Get to Know the Real You
Every morning there is a wonderful opportunity to discern the difference between mind energy and beingness.
How to get the most out of these Wisdom Quotes:
Put aside everything you think you already know.
Open your mind and heart to receive something new.
Take your time going through each point.
Return to any points that particularly touch you.
In the coming days, listen carefully to the wisdom within you.
1. Beyond the Person and the Personality
"There are two levels to who you are. You are the existence of the body, the existence of sense perceptions, the existence of emotions, and the existence of thoughts. So, we can call that the presence of something - it’s you as a person.
Here, we’re not concerned with that. We’re concerned with who you are beyond the person, that deeper level. We’re here together, going beyond the individual persons and personalities to a deeper level of being. That’s our meditation.
There’s nothing for you to do except be who you are beyond the personality, and realize there is a stillness in you that has nothing to do with the personality and its problems. Because a large part of your personality consists of your problems.
Access the deeper level of stillness, where you sense the presence that you are."
~Eckhart Tolle, from the video: Spiritual Awakening in Daily Life: A 20 Minute Meditation
COACHING NOTES:
There are two levels to who you are, and it's very important to discern the difference.
You are familiar with yourself as a person with a particular character and personality. This is your assumed identity in the world. But if that is the only way in which you know yourself, your existence is bound to feel lacking and inauthentic.
Notice the thoughts that come up when you contemplate "going beyond the individual persons and personalities to a deeper level of being." Does this fill you with dread, expectations, or a healthy curiosity? Either way, don't be overly concerned with your thoughts. It's time to know yourself in a deeper way than through your conditioned mind.
Eckhart points out that "a large part of your personality consists of your problems." When you look at each problem individually, there's so much for the mind to try to fix and figure out. But when you enter into the deeper dimension of stillness and presence that you are, it becomes very apparent that the problems only exist when the mind is creating them.
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2. Discern Between Mind Energy and Beingness
"In the morning, when you get up, sit and just pay attention to your being. Before you go out and touch the world, already your mind is touching the world inside your own room in the form of thoughts and feelings and judgments and plans and projections, and so on.
So, sit quietly and just notice. See if you can discern the difference between mind energy and beingness. Beingness is always there first. You cannot have mind energy without consciousness. Beingness and consciousness are the same thing.
You sit quietly.
Don’t try to stop the mind or to stop thinking. Notice first - that’s a very neutral attitude - just stick with the observing. You can feel so much [mental chatter] - don’t get entangled in that, don’t log in to it.
Just notice that, but also notice the space. Often we don’t notice it - nobody pays attention to that and yet, that space is there before any noise comes. And it’s there during the noise, and it’s there after the noise. Nothing has happened to it.
Just pay attention, don’t create anything, just simple, sober attention, and then you start to see that the mind is almost always personal. That’s the mind stuff.
The beingness is not personal. It’s like space, silence, peace and presence. Just presence. Impersonal presence, impartial presence. Sit with that and be one with the presence. Stay with the presence."
~Mooji, from the video: Morning Spiritual Exercise - How to Live as Presence
COACHING NOTES:
Every morning there is a wonderful opportunity to discern the difference between mind energy and beingness.
You can sit quietly at any time of day, but first thing in the morning is especially effective because you are still drowsy from sleep, and it takes a few moments for the mind to kick into gear.
Sit quietly and notice the mind chatter starting up: the memories of yesterday, the plans for today, thoughts about yourself, thoughts about other people - all the mental chatter swirling around. Take a step back from it and notice it starting to pick up momentum. Sit quietly and notice. I find it helpful to use my breath as a grounding anchor.
Now notice the "space, silence, peace and presence." Breathe into it. Let yourself float in it, effortlessly. Notice a beautiful lack of the whole story of you and your life. Experience yourself beyond your mind. Experience your essence.
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3. Leave Your Room as Presence
"The mind is like a ship without an anchor in a storm. But presence is everywhere. Stay with that and clarify your being, just by paying attention to that.
And see that it is not a waiting state. Beingness is not waiting for the mind to relax. It’s just constant. It’s there. Relative to the mind, it’s a constant state.
By sitting like that, with that distinction between mind and presence, then you don’t have to try and control the mind. Just by being present, being one with the presence, the mind-stuff becomes very weak, meaningless. You’re going to like it so much because you’re experiencing the peace that is naturally yourself.
Just pay attention to that, you only have to do it for a short time but do it completely. Don’t get entangled in the mind-stuff. The difficulty is that it’s very familiar. It’s like old friends coming to the house. You don’t have to answer because, although they’re old friends, they’re stale friends.
We think of ourselves as a person. You open your door to leave your room as a person. So, obviously, if you go out as a person, you’re going to be in the world of persons. You’re going to relate as person to person.
Leave your room as presence."
~Mooji, from the video: Morning Spiritual Exercise - How to Live as Presence
COACHING NOTES:
It all begins in the morning before you leave your bedroom. What state will you be in when you go through that door? Before you were aware of what was going on, before you could discern between mind energy and presence, you had no choice. Now you have a choice. Every morning. Every single day.
There's nothing wrong with being a person. In fact, you need to be one in order to function in the world. The important thing to discern here is all the mind energy that comes with only identifying as a person.
The person that you are is wrapped up in a strong story. Everything that has ever happened to you, everything you have ever experienced, everything you desire and fear is in that story. This is what you're carrying around with you, as you. Wouldn't it be wonderful to give all that a break and just get to know yourself as presence for a while? You can put down the heavy burden of your life story, and social and mental identity for just a few moments and give yourself completely to the space and peace that you truly are in your deepest being.
