Eckhart Tolle & Sri Aurobindo TWO PERSPECTIVES ON ENLIGHTENMENT Books by A. S. Dalal Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga Essays on Sri'Aurobindo's Psychological Thought Implications of Yoga far /'dentalHealth A Greater Psychology An Introduction to the Psychological Thought of Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo mid the Future Psychology Supplement to A Greata Psychology Compilations &om the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Living Within The Yog-il Approach to Psychological Health and Growth The Psychic Being Soul-its 1Vnture, itfisJ·ion llndEvolution The Hidden Forces ofLife Growing Within The Psychology o_flnnerDevelopment Lookingfrom Within A Seeker's Guide to Attirudes fo1· LYfrrstery and Inner Growth Powers Within Living Words Soul Kindlersfar the New AfiL!ennium Our Many Selves Pmcticrrl Yogic P)ychology Emergence ofthe Psychic Governance ofLife by the Soul The Yoga ofSleep and Dreams The Night-School of Yoga Eckhart Tolle & Sri Aurob1ndo TWO PE RS PECT.IVE S ON ENLIGHTENMENT A. S. Dalal ~ Editions INDIA an imprint of Stone Hill Foundation Publishing · EDITIONS INDIA® An imprinr of STONE HILL FOUNDATION PUBLISHING® G-309 PanampillyAvenue, Panampilly Nagar Cochin 682036, Kerala, India [email protected] Eckhart Tolle find Sri Aurobindo: Two Perspectives on Enlightenment Copyright © 2008 by A.S. Dalal. All rights reserved. First edition published 2008 in India as an Editions India original ISBN 10: 81-89658-31-X ISBN 13: 978-81-89658-31-1 Cover art direction by Girija Nair Book design and composition by BookWorks STM, Cochin Printed in India by Mapcho Primings, Cochin Primed on acid-free, partially recycledpaper All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in pare, or scored in a retrieval system by any means electronic, mechanical, phococopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher, except in quoting brief passages in critical articles or reviews. This edition is for sale in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Maldives only. Export of this edition outside the territory of India, except by the publisher or its disrribution division, is prohibited. Contents Preface vu Acknowledgments x Publisher'sNote xi 1. Eckhart Comes to Me 1 The Egoic Self 8 Fear-Insecurity 8 Resistance-Complaining 9 Needing Ever More�Desire 9 Looking co the Next Moment-Waiting 10 Self-Seeking 11 Mental Noise 12 Perceiving through the Veil of Mind 13 The Witnessing Presence 14 No Problems in the Now 15 Portals into Enlightenment 16 The Pain-body 18 The Paradox of Enlightenment and Time 20 Chronological Time and Psychological Time 21 Enlightenment Distinguished from Liberation 22 The Simplicity of Enlightenment 25 The Grace of the Guru 27 Enlightenment-Slow or Sudden? 29 Enlightenment-Living in che Present Moment 31 2. Interview with Eckhart 33 3. Questions and Answers at Esalen 63 4. Sri Aurobindo on the Witness Consciousness 67 5. The Teachings of Eckhart Tolle and Sri Aurobindo- Some Comparisons 77 Ego, Self, and Being 77 Evolucion of Consciousness 81 Mind and rhe Spiritual Life 84 Mind and the Witness Consciousness 91 Mind, Thought, and Stillness 94 Parts of the Ordinary Mind 95 TheOuter (Ordinary) Mind and the Inner (Subliminal) Mind 95 Levels of Spiritual Mind Above the Ordinary Mind 95 Personal Effort and Surrender 103 Method of Spiritual Practice 112 The Process of Inner Change 121 The Aim of Spiritual Practice 144 6. Postscript: Emerging Insights 149 Appendix I 157 Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice Appendix II 161 The Three Instruments of the Teacher Appendix III 163 Sri Aurobindo's First Major Experience Note on Eckhart Tolle 165 Note on Sri Aurobindo 166 Note on the Mother 167 Index 169 Preface Originally chis book was meant co share the choughcs of a seeker with chose who, like him, feel drawn to the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. So, the firstdraft of the manuscript was written with a view to presenting Eckhart's teaching from the perspective of Sri Aurobindo's yoga, of which the writer has been a practitioner for over five decades. Eck­ hart, who graciously read the manuscript and expressed his apprecia­ tion for it, suggested that I make a comparison between his reaching and that of Sri Aurobindo. I had generally desisted from making such a comparison-even though pai·t of me was inclined to do so-in view of what Eckhart has said in the Incroduccion to his book The Power ofNow: "The mind always wanes co categorize and compare, but this book will work better for you if you do not attempt to com­ pare its terminology with that of other teachings; otherwise, you will probably become confused." I have kept in mind these words of Eck­ hart while writing che present version of this book, in which I have tried to compare che teaching of Eckhart with that of Sri Aurobindo in a way chat would not confuse che reader. The comparison is meant