All Comments By Alan

 This was beautifully right on.

This is so precisely right-on that it's stunning. And the timing of reading this is perfect for me. Much gratitude to those who selected this week's reading!

Recently I've been musing a lot about how my outer world is a mirror of my inner state. In other words, so long as I'm not in touch with my essence, I project out my emptiness and look for it through external targets - people, things, projects - and compulsively try to fill my emptiness through futile attempts to engage or possess. The scope of this compulsion is sobering, and the consequences are inevitable suffering. With this reading, I'm seeing clearly that this dynamic necessarily includes my close relationships, as Tolle confirms so eloquently.

One more thought to share: When I go to, say, a Japanese art store, or visit a museum, or temple, a part of me wants to possess all of it, to hoard it, endlessly. Why? I discovered that what I'm really wanting is the feelings the art pieces or location evoke in me. Which can never be acquired through an external object, or even a "love" relationship. No matter where I go, who I'm with, what I'm doing...nothing can fill the authentic inner need. Searching externally is futile. Realizing this, I'm finding that by being present - by being in touch with my true essence - I can be fulfilled anywhere, with anyone, doing anything. This, I'm tasting, is freedom. It is love.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reflect.

This excerpt reminds me of a book I've been thoroughly enjoying by Michael Singer, called The Untethered Soul. In it he gives very clear, very practical explanations about how to move beyond our identity with the enslaved mind and into, ultimately, an abiding awareness that Salzmann's last paragraph describes. I highly recommend it. Some months ago, for three successive nights, I was awakened by three insights that came to me, persistently and repeatedly, one per night. The first night's message was: "Only the present moment is real."  The second night's message was: "You can trust the present moment." The third night's message was: "Make friends with the present moment." It's probably no surprise that now these pretty much summarize my practice, and certainly my challenge: Surrendering, moment-by-moment. Doing so, for me, seems to involve a certain amount of rational insight to initially coax the thinking mind from its constant dreaming in the foreground to letting go into taking a secondary position in the background (supplied by the first message). With the mind's move into the background, my body sensations come alive, my hearing clears...I'm fully here. I've taken a "backward step" into the present moment. Staying here, however, is a real trick, requiring a great deal of trust, constantly practiced and slowly built (affirmed by the second message). Some days, when I am particularly calm, I can spend longer and longer times here...successfully relaxing into the friendly universe (suggested by the third message). Slowly, gradually, I'm making friends with the present moment, with being. It is very, very enticing. Like a moth to a flame. My intuition tells me that my goal is to have being inform my doing; being fully responsive and in service to the need at hand; rather than reactive and doing the ego's bidding. Gradually gradually. As such, the Reality of Being, the tit... [View Full Comment] This excerpt reminds me of a book I've been thoroughly enjoying by Michael Singer, called The Untethered Soul. In it he gives very clear, very practical explanations about how to move beyond our identity with the enslaved mind and into, ultimately, an abiding awareness that Salzmann's last paragraph describes. I highly recommend it.

Some months ago, for three successive nights, I was awakened by three insights that came to me, persistently and repeatedly, one per night. The first night's message was: "Only the present moment is real."  The second night's message was: "You can trust the present moment." The third night's message was: "Make friends with the present moment."

It's probably no surprise that now these pretty much summarize my practice, and certainly my challenge: Surrendering, moment-by-moment. Doing so, for me, seems to involve a certain amount of rational insight to initially coax the thinking mind from its constant dreaming in the foreground to letting go into taking a secondary position in the background (supplied by the first message).

With the mind's move into the background, my body sensations come alive, my hearing clears...I'm fully here. I've taken a "backward step" into the present moment. Staying here, however, is a real trick, requiring a great deal of trust, constantly practiced and slowly built (affirmed by the second message).

Some days, when I am particularly calm, I can spend longer and longer times here...successfully relaxing into the friendly universe (suggested by the third message). Slowly, gradually, I'm making friends with the present moment, with being. It is very, very enticing. Like a moth to a flame.

My intuition tells me that my goal is to have being inform my doing; being fully responsive and in service to the need at hand; rather than reactive and doing the ego's bidding. Gradually gradually.

As such, the Reality of Being, the title of Salzmann's book, clearly resonates. While I don't completely track with her verbiage or concepts, I'm pretty confident she is describing the same transformative, indeed, radical, awareness available to all of us.[Hide Full Comment]