And the beauty of it is that you don't have to DO anything. You don't have to WAIT for anything. "Beingness is not waiting for the mind to relax. It’s just constant, it’s there." Simply stop ignoring what is already here. Are you ready to tune in to what is already here, to finally relax into the real you?
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4. The Secret of Satisfaction
"Here, we become aware of the presence of presence. The presence underlies the words that I speak. It underlies the words that you hear. I’m inviting you to be aware of that in you that underlies the sense perceptions and the thoughts. We could call that the essence of who you are, that transcends the person.
That’s the most important realization in your life but it seems to still be a secret because very few seem to know about it, and many are not interested yet; until existence as the person only becomes increasingly frustrating.
The realization of presence frees you from bondage to the person, the personality with all its little concerns that keep it busy all day long. Your problems are ultimately not that important. They certainly won’t be important in 50, or 60 years' time to anybody. That’s quite soon.
I suggest you visit a graveyard from time to time and visit the gravestones with names on them. All these people thought that their problems were incredibly important. Their successes were important, their failures were important, and none of it suddenly matters 50 years later - all gone. And another generation is there with the same beliefs, totally absorbed in their so-called life.
But without a connection to the transcendent dimension, they’re not really fully alive. And they’re not really enjoying life except as temporary, passing sense pleasures - a high followed by a low. And from that level, so-called life will always disappoint you.
Even when you achieve change that you wanted, which is fine, but it cannot give you real satisfaction for long. Only discovering the transcendent in you can do that. So, real satisfaction is realizing who you are beyond that level of person."
~Eckhart Tolle, from the video: Spiritual Awakening in Daily Life: A 20 Minute Meditation
COACHING NOTES:
The secret of ultimate satisfaction is being fully alive, and experiencing the joy of life that comes from:
Discovering the transcendent dimension of yourself;
Being aware of the presence of Presence.
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5. Watch From Stillness
"You’re living as a mask, unaware of yourself. That is the main, most important thing to recognize.
If you are just snipering the little troubles that come here and there, you’re going to have to connect with a good bullet store, because more and more things are going to keep coming. if you go out fishing with a line and a hook, you might catch one fish, but what I’m sharing with you is like fishing with a huge net that covers the whole ocean.
You have to find the one that is the cause of this world and the cause of this worldly person and identity. How can you know him? He also goes by the name of “I.” That’s one of the great paradoxes.
God says, "I am," but the ego also says, "I am." The person is not born at the birth of the body. The person is born when the belief, "I am the body and I am my conditioning" is born. Before the person, consciousness is there.
That’s why I say, in the morning, when you get up, sit for a little bit in silence and watch your sense of self, which means your mind and the sense of being, and discern the difference.
Mind comes with noise so, when you’re aware of the noise, don’t just link up. Be aware of it only. If you link up, you’re going to say, "Please help me to get rid of it!" No, just being aware is enough. Be aware of it and be aware, at the same time, of the space of being, the place of presence.
Can you see that presence is stillness, and the mind is movement?
Remain in the stillness.
You don’t have to become something. It’s there already. You’re already watching from stillness. So, when I say be zero, zero means this emptiness, the self. Stay like this. And if you sit like this for five, seven minutes, 10 minutes if you want, it’s going to be the best 10 minutes you’re going to spend."
~Mooji, from the video: Morning Spiritual Exercise - How to Live as Presence
COACHING NOTES:
"Can you see that presence is stillness, and the mind is movement?"
When you're watching yourself, paying attention to the difference between your mind and your true sense of being, you will make a most important discovery. You will become sensitive and alert to the difference between movement and stillness.
There's a wonderful quote by Rupert Spira that says: "Only gradually, in most cases, will it become clear that meditation is what we are, not what we do, and that the separate self or finite mind is what we do, not what we are." Let us combine this with Mooji's words above. Presence is stillness - this is what we ARE. Mind is movement - this is what we DO.
Mooji points out, "You’re already watching from stillness." The mind wants you to do something here, to achieve a special state, perhaps even reach enlightenment, but you already ARE the presence, stillness, and satisfaction that you seek. However, don't take anyone's word for it. You must find out for yourself. "In the morning, when you get up, sit for a little bit in silence and watch your sense of self, which means your mind and the sense of being, and discern the difference."
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6. Remain at Home
"As we rest as awareness, more and more, it becomes our default identity, instead of being established in our thoughts and feelings and visiting our true nature from time to time. We become established in our true nature and we visit our thoughts and feelings when they arise, but we don’t lose ourselves to them.
We remain at home. We don’t go out to our thoughts and feelings. We remain at home and they come to us. It’s like becoming self-employed and working from home. You no longer go out to work, you stay at home. Experience comes to you. You accept it within yourself, but it loses its power over you.
You no longer lose yourself to experience. You no longer leave yourself and go out to experience. You remain at home in your own being and experience comes to you. You deal with it, whatever it is, and then it leaves you."
~Rupert Spira, from the video: Are Spiritual Practices Useful?
COACHING NOTES:
What does it mean to remain at home in your own being?
It means taking your place as the seat of awareness, watching all your thoughts and feelings come and go from a place of stillness.
It means being grounded and established as who you really are, and not losing yourself to your experience, where thoughts and feelings carry you away into the oblivion of suffering.
It means remembering where home is, in the depths of your being, and knowing how safe and peaceful it is to be here.
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