The Most Important Dimension of Human Existence

Were here to find that dimension

within ourselves

that is deeper than thought.

This teaching isnt based on
knowledge, on new interesting facts, new information. The world is full
of that already. You can push any button on the many devices you have
and get information. Youre drowning in information.

And
ultimately, what is the point of it all? More information, more things,
more of this, more of that. Are we going to find the fullness of life
through more things and greater and bigger shopping malls?

Are we going to find ourselves through improving our ability to
think and analyze, and accumulate more information, more stuff? Is
“more” going to save the world? Its all form.

You can never make it on the level of form. You can never
quite arrange and accumulate all the forms that you think you need so
that you can be yourself fully.

Sometimes you can do it for a
brief time span. You can suddenly find everything working in your life:
your health is good; your relationship is great; you have money,
possessions, love, and respect from other people.

But
before long, something starts to crumble here or there, either the
finances or the relationship, your health or your work or living
situation. It is the nature of the world of form that nothing stays
fixed for very long and so it starts to fall apart again.

* * *

The voice in the head that never stops speaking

becomes a civilization that is obsessed with form,

and therefore knows nothing of the most important

dimension of human existence:

the sacred,

the stillness,

the formless,

the divine.

“What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose yourself?”

* * *

It has been said that there are two ways of being unhappy: not getting what you want, and getting what you want.

When people attain what the world tells us is desirable wealth,
recognition, property, achievement theyre still not happy, at least
not for long. Theyre not at peace with themselves. They dont have a
true sense of security, a sense of finally having arrived.

Their achievements have not provided them with what they were really looking for themselves. They have not given them the sense of being rooted in life, or as Jesus calls it, the fullness of life.

* * *

The
form of this moment is the portal into the formless dimension. It is
the narrow gate that Jesus talks about that leads to life. Yes, its
very narrow: its only this moment.

To find it, you need to
roll up the scroll of your life on which your story is written, past
and future. Before there were books, there were scrolls, and you rolled
them up when you were done with them.

So put your story
away. It is not who you are. People usually live carrying a burden of
past and future, a burden of their personal history, which they hope
will fulfill itself in the future. It wont, so roll up that old
scroll. Be done with it.

You dont solve problems by
thinking; you create problems by thinking. The solution always appears
when you step out of thinking and become still and absolutely present,
even if only for a moment. Then, a little later when thought comes
back, you suddenly have a creative insight that wasnt there before.

Let go of excessive thinking and see how everything changes. Your
relationships change because you dont demand that the other person
should do something for you to enhance your sense of self. You dont
compare yourself to others or try to be more than someone else to
strengthen your sense of identity.

You allow everyone to be as they are. You dont need to change them;
you dont need them to behave differently so that you can be happy.

* * *

Theres nothing wrong with doing new things,
pursuing activities, exploring new countries, meeting new people,
acquiring knowledge and expertise, developing your physical or mental
abilities, and creating whatever youre called upon to create in this
world.

It is beautiful to create in this world, and there is always more that you can do.

Now the question is, Are you looking for yourself in what you do?
Are you attempting to add more to who you think you are? Are you
compulsively striving toward the next moment and the next and the next,
hoping to find some sense of completion and fulfillment?

The preciousness of Being is your true specialness. What the egoic self had been looking for on the level of the story I want to be special
obscured the fact that you could not be more special than you already
are now. Not special because you are better or more wretched than
someone else, but because you can sense a beauty, a preciousness, an
aliveness deep within.

* * *

When you are present in this moment,

you break the continuity of your story, of past and future.

Then true intelligence arises,

and also love.

The only way love can come into your life

is not through form, but through that inner spaciousness that is Presence.

Love has no form.

About the Author:

Bestselling
author Eckhart Tolle has emerged as one of the finest spiritual
teachers of our time. He is the author of many books, including The Power of Now, A New Earth, and Stillness Speaks. This article and the accompanying photos are excerpted from his most recent work, a book and DVD package called Eckhart Tolles Findhorn Retreat.

Reprinted with permission from Eckhart Tolles Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Amidst the World, 2006 by Eckhart Tolle, Eckhart Teachings Inc. Published by New World Library, www.NewWorldLibrary.com .

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