Originally Posted by islovin
The reason I could not relate to Eckhart Tolle’s presentation of a subject matter that is very near and dear to my heart is because he chose not to share his journey...
While I was reading his book he wrote “listen to me” and I thought…I am reading your book you do not get much more of my attention then that. I was listening to him until that point...
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There is an aphorism from Eastern wisdom that states: "The finger that points to the moon is not the moon."
In the West we have a comparable saying: "The map is not the territory."
No description, no picture, no account, no instruction, no text, will ever be able to convey the experience of transcendence from one person to another. If I could perfectly lay out the events in my life to you that have led me to my present state of existence, it wouldn't bring you any closer to that state yourself. It's an experience, not an intellectual understanding or an assemblage of facts.
Tolle is sharp enough to recognize this principle and to avoid wasting your time and his trying to "make" you relate to his own experiences by recounting them in detail. He lays out some conditions and gives you a few details about where they led him, but by intent he isn't trying to paint you a complete picture. All that would serve to do is to cause you to try to copy where he has traveled and he knows that isn't possible. Not only is it impossible, the act of trying would stifle your own progress because it encourages you to keep seeking an intellectual understanding of something that can only be directly experienced, not intellectually defined or quantified.
As I was reading your post one phrase in particular jumped out at me. You wrote, "The reason I could not relate to Eckhart Tolle’s presentation of a subject matter..."
Therein lies a great potential pitfall. We can only "relate to" things we've experienced ourselves. If we can "relate to it", no narrative explanation is required or even helpful because we've already got direct experience. But if we haven't got the direct experience ourselves then we don't have the necessary common frame of reference that would permit us to "relate to" the thing. Any narrative explanation, no matter how detailed or accurate is not going to resonate with us. It's a catch 22. Regardless of how meticulously detailed Tolle is in his narration of facts, if we lack the experience he is describing we will be incapable of "relating" to whatever he writes.
Tolle therefore tries to reach the reader with a two-pronged approach. First, he points a finger at the moon, so to speak. The meaning of his words are meant to touch you on an intellectual level in such a way that they get you looking in new and unfamiliar directions. He cannot give you the territory, but with his words he attempts to draw for you a crude map. His words are symbols, and like any symbol in order to be effective the reader has to recognize they point to "something" beyond their common meanings. What that "something" is he cannot tell you for, again, that would require a common frame of reference that the seeker is not yet in possession of. Words are imperfect, but they can be helpful if put into their proper context. The critical thing to grasp is that once the words have been recognized simply as pointers, they need to forgotten. They've done their job. If you hang on to them and continue to try to wrest from them the answer to your search they will only hinder you.
The second way he reaches towards the reader is by doing his writing from a place of presence. By writing while in that state he offers a direct, experiential taste of that same state to the reader. The words are meant to act as carriers of the "feeling of presence" rather than to convey any dictionary meanings. In that sense the meanings of the words he writes are actually irrelevent. He could type two hundred pages of bad poetry and it would be just as effective if the words trigger an experience of presence in the reader.
Here's something for you to try. Perhaps it will prove useful. Read some of Tolle's work. It doesn't really matter which, but if I was doing this myself I think I'd opt for his book, "Stillness Speaks." But choose whichever you like or whichever you have available. Then begin reading, but forget about trying to make sense of the words. Just read a few passages then set the book aside and get quiet. Let what you've just read seep into you like a sponge soaking up water. Don't analyze it or try to digest the meanings of the words you just read. Their textbook meanings are unimportant. All you want to do is absorb the sense of presence out of which Tolle wrote those words. This is an exercise of the Spirit, not the Intellect.
Maybe you will have a different experience this time. And maybe Tolle just isn't for you. There is no such thing as cookie-cutter spirituality. One size does not fit all. If Tolle isn't your cup of tea, try reading Thich Nhat Han, Tagore, or Teilhard de Chardin, but read them first as potential points of the experience of presence and second as pointers of the intellect towards truths which transcend the book meanings of the words.
