting from old pain (Painbody as termed by Eckhart Tolle) is cool, but not taking self-responsibility is dishonest. 'Accepting What-Is' is abusively self-dishonest. Its obvious common sense, accepting what is would imply accepting the starvation of 1 billion humans as "the way things are". Further to state that "Consciousness will take care of it", is not only self-dishonest but it is also cruel. Cruelty with a spiritual touch. Like how they say it in India, "oh well he is starving, because that's his bad karma, we can't do anything about it". Cruel.
Recently, I made a youtube video questioning this very point, "Accepting What Is", and viola, my video got shutdown by youtube because EckhartTeachings Inc flagged the video for copyrights issues. Obviously Eckhart Tolle did not 'Accept What Is', otherwise he would have accepted my video as it is. But NO, he challenged it, and got it shutdown.
Four years of self-bliss, calm, peacefulness, serenity, all that gentleness was cool, but soon I would find out that they were all fake. I was hiding behind Ekchart Tolle's Power of Now. There is No Power in the Power of Now, it is just a mind trick to hide and feel good about oneself while millions starve. Even if you leave the world situation to a side, the so-called self-enlightenment or self-bliss never really came to me, it was more like taking a daily drug in the form of daily Eckhart Tolle talks and lectures to keep me in trapped in the mind-fuck of self-bliss. Its all make beliefs. The Power of Now is a self-dishonest teaching.
Self-honesty and Self-Forgiveness were never discussed by Eckhart Tolle. The Power of Now never even mentioned self-honesty or self-forgiveness.
With desteni, I found out following 2007, that a lot more is going on other than self-bliss or self-enlightenment. From desteni, I learned about self-forgiveness and self-honesty, which opened up a whole new world for myself; I not only learned about myself, I also saw the mess of this world, for which no savior nor Consciousness got any solutions. I will have to move myself to find a solution. As a group, desteni has got a solution for the world problems, it is Equal Money System, a practical sustainable realistic solution to the world.
Eckhart Tolle has got no solution to the world, because he is awaiting Consciousness to solve it for him, while he goes on to make the millions. Eckhart Tolle is now an elitist who has join the ranks of Oprah and other self-help celebrities, hence I doubt he will ever question how the system works.
Since Eckhart Tolle was my teacher for 4 years, I feel I must show him the way, rather than attack him. So, here I am inviting Eckhart Tolle and his fans to learn Self-Forgiveness and Self-honesty, apply it for yourself. Also, if you have got any care for the world, other than your own self-bliss, please investigate Equal Money System.
On the other hand, if Eckhart Tolle and his fans decided to counter attack Equal Money System or Self-Forgiveness or Self-honesty, it would very clearly reveal my dear former guru Eckhar Tolle, the world famous author of the Power of Now, as a self-dishonest person. The very least, he should address the point of Equal Money System.
I will not call him a deceptive money making fame hungry newage guru, but instead I will patiently await for Eckhar to respond. In that 4 years, I didn't see any dishonesty in Eckhart, of course, how could I, because he was my dear newage light worker make-you-feel-good guru; but recently, I saw a few spots of self-dishonesty specially in relation to having my video shutdown simply because it questioned him.
Self-honesty is a such a bitch, you only need one drop of self-dishonesty, then you're done, you will have to reestablish your self-honesty all over again. Will see how the light worker Eckhart Tolle will respond to his dishonest act of shutting down my video. His teachings/books has no value whatsoever, even though tools mentioned are pretty cool, but it's missing the proper starting point. Self-bliss is self-dishonesty, put it simply; and Eckhart Tolle has been making millions by selling his dishonest Power of Now
Well, lets hope, now that he has been informed about self-forgiveness and self-honest, will wait for his response. Obviously this time around, he has no ground to shut my blog or video.
A final point, self-honesty is a very difficult thing, nothing personal, questioning one's self-honesty is not demonizing. Only asking Eckhart Tolle, where do you stand?
Join us:
http://destonians.com
http://equalmoney.org
http://desteni.co.za
Thanks.
you just don't get it man.Read again
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, this is Kinka as a mirror, you just don´t get it man. Read again.
