12,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: tredition
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
Our lives are out of balance: we have forgotten the non-dual, the Eternal. Basically, we have become spiritual seekers because something about our lives feels “off”. But we often fail to see to what extent our “personal problems” are also a symptom of a more general, societal dysfunction. In this book, I try to explain why we, as society and as humanity, have become so lamentably one-sided and disconnected. I also describe in some detail how we can reverse this self-alienation, which is the main reason for our current “polycrisis”. Paradoxically, we can only express our individuality fully and creatively when we are also aware of our true, spiritual Nature. Indeed we can only allow and encourage others to flourish as individuals when we see everybody as a unique expression of the One Self. This book is about the integration of the relative, the limited (form, mind) and the Absolute, the Unlimited (Life, Being). However, it is only with non-dual awakening that this integration process can really pick up momentum. We need to support each other in this all-important quest for truth, love and wholeness. // Table of Contents: Integration: the Way of Mastery // The personal and the Divine // Discovering your true Self // Beyond identity and the person // The ego and you // Giving up brings harmony and equilibrium // Divine Presence and personal story // The spiritual meaning of your personal destiny // Your cross is the world´s cross // The bigger picture // Meditation and self-inquiry // You are not the mind // Meditation, distraction and depression // Your freedom // Be who you are, allow everything // Investigating reality // There is no hope for the ego // The desire for truth alone // I AM // Spiritual skills and pitfalls // Attention and intention // Noticing transparency and formlessness // Suffering and happiness // Why healing and “fixing” can be traps // The physical body and the energy body // Restoring balance // Be realistic and believe in miracles // Spiritual frequencies // Reclaiming our lost humanity // Brain lateralization and reductionism // A comprehensive humanist view of intelligence // Mental health, connectedness and society // Our relation with nature and with work // Bibliography
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 206
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
Ähnliche
The Formless Self
Integrating Personal Projection and Divine Essence
© 2025
Cover: Christoph Ahmann/ Vecteezy.com
Druck und Distribution im Auftrag von (Autor):
tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Deutschland
Printing and distribution on behalf of (author):
tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Germany
ISBN
Paperback
978-3-384-47282-3
Hardcover
978-3-384-47283-0
e-Book
978-3-384-47284-7
Das Werk, einschließlich seiner Teile, ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Für die Inhalte ist der Autor verantwortlich. Jede Verwertung ist ohne seine Zustimmung unzulässig. Die Publikation und Verbreitung erfolgen im Auftrag des Autors, zu erreichen unter: tredition GmbH, Abteilung "Impressumservice", Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Deutschland.
The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. The author is responsible for the content. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the author. The publication and distribution are carried out on behalf of the author, who can be reached at: tredition GmbH, Abteilung "Impressumservice", Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Germany.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Integration, Mastery and a New Earth
Meditation and Self-Inquiry
You are not the mind
Meditation, distraction and depression
Your freedom
Be who you are, allow everything
Investigating reality
There is no hope for the ego
The desire for truth alone
I AM
Spiritual Skills and Pitfalls
Attention and intention
Noticing transparency and formlessness
Suffering and happiness
Why healing and “fixing” can be traps
The physical body and the energy body
Restoring balance
Be realistic and believe in miracles
Spiritual frequencies
The Personal and the Divine
Discovering your true Self
Beyond identity and the person
The ego and you
Giving up brings harmony and equilibrium
Divine Presence and personal story
The spiritual meaning of your personal destiny
Your cross is the world´s cross
The bigger picture
Reclaiming Our Lost Humanity
Brain lateralization and reductionism
A comprehensive humanist view of intelligence
Mental health, connectedness and society
Our relation with nature and with work
Bibliography
The Formless Self
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Integration, Mastery and a New Earth
Reclaiming Our Lost Humanity
Bibliography
The Formless Self
Cover
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
Abide in Awareness
with no illusion of person.
You will be instantly free and at peace.
You have no caste or duties.
You are invisible, unattached, formless.
You are the Witness of all things.
Be happy.
Right and wrong, pleasure and pain,
exist in mind only.
They are not your concern.
You neither do nor enjoy.
You are free
You are the Solitary Witness
of All That Is,
forever free.
Your only bondage is not seeing This.
The thought: “I am the doer”
is the bite of a poisonous snake.
