- Mohandas K. Gandhi
If you don't know much about Gandhi I highly recommend any biography and also his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth, in which he says, "I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility." Ahimsa is pure selfless love for every human being, and indeed for every living creature. It is non-injury in mind, word and deed.
Eckhard Tolle might say Gandhi was referring to the release of the egoic mind, which is that voice in the head, the thought process that continually reminds us that we are superior to others: smarter, better looking, more creative, more loving, more spiritual (you see where thinking can lead?). He says Descartes got it wrong: I Am despite the fact that I think; or, put another way, I Am only when I don't think. 
Eckhart interprets Jesus' admonition to "Love your neighbor as yourself," literally. In other words, Jesus didn't mean love your neighbor as you love yourself; he meant love him because he is yourself. Your neighbor--and you--are merely the form that Consciousness/Essence/Being/Spirit/Presence/God has taken in this moment, in this blink of the cosmic eye. We are all merely the life force of the universe in human form.
By the way, if you identify as Christian--or ever did--Tolle draws comparisons with Jesus' teachings throughout his own teachings in a way that has re-opened my mind to true Christianity after many years of disappointment with the religion of my youth. I had painted Christianity with the same broad brush I used on all Christians; not that I wasn't aware of my prejudice, I just didn't know how to give it up. Reading Tolle has been worth my time if for no other reason than this.
Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment