NOW here this - Impressions of an Eckhart Tolle Lecture

"Marvelous old architecture for LA", I thought to myself as we waited almost an hour to enter Royce concert hall on the campus of UCLA. The lines were separated into one for men and one for women. Everyone was frisked by security on the way in using pat downs and wands, checking for weapons with metal detectors over the door, and all the women’s handbags were opened and inspected, more extreme than usually performed at the airport. I assume Eckhart is a man of peace and we can make the assumption that there were unlikely to be terrorists attending his lecture. I attended this venue for music performances in 2007 and nothing like this happened. The absurdity of it made me think I was actually attending one of those performance artist’s interpretation of George Orwell’s “1984” and this was the audience participation piece related to the imposition of the powers of the state over the masses. To bad the reality of it was not conjured in some playwright’s mind.

When we finally managed to get into our seats there was a lone chair that sat patiently waiting on the stage. Since we were all almost ½ hour late getting into the theatre, a spokeswoman appeared to announce that Eckhart was waiting for everyone to be seated and he would be joining us presently. She was the founder of the “Sounds True” media company and produced some of Tolle’s lectures on CD-ROM and DVD. She said that we should refrain from applause when Eckhart enters as it would interfere with his consciousness or chi or some such ethereal state and I thought to myself, “Oh brother!, This is going to be a long night…”

A few minutes later, Eckhart Tolle took the stage and he reminded me at first of some German wood nymph like someone playing an elfish character for a staging of Wagner’s Ring Trilogy. This unassuming character took the stage and portrayed a very peaceful presence, bowing in the traditional Buddhist manner, before taking a seat and sitting motionless for a few minutes. When he finally spoke, he started with a joke, about the traffic on the freeway, the long lines to get into the theatre and that it was good to bring the angst of the experience in this place with us now for it would soon be “put away”. We were told to concentrate on this present moment and to try to put those past images out of our minds. Clever, this wood nymph attempting to resolve our anxiety, the vexing issues of our collective experience, by simply asking us to step into the present.

I was reminded of the experiences I have had from attending lectures here by Thick Naht Hahn and disciples of the Dalai Lama where a similar collective consciousness was shared and a quieting sense of peace came over the audience. “Attend, my son, and hear what is said…”, I thought to myself.

I have benefited in my life by reading or attending lectures by spiritual teachers. The deep inner study performed by others and presented during a lecture have allowed me listen to their experience, to enrich my life and see things in a different light. Naturally, then, learning to enjoy the present moment would be something that I really have a desire to do. I find I must make a conscious attempt to live in the moment though I still feel trapped by grasping at what is to come. It takes a concerted effort to let the past slip away. Most would greatly benefit letting the past slip by and to use the past as a point of reference for knowledge purposes.

I found him to have an engaging sense of humor that brought in the audience and he blended his message of living in the present with witty anecdotes. He strongly emphasized that the mind is the root of all problems because it has taken us over meaning that we can't control it, but rather, it controls us. However, we can free ourselves from this by becoming totally present. On the negative side, this message was repeated over and over. Ok we understand, even the new age noodle heads with the fake blond hair in the audience (men and women both with the same dyed blond hair, by the way, I don’t want to be taken as a misogynist) got it.

Eckhart stressed embracing the present as the truest state of “timelessness”, that state where bliss is found as taught by others; I greatly appreciated his concept of object versus space consciousness. The interplay of mind-ego as the cornerstone of personal enslavement to ideas was another good part of his lecture. These were excellent ideas and are worthy of much contemplation. I have never really thought of this object consciousness before and how we waste so much of our energy filling this channel of our lives, brilliant observation.

There is some incongruity here with his concept of the present that conflicts significantly with most observers of this phenomenon. Eckhart sees the past and future as time, and the present as timeless. This is counter-intuitive as the past, present, and future is all of time. The present, the now in that sense, is not outside of time. By mentally drawing your attention to the present, you are merely focusing on a different aspect of time. This may aid in a sense of spiritual freedom, but only shifts one's attention temporarily from all things that make up time. It should be noted that the concept of the now in most philosophical and spiritual teachings is that state of timelessness that is generally considered beyond the past, present, and future. Maybe that what he means by the present, the now…

The only negative impression I came away with was that just focusing on living in the present, releasing yourself to embrace this moment, is just a defensive mechanism to avoid depression and to turn on happy apathy when the going gets tough. Maybe this is the psychologist in me speaking, clouded by my storehouse of knowledge, which chains me to my past.

Overall, the lecture was enlightening and informative. I still do not believe that he has all the answers to bring us, through his Power of Now concept, to the one path of spiritual enlightenment. It is a good concept to keep in the arsenal for our struggles in this life. I think spiritual enlightenment would more likely come to you when accept the taking of full responsibility for what we have experienced. Do and go about choosing to follow a future path. You have to realize to expect and be totally willing to make adjustments for what you plan to do in the future. Wisdom comes from what was learned. What you choose to do with that wisdom is up to you and implies taking action toward some future outcome. Living life with blinders on so that each coming moment is to be lived anew is a fool’s folly and those who adopt that philosophy are surely people who could not function well in the world we choose, and are often forced, to live in. Adopting that lifestyle is the ultimate retreat into selfishness and egotism.

On a personal level, I enjoy accepting the experience of living in the moment. The sensuality of it is liberating. I am not ready to give up all of what is past and that which may be yet to come. I am very thankful for the past coming to me in this moment as the richness of all my senses can be awoken with the memory of past experiences. My past and current experience has an influence on which of many possible outcomes I may encounter and my reaction to being in that moment when it comes. Isn’t that the same for all of us? We are at our best when we achieve balance of mind, body and spirit in whatever time we are experiencing.