Cultivating Inner Peace

Cultivating Inner Peace — Anywhere, Anytime, Now By Suza Scalora

“Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace.” – Eckhart Tolle

In a recent interview with Eckhart Tolle, we spoke about how to purposefully bring moments of presence into everyday activities to cultivate inner peace. This builds what Eckhart calls ‘presence power.’ Eckhart often uses words such as, presence, stillness and awareness to illuminate who we are at the deepest level of our being, far beyond the realm of thought.

In Stillness Speaks, Eckhart writes, “When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.” When we lose touch with stillness, we lose touch with our inner peace. However, when we create a gap in our usual stream of thinking, spaciousness arises. This allows us to connect to a deeper dimension within ourselves where we experience an inner peace that is vibrant and alive.

Our habitual thoughts have a powerful momentum and this makes it easy to tumble down a rabbit hole of negative thinking. Eckhart explains, “Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They never go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalized sense of self that is conditioned by the past.” We are accustomed to our thoughts and we believe them to be true, and yet these thoughts are often what keep us from experiencing inner peace.

Eckhart says, “A good question to ask is: what kinds of thoughts go through your mind all day long? If a large percentage of those thoughts are negative you will manifest negative situations. You will react to people and things in a negative way and make situations worse. Once you become aware that you have certain thoughts in your head, you can observe these thoughts. Now there are two dimensions: you have the thoughts and you have the awareness. The person who is totally in the grip of ego is so identified with the thoughts that there is no awareness whatsoever. That is the state that generates conflict, violence and all the enormous amounts of suffering human beings inflict on themselves and others. The key is the growth of awareness in you; the realization that there is a dimension in you that is deeper, or higher, than thinking.”

Eckhart teaches us that an increase in awareness is vital for awakening. “To become aware of one’s own mind and emotions means there is something in you that can begin to grow. We could call that awareness. Awareness is deeper than thinking. Sometimes, I call it presence.”

We can intentionally build presence power by inserting gaps or pauses into our day. By doing this, we interrupt our continuous stream of thoughts and connect to the deeper dimension within ourselves where we experience inner peace. If we practice this on a regular basis, we’ll be better equipped to deal with life’s inevitable challenges as they arise.

Eckhart shares the following as suggestions to help us cultivate presence power.

Window Meditation: “Behind your thoughts there is a stillness. For example, I recommend looking out of the window several times during the day. For a moment, look out and just take in what is there. Perhaps, there is a vast expanse of sky or a tree. Give it attention for a moment. There is a shift that occurs inside of you. That is stillness.”

Sky Meditation: “Look at the sky for a moment — giving it your full attention. It takes you away from mundane things, all the little stuff that you have to deal with continuously, and then you have a moment of stillness, of presence, of awareness.”

Simple Activity: Eckhart suggests choosing a routine activity and bringing consciousness into the ‘doing.’ “Step out of your thoughts and just be conscious of your sense perceptions, so that the dimension of awareness grows in you.” An example could be a daily chore such as doing laundry or making the bed. Instead of rushing through the activity to get to the next item on your to-do list, take a conscious breath and feel the texture of the fabric on your hands.

The Gap: “Pay attention to the gap — the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, the notes of a piano or flute, or the in-breath and out-breath. When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of “something” becomes just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.”

Gradually, as we increase the moments of stillness in our lives, we begin to experience presence power. This helps to free us from the voice in the head; the continuous stream of thinking that prevents us from experiencing inner peace in the present moment.

Eckhart explains, “Make sure that you can use your thinking mind, but that you are not used by it. When you recognize the unconsciousness in you, that which makes the recognition possible is the arising consciousness, is awakening. You cannot fight against the ego and win, just as you cannot fight against darkness. The light of consciousness is all that is necessary. You are that light.”