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Perception of Space


 

2014/04/19: Last night I received an email with an excerpt from Eckhart Tolle's book ‚A New Earth: Awakening to your life's purpose'. This excerpt was about stillness in space. I was too busy with other stuff at that time to really comprehend what it was about. I had to read it several times to get an idea what was meant after all.

I had read Eckhard Tolle's book several years ago but I could not remember this message at all, it simply did not stuck. But when I woke up this morning the following happened: I heard a plane and instead of focusing on the noise I imagined this plane to be only a small object in the wide open sky and how the noise was surrounded by space and vastness. The focus lied on the space and the noise then began to disappear within that vastness and was not relevant any longer.

Later in the supermarket it was quite busy and people were crossing my walks all the time. I began to focus on the space B E T W E E N the people and suddenly the space B E T W E E N the people was tremendously huge. There was nothing left but space and nobody was in the way any longer.

A physicist once explained to me that matter consist of vibrating particles and that space between those particles is far bigger than the sum of particles. If one would take the particles of earth and remove the space then a ball the size of an orange would be left.

I looked at the objects in the room, the chair, the table and the space between them and then I imagined how every apparently firm part also consists of this space within. This exercise can be extended arbitrarily by imagining for example the space around our thoughts, or the space around perceived events.

I had heard of some indigenous tribes whose perception is constructed in a way that they primarily focus on space instead of form. This creates an absolutely new perspective of being.

After having played with this exercise for one morning I liked the idea of focusing on space. Although I had the feeling of still needing a lot more practice to be able to apply it meaningfully. And I still needed to master my challenges because I tended to avoid difficulties simply by focusing on the space around it instead of the difficulty itself. The difficulty disappears which is very practical on one hand and might be useful in certain situations but this method should not be used to repress matters that need to be solved.

Having collected these experiences, it was a lot easier to guess what Eckhard Tolle might have meant. Here is the excerpt from the book:

The stillness of space - by Eckhard Tolle
When you are no longer totally identified with forms, consciousness-who you are-becomes freed from its imprisonment in form. This freedom is the arising of inner space. It comes as a stillness, a subtle peace deep within you, even in the face of something seemingly bad. This, too, will pass. Suddenly, there is space around the event. There is also space around the emotional highs and lows, even around pain. And above all, there is space between your thoughts. And from that space emanates a peace that is not "of this world," because this world is form, and the peace is space. This is the peace of God.

Now you can enjoy and honor the things of this world without giving them an importance and significance they don't have. You can participate in the dance of creation and be active without attachment to outcome and without placing unreasonable demands upon the world: Fulfill me, make me happy, make me feel safe, tell me who I am. The world cannot give you those things, and when you no longer have such expectations, all self-created suffering comes to an end. All such suffering is due to an overvaluation of form and an unawareness of the dimension of inner space.

When that dimension is present in your life, you can enjoy things, experiences, and the pleasures of the senses without losing yourself in them, without inner attachment to them, that is to say, without becoming addicted to the world.

The words "This, too, will pass" are pointers toward reality.

In pointing to the impermanence of all forms, by implication, they are also pointing to the eternal. Only the eternal in you can recognize the impermanent as impermanent (excerpted from Eckhart Tolle's 'A New Earth', pages 226-227).

2014/04/20: Day 2 of the experiment. The focus is on the space between things. After waking up I stayed a while in this state where I still feel sleepy and the transition to the waking state is still happening. This time is very valuable because our consciousness still remembers the sleeping phase and behaves a little different to our complete awake state.

Thus I still dozed a little and with the next airplane I focused on the space around the noise. The plane was gone and silence arouse, the space expanded to infinity and the feeling of infinite freedom originated. I thought, wow, this is a state I would like to remain in, nothing else mattered, no further achievements in life necessary. That was it, I had arrived.

However, this state did not last and a little sobered I found out that life went on in the usual way. But now I had gathered an additional experience enriching me largely. If I now focus on space during the day I can additionally remember this infinity, this feeling of exemption which is now anchored in my sub-consciousness. My perception changed a bit because of this experience.

And so I had breakfast and ate my cereals with relish. This muesli was a gift. I had received it for free. Suddenly a feeling of internal joy and gratitude came up because I suddenly realized I had not done anything in order to get this muesli. All I needed to do was preparing it. It was like I had received it directly from Mother Earth.

All of a sudden I had the feeling another lie was unveiled. Is it not that we should freely take the food we eat from Mother Earth? Is it not that creation intended to make everything available which is needed to live? Is it not that nature provides us with everything, like air, water or food?

If this was not in such a way then our ancestors could not have survived. But why is this all different for us now? Who lied to us and told us that all that is available on Mother Earth does not belong to us? Who lied to us and told us that we have to work hard in order to earn what we need for life?

With this a deeply rooted misbelief had dissolved in me. The misbelief was that we have to produce a service in return in order to breathe and live on this planet. In addition shortly before that realization I found it slightly hard to inhale. Inhaling represents the extent to which we allow ourselves to take life in respectively allow the vital force to flow in. This misbelief 'I must earn my life in order to be allowed to live' had cut my breath.

The jigsaw puzzle of this morning began to become complete more and more. First there was this feeling of freedom and vastness, then the oppression while inhaling, then the gratitude for the life given freely to me, and finally the realization of the lie preventing me from enjoying the free flow of life. And in the morning I had not only asked to go for the highest possible path but to be shown why that is so. Well, it was just midday and I had experienced and learnt a lot.

Above all, however, I would like to more and more accept life as a gift. The only thing that holds me back from doing so is the lie. I now want to accept the abundance and open up to all the presents life has to offer. Even if I do not always succeed I will carry on observing it and give it the space which is needed to further develop.

A side effect of that exercise on focusing on the space is that the aura of things appears from time to time in my perception. Sometimes I see the energy around objects or a flickering. That is because my focus is not on the object itself but on the space around it. I noticed it this morning without having consciously tried to see the aura. It just happened. All these experiences with this exercises and my intention to focus on space let my sub-consciousness automatically switch to this state. Indeed, a very interesting experiment.

 

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