For Eckhart Tolle, being an academic meant the mental realm was predominating where there was a lot of emotional turbulence, especially to do with things like anxiety and depression. He said that on the night of realization he was suicidal. That night, this is the thought that arose from his infinite nature: “I can’t live with myself anymore.”

That thought actually makes the distinction between Effortless Being–the body of wisdom, which is where that thought arose–and the mental realm.

The mental realm is the conceptual self, and with the conceptual self there’s the idea that you’re suffering: that there’s anxiety, that there is depression, that his energy is being compromised.

And so that had been the sort of predominant thing because Eckhart’s energy was invested in the personal realm. It was maintaining or deepening the sense of depression and anxiety because he didn’t understand at that stage how to become free of it.

But when this thought emerged which said, “I can’t live with myself anymore,” the next thought was, “Well, if I can’t live with myself, there must be two of us. So the one must be real and the other one must be false.”

He clearly saw that the Beingness (the Effortless Beingness, the Awareness) was aware of the personal realm, and was therefore distinct from the personal realm.

And so the mind suddenly stopped because the energy which was unconsciously fueling the dualistic realm and fueling the anxiety, the fear, the depression and suicidal tendencies was withdrawn. He found himself washed upon the beach of Effortless Being. He was just knowing the silence of that.

When Eckhart realized this, he saw everything anew. Everything wasn’t being filtered through the filter of the combination of the mental body, emotional body and physical body. It was from the clarity of Effortless Being.

When the filters of the unconscious were removed, it was a spontaneous withdrawal of investment in the personal realm. And then he realized that’s what he truly was.

Join me on my next online event where I discuss Realization…

With love,

David Bingham