To know: “I do nothing”
is the wisdom of faith.
Be happy.
A single understanding:
“I am the One Awareness,”
consumes all suffering
in the fire of an instant.
Be happy.
You are unbounded Awareness -
Bliss, Supreme Bliss--
in which the universe appears
like the mirage of a snake in a rope.
Be happy.
It is true what they say:
“You are what you think.”
If you think you are bound you are bound.
If you think you are free you are free.
You are Self - the Solitary Witness.
You are perfect, all-pervading, One.
You are free, desireless, forever still.
The universe is but a seeming in You.
Meditate on this: “I am Awareness alone--Unity itself.”
Give up the idea that you are separate, a person,
that there is within and without.
Ashtavakra Gita 1.4-13,
(translated by Bart Marshall/ holybooks.com)
Integration, Mastery and a New Earth
Non-dual Awakening and Integration are really about leading a balanced life. Our lives are out of balance: we have forgotten the non-dual, the eternal, living mostly in the dualistic world, and that is unsatisfactory and often quite terrible. We cannot truly live in a dualistic world, but we believe we do, and so it feels like we do. Basically, we become spiritual seekers because something about our lives feels “off”. Usually we think that it is just “us” and fail to take into account to what extent our “personal problems” are also, when viewed from a different vantage point, a symptom of a more general, societal dysfunction. In the final chapter of this book, “Reclaiming our lost humanity”, I am going to explain how and why we, as society and as humanity, could ever become so one-sided and disconnected, so inhumane, really. In that chapter, I am also going to discuss in some detail what adjustments we need to make, in terms of our perspective on ourselves, on our intelligence, on nature, on education, on work, on medicine, on our physical bodies, on intimate relationships etc. In a volume that addresses the topic of “integration” and skilful living, I think it is necessary to include a chapter about human society that discusses our current “polycrisis”, the precarious situation of humanity, and that is rather specific and practical, at least for a non-duality book.
Paradoxically, we can only flourish as humans, we can only express our individuality fully and creatively, when we are also aware of our deeper nature. Indeed we can only allow others to flourish according to their individuality when we see each human being as an expression of the one Self, of God. In his Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are Alan Watts explains that idea, using the image of a tree whose every branch, in order to flourish, must be sensitively connected to the trunk of the tree. He explains that “differentiation is not separation”. But we can only understand this fully if we - not just theoretically but experientially - see ourselves and all our brothers and sisters as fundamentally identical. This deep knowing allows us to accept and live both our own individual expression of the Divine and to enjoy and respect all the other individual, unique expressions of the One (“other people”). The individual expression then becomes something more playful and joyous, like the icing on the cake, or the blossoms on the tree. This endless diversity of forms feels like “the spice of life”, to use another phrase from Alan Watts.
If we see ourselves and each other as separate egos, we create an enormous strain on ourselves and on society because we want to be both free and part of the whole. But the ego is capable of neither. It is neither capable of feeling connected, nor is it capable of freedom and creativity. This is because it is essentially tied down and crippled by fear. It consists of the very attempt to defend and perpetuate something that is not even real. What could be a joyful game of exploration and creative expression, our life, then turns into something that always feels like a fight, a fight for so-called survival, for dominance, for being right, for being safe, always at odds with the world and the others, always in competition. This is how important it is to know who we truly are. A society of people who are self-realized, or even a society which has a significant amount of people that are self-realized and that listens to them, such as society could indeed be something very beautiful, almost like the metaphorical biblical prophecy where the wolf dwells with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6), which could only happen if wolf and lamb recognize that they are essentially the same.
Playing, enjoying one´s creativity, artistic enjoyment, aesthetic enjoyment – these are far more important than we give them credit for today. They are not just ways of relaxing so that one can get back to “serious” work, they are an important aspect of what life is about. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” “Work” basically means that you do not enjoy the activity but just want to get it done, in order to reach a future result, aim or purpose. So a lot of your energy is absorbed into thoughts about the future. But an artistic, playful and creative attitude means that you enjoy the activity right now. Then the activity happens within a high-vibrational field; whereas work, if it feels like a chore or a drag, happens in a field of low vibration. The result of such activity will always be compromised in some way, will not embody your real potential. Those who live only in the future or the past will get frustrated and they will, at some point, lash out and become destructive. Whether it is unconditional love or meditation or creative expression or aesthetic enjoyment: these are what makes us truly human. Because it is here that we transcend the small self, the egoic mind, the fear and the resistance to the Now. Since we have got the capacity for all this, it is also our “birthright”. We are not meant to be some kind of machine or cog in the machine, we are designed for creativity and love, for connecting and being in flow. In short: for being fully alive.
