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Paul
134 Posts |
 Posted - 01/23/2007 : 12:16:36
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I'm currently battling TMS and a friend online who has overcome pelvic pain as TMS suggested reading, "The Power of NOW" by Eckhart Tolle.
There is one little chapter in there called: Consciousness: The Way Out of Pain that really drove home many of the points that Sarno and other TMS books have mentioned.
The words and knowledge really moved me so I thought I would share a few of the highlighted exerpts here for many of you as well...
--The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is.
--The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind.
--The more you are identified with your mind, the more you will suffer.
--The "pain-body", when it has taken over you, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its OWN energy frequency for it to feed on. PAIN CAN ONLY FEED ON PAIN. PAIN CANNOT FEED ON JOY. It finds it quite indigestible.
--The "pain-body", which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually AFRAID of the light your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival DEPENDS on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your UNCONSCIOUS FEAR of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don't face it, if you don't bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it AGAIN and AGAIN.
--Just as you cannot fight the darkness, you cannot fight the "pain-body". Trying to do so would create inner conflict and thus further pain. Watching it is enough. Watching it implies ACCEPTING it as par of what IS at that moment.
--When you start to DISIDENTIFY and become the WATCHER, the "pain-body" will continue to operate for a while and will TRY TO TRICK you into identifying with it again. Although you are no longer energizing it through your own identification, it has a certain MOMENTUM, just like a spinning wheel that will keep turning for a while even when it is no longer being PROPELLED. At this stage, it may also CREATE PHYSICAL ACHES AND PAINS in different parts of the body, but they won't last.
--Where there is ANGER, there is always pain underneath.
--If you are able to stay alert and present at that time and WATCH whatever you feel within, rather than be taken over by it, it affords and opportunity for the most powerful spiritual practice, and a rapid transmutation of all past pain becomes possible.
These are just some of the highlights, but I found the information very powerful. If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it...I think it rings very true, especially for those of us in the battle with TMS.
Have a good day! |
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sonora sky
USA
181 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2007 : 20:32:15
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hi paul,
I just finished reading Power of Now myself. My mom has also read Tolle's A New Earth, which she prefers to PON. In ANE he goes more in-depth into the discussion of ego. (I'm currently trying to get a hold of a copy....) I love the essence of what Tolle is saying, though at times I find he comes off a little condescending. Especially the part about most modern art, music and literature being devoid of beauty and "inner essence" (81). As an art historian (and spouse to a composer) and lover of beauty in all its forms, that statement seemed incredibly ignorant to me. Though he was probably referring more to pop and kitsch, it's tough to overlook such a cocky statement.
Offenses aside, his principles resonated with me, and I found the notion of bringing awareness to the present moment (for that is all we truly have) to be echoed by buddhist writers Thich Nhat Hanh and Jack Kornfield (A Path With Heart). I found A Path With Heart to be applicable to TMS, especially his chapters Stopipng the War (within) and Necessary Healing (with sub-sections, Healing the Body, Heart, and Mind). Here's one quote from Kornfield that I thought sounded like a description of TMS:
"Most often the kinds of pains we encouter...are not indications of physical problems. They are the painful, physical manifestations of our emotional, psychological, and spiritual holdings and contractions. ...These pains [can be called] our muscular armor, the areas of our body that we have tightened over and over in painful situations as a way to protect ourselves from life's inevitable difficulties."
Also, "As we gradually include in our awareness all that we have previously shut out and neglected, our body heals."
I also love Tolle's notion that "we are not our minds." It's so tough to even fathom this concept, because we are all so identified with our minds--that's who we ARE, right? Who would we be without it? I find this to be a scary but necessary realization.
Thanks for starting this thread.
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2007 : 23:04:14
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I adore Eckhart Tolle and his work and during very dark times have found listening to his talks is what gets me through the night (literally - I keep them in my i-pod next to my bed).
You can check out his talks at his website.
xx
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
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altherunner
Canada
511 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2007 : 06:12:30
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| Since reading Power of Now, a couple of years ago, and A New Earth, there have been no relapses of pain, and there seems to be much less anxiety or anger being generated. Future possible problems were always in the mind, much less now. His dvd, Transmuting Suffering into Peace, is also excelent. |
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The Power of NOW and Beating TMS...