to help coward a better understanding of both Eckharc's teaching and that of Sri Aurobindo. Eckhart's teaching, which beautifully combines elements from Zen Buddhism, Advaita (nondualist Vedanta), and Christianity, is relatively neutral. However, in its views of che nature of Reality and enlightenment, his reaching is predominancly Buddhist. le is a perspective that presents a sharp contrast to some of the dominant viii I Eckhart Tolle & Sri Aurobindo Hindu views such as those contained in the Bhagavad Gita. I have attempted to bring together the two perspectives in the light of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. The differences between the two perspectives consist in certain paradoxes or apparent contradictions, and in certain divergent view­ points that are actual contradictions. Paradoxes, such as the statement that the attainment of enlightenment takes a long time and the state­ ment chat enlightenment is an irnmediate experience, are less difficult to resolve because they are based on the same experience viewed from opposite angles. Divergences, on the other hand, are due to differences in the nature of the spiritual realizations on which they are based. For example, the Buddhist view that the Reality is Non-Being or Non-Existence or Nothingness (Asat) is based on a differentspiritu al experience from the one that is founded on the Vedantic view of the ultimate reality as Being, Existence, or the All (Sat, the Brahman). Similarly, the Hindu view that both the world and the notion of an individual soul are illusions, Maya, is based on a spiritual experience that is fundamentally different from the equally valid experience on which is based another Hindu· view that regards the world as a divine play, Lila. Here, the eternal Supreme Being plays hide-and-seek with the eternal individual soul. In Eckhart's teaching, as in all spiritual teachings, there are certain paradoxes. There is also a fine combina­ tion of divergent views that he embraces without being troubled by the contradictory nature of their philosophical underpinnings. I hope that, in comparing Eckhan's teaching with Sri Aurobindo's integral perspective, this book will serve to resolve some of the paradoxes con­ tained in Eckhart's teaching as well as reconcile some of the divergent viewpoints expressed by him. The teachings of Eckhart are presented within the context of the story of a "seeker," and forthis the author wishes to express an apol­ ogy to him. For, Eckhart is one of those rare instances of a "finder" who had never been a seeker to start with. He therefore regards all seeking, including the quest for the spirit, as stemming from the il­ lusory self, the liccle "me," out of which one must emerge in order to findone's true being. Eckhart's teachings start at the high level where one is ready to step out of the mode of all personal seeking. So does Sri Aurobindo's yoga, which, however, recognizes chat, although we Preface I ix human beings are initially always motivated by the egoic self even in doing yoga, all spiritual seeking is at heart a yearning of one's rrue self to discover itself through liberation from the bondage of rhe egoic self. The author must also apologize to Eckhart for presenting his teachings from a certain "perspective." As Eckhart has repeatedly said, a perspective is a mental position and is therefore quite inadequate to understand spiritual truths that transcend the purview of the mind. However, at the present stage of the evolution of our consciousness, most human beings are at best mainly mental beings. Therefore,we cannot help beginning with a more or less mental approach even to things chat lie beyond che mind. As a concession to this limitation of the human being, spiritual teachers have had to resort to mencal concepts and ideas to communicate by verbal means truths that are essencially unformulable in thoughts and incommunicable in words, but realizable only through experience. Some of the teachers, like Eckhart, have used only minimal mental concepts to serve as "pointers" or "signposts" on the spiritual path. A fe w others, like Sri Aurobindo, have provided elaborate intellectual maps as guides on the inner journey. However, all teachers have relied on the power of the consciousness behind their words to awaken in the seeker something more than concepts and ideas expressed by the words, and have cautioned against the pitfall of mistaking the signpost for the destination, or the map forthe territory. The most valuable aspect of Eckhart's teachings thus lies nor in the concepts and ideas he employs but in the energetic charge of the spiritual consciousness from which his teachings emanate and with which his words are powerfully impregnated. For this reason, Chap­ ter 2 of the book, which is a verbatim transcription of the author's interview with Eckhart, is the most powerful conveyor of what Eck­ hart has to offer to the spiritual seeker.