This book is about “integration”, which, for reasons explained below, is a better term than “mastery”, although that is also helpful. By “integration” is meant the integration of different levels of reality. In order to integrate them, one has to first realise each layer or level for what it is. One has to overcome ignorance. Ignorance consists in the belief that the projected level of reality (“objects”) is the absolute reality, while the level of Being-Consciousness is overlooked or seen as a mere accessory feature of “reality”. A Course In Miracles also refers to the importance of not confusing the levels of reality, which means that we are confused about what we are. In my previous German book, Eine Neue Aufklärung, I distinguished three basic levels of reality: the physical, the energetic and the causal or spiritual. Describing those levels subjectively, experientially, we could also use terms like the “mental” level (the level of the mind), the level of feeling and the level of consciousness. If we try to describe the levels objectively we might use the terms “the earthly realm”, “the astral realm” and “the causal or divine realm” or “sphere”.
On earth, when we are incarnated, all three levels are present, but the level of the mind, of physicality, of objects, has the potential to totally obscure the other levels. This circumstance, however, enables our spiritual learning curve. On Earth we can learn deeply about the relation between the levels, how to not confuse them and how to integrate them. This would imply that we would always be aware of our true nature. We would, however, also be able to actively engage on the physical plane, but the engagement in the physical and the resting in the Absolute would not be two different things, as though when you engage in the physical you “go to work” and then you “return home” to rest in the Absolute. “Mastery” consists in skillfully doing both or being both. It means to create a harmony or balance between the different levels, to move freely between them and always know where you are, and on which level you need to “work”. The fact that all three levels can become one organic whole also means that they stop being in any way opposed to each other. It is not just the intelligence and inspiration that comes from the Absolute that allows us to live a more harmonious physical life but also the physical experience that deepens our understanding of the Absolute. We are learning what wisdom and power there is in the Absolute and how it can be used.
“Mastery” is a needed but also a dangerous word. This is so because the ego would like to be some grand master, somebody very evolved and special. But mastery is absolutely beyond the ego. Mastery is the conscious and skilful integration (you could also say: the natural integration) of the aforementioned three levels: the level of form, of thought forms; the level of energy, of feelings; the level of the Absolute, the Divine. The Absolute is called the Absolute because it is everything. Everything happens in the Absolute. There is no level of thought or of form or feeling that is separate from it. When you have been lost in the level of thought forms and you “return”, like the Prodigal Son, to the level of the formless, the Absolute, you have never really left the Absolute. You could not because you are It. You have merely temporarily forgotten about it. Mastery means that being aware of the Absolute, you keep on skilfully living your role as a human being because that too is simply an expression of the Absolute. There is no contradiction or conflict between the levels, they are one and not one at the same time. For you, this is not a paradox anymore, it is the universal miracle.
***
Ultimately, this integration, this “mastery”, allows us to tap into higher levels and frequencies and use them creatively, in this world of what we perceive to be “matter”, but what is really low-vibrational consciousness. For us, then, “matter” has become transparent, malleable. If right now your reason, your mind, is protesting against these truths, consider that this is just a belief and it is actually the limiting factor that is holding you back. Many thousands of years ago beings on this planet have already used those higher frequencies and we can still see some vestiges of that. But we live in an age of forgetting and have no knowledge of what they did and how they did it. This (so-called esoteric) knowledge is now coming back to us, through inner transformation, i.e. through the realization of the truth of who we are, through external, global, cataclysmic changes and through new revelations that are given to us (because we are ready for them). Bringing higher frequencies into this earthly realm and using them creatively is, in fact, the only way to heal the planet. At present we are looking at a heavily damaged planet which has been poisoned in so many ways. While the Earth´s capacities for self-healing are enormous, I'm afraid that humanity will do its worst to the planet. It will only stop when it has brought itself to the brink of extinction, having found out that “you cannot eat money”. By then things will be so bad that they will be beyond repair - unless things happen which we, from today's point of view, would refer to as miraculous. In fact miracles are just manifestations of higher frequencies. The whole earth needs to be reconnected. Having almost killed off the Earth with our spiritual disconnectedness, our next task will be to reconnect and heal it, to make it whole. For that, we first need to become whole ourselves.