ReplyDeleteSelf honesty, Self Responsibility.
By the way, you don´t exist.
anonymous:
[From Late Latin annymus, from Greek annumos, nameless : an-, without; see a-1 + onuma, name (influenced by earlier nnumnos, nameless); see n-men- in Indo-European roots.
I thought I was about to read a post from a person......................But no, just another ego.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't learn anything. Do you know why you didn't learn anything? It is because you are asleep. You have not awoken. Tremendous kudos to your great effort to do so. Rather than trying so hard, or following this person or that, perhaps try this: Be. Present. Now. You are clearly a slave to your ego and more than that, you appear genuinely envious of those who have been fortunate enough to experience Awakening. I have, and I did it without ever having read any book, heard any lectures, no religion or philosophy. If it happened to me it can happen to you.
ReplyDeleteHELLO, somehow I ended up seeing this thread. Mr. Fernando, I can see your point of view, coming from a violent country, where I myself saw misery all around me, and was sometimes confronted with not very pleasant situations, even as a Kid: robbery, attempts of rape, among other things. So how can I see, integrate, Mr. Tolle's teachings in my life having lived in this real life circumstances? Reading Jacques Lusseyran's autobiographie "And There Was Light," one has a lot to learn. He was taken into a concentration camp,not to mention that he was blind, and he was tortured and exposed to the highest degree of cruelty on a daily basis. So How can it be that he is such a "non resentful" human being towards a world that showed him and nurtured him with violence and injustice? Well, he did not personalized this cruelty. He also saw not only what was missing.
ReplyDeleteYou express a valid point of view, but be careful with what you state: Mr. Tolle does not "place himself as a guru." Repeated times he has refused this tag. If you want to be fair, honest and responsible, you have to do justice to others as well, starting with tags that you apply with no support. The spiritual teachings along the lines of Mr. Tolle, from my point of view, are not meant to be a placebo. They help you to deal with life better.Yes Mr Tolle's might be experiencing expansion at the financial level in this moment. Well, good for him. We all know that money comes and go...whay make it into a problem? Are you yourself free of all your possessions? From the same computer from which you are publishing your article? From your car? Your house? Your nice clothes, from what your profile picture shows? Have you relinquished all to give it to a homeless man in your city or a family in Africa? I don't think so. It seems to me that it's all a matter of degree, but still...WE are all participating of this system of material organization. It's easy to judge others but not to see in ourselves how we contribute and participate in the same things that we judge others for. MYSELF included, I must admit. I came to the realization that what I judge the hardest in others is because deep inside I have it in myself, AND I don't like it nor I want to admit it. Mr Tolle's teachings, as others way before him, not new age by the way, have pointed out that for me. With this said, I can still take responsibility for my own "role" in the cosmic theater of life. Are you personalizing the fact that your video wasn't published in Eckhar Tolle's page? Are you a 100% sure, with actual physical evidence, that your video wasn't take into account for the fact that you wrote what you wrote in this article? Maybe you are assuming so...only life knows. The point is, are you personalizing it? May clarity guide your work, as well as that of all the people who want to participate in the constructive transformation of our planet. We do need discerning people, and people who question others, not to boost their need to be right but to shed light in on our disfunctionnal behavior. What you mention in this article is a rather old debate, rather classical, that all spiritual seekers bring about in one point of their search. Many classical spiritual writings show that: the bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te King, etc....And they are not necessarily new age stuff. They are among the testimonies of the spiritual search of humanity throughout different ages. You are questioning the same thing that Arjuna or king Salomon, etc, questioned at what point or another. Metaphors or not, your article shows that you, Anton Joseph Fernando, are still seeking. At least you are doing that. Some people have just given up, others haven't even started. Good luck in your search. What ever path you take, may it bring you peace to spread it to others.
Ana Mercado.
Ana Mercado, are you really up for some investigation Ana? Really? Ok, cool, try self-forgiveness for 3 weeks, and really this is not about eckhart tolle, its about YOU.
ReplyDelete