Of course one might ask why the world is then not changing for the better right now, as there are already quite a few people whose frequencies have changed. These people, who Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth, refers to as “the frequency holders”, are certainly already here and they are certainly helping. However, they are still just too few to have much of an impact on the collective frequency, the collective consciousness. They are those who have had an Awakening, who have had a near-death experience or other deeply transformative spiritual experiences which have fundamentally changed their Way of Being. Some of these work as spiritual teachers, counsellors, healers or mediums, others are totally invisible. But as the destruction of the world is picking up pace, so is our spiritual evolution. I do not know, of course, in what way these developments, the global crisis and the individual awakenings, are connected, but I do not feel that it is a kind of race, like in Hollywood movies. It rather seems that humanity, just like an individual, needs a certain kind of pressure or even trauma to be willing to change in a fundamental way. There must be a deeply felt understanding that, in our current predicament, the old strategies of the mind are useless, that the old vibration is not going to help us anymore. This book is just another invitation to transform, not by doing, by manipulating what you think is real, but by realizing what is actually real. This is a revolution of consciousness.
In this book, I begin, again, by expounding some basic non-dual teachings, hoping that my pointings are direct and clear enough to make an impact and dissolve illusions. It is impossible to “understand” what I am talking about in that first chapter and thinking that one understands will not help; it is just a general pointing meant to “support” or “spark” your inner Living Truth, your dharma, the spiritual instinct that tells you where to look. In later chapters the perspective of the book will broaden and deal with the integration of the personal and the Divine, with universal energy, higher frequencies and how they relate to the physical and to the collective. Towards the end of the book some more practical aspects of a New Earth and a new society will be discussed.
Meditation and self-inquiry
You are not the mind
From the point of view of the Ultimate, the content of your thoughts does not matter. Thoughts appear, but it does not really matter what they are saying, it is just the brain doing its job. The brain is braining. The mind is both producing and registering thoughts, just like the ear is both producing and registering sounds. The world is moving and the mind is moving, it is really one and the same “happening”. There is no real "inside" or "outside," no boundary where some of what is appearing becomes more personal than anything else.
For meditation, you just stay in that place where you watch reality unfold - all of it. You see that you do not need to have a different relationship with thoughts than with a person walking by or the cry of birds that appears and disappears. It is all produced by the mind. But the mind is not personal. It is just the medium for our human experience.
The mind, however, is not really what perceives. Or rather, it is not what really perceives. It is not the creator of reality. It is just a functioning system, like the laws of nature - gravity, for example. You can compare it to a calculator. A calculator solves an equation, but the calculator does not know the meaning of the numbers or what the answer it produces means. The number really only appears in you, not in the calculator. When you feel that you are the mind, it is really just like feeling you are a kind of calculator, a mechanical process or machine capable of performing tasks. But the process and the processing only become real, they only have meaning, in you, in you as awareness or consciousness.
The teaching that "even consciousness does not exist" is only meaningful in the sense that there is no separate thing or entity called "consciousness" apart from reality. Consciousness is just what is. It is a comprehensive name for what is, but it is not a separate thing. It is just one name for everything, for the totality. Just as "totality" is another name for it, or "reality" is another name for it. But what these words refer to can only be one and the same thing or no-thing. They are just less wrong than other words.
***
See how everything happens without you doing anything. First, notice that everything external happens without “you” doing anything. The world is just there: light, colours, sounds. In just the same way, your “internal” world, your thoughts and sensations are just there: appearing and disappearing, changing - just like anything else. There is no qualitative difference.
***
The image of the film or the cinema is really useful for explaining non-dual truths, for helping you dis-identify from the mind´s story. What is more relevant, existentially, when you are sitting in a cinema and watching a film: Is it the content of the film, or is it the fact that you are sitting in the cinema? What is the reality of existence: the content of the film, or the person watching it in a cinema? In the same way, does the content of your thoughts tell you, on an ontological level, what you are? Or is it the realization that you are aware of everything, including your thoughts? If the content of the film cannot tell you anything about the cinema, then the content of a thought cannot tell you anything about who you are.
