About Me

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I have recovered from the disease of Alcoholism. I believe there is only one person really,.. everybody. And that peace of mind is everything. -So treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself, because your neighbor IS yourself. I think most of recovery is what I would call common sense, but that learning to be ordinary is a true gift very few people acquire. My ambition is to accept everything unflinchingly, with compassion, and therefore be intrinsically comfortable in my own skin, no matter what. I am comfortable being uncomfortable and am willing to go to any lengths to improve my life. I believe the Big Book was divinely inspired, and is extraordinarily powerful. Unfortunately AA's best kept secret a lot of the time. (In my opinion). I just try to do what works, no matter what it is.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

TONS of Eckhart Tolle on Utube. If you are interested..

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle Audiobook
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle Audiobook
(Oh yeah and you can get all these things straight from the iTunes store as well in case you don't already know.)

I have just discovered that there are LOADS of talks on Utube by Eckhart Tolle, so it's a FREE way of finding out what he teaches. Here is a little talk on being ordinary, as opposed to being 'special and different'. (as us AA's like to call it..)
I LOVE !!!!! 'Ordinariness'. For want of a better word. Its SO refreshing! And uncommon.
Watching him speak and his use of gestures and expressions is very interesting as I often resort to posture and expression as a way of communicating a mind state that it is VERY difficult to explain WELL by words alone.

In this clip he also pretends to be someone who is 'stuck in their head' as I like to call it. Which he calls somebody who has a lot of 'mental noise' going on.

He then goes on to 'show' how acceptance to things, such as mental noise or unhappiness COMPLETELY CHANGES the way that 'thing' is being experienced. That's what acceptance is. But he makes it quite understandable. He relates acceptance to surrender. All words we AA's are familiar with.
I must say I do like this guy. I LOVE it when people aren't too serious. I think people who are not monks and nuns can afford to be a little bit 'looser' in the way they communicate. Meaning they do not need to be on their 'best behavior' all the time.
Right gotta go! LOVELY sun over this way today!

7 comments:

Texaco said...

Is it a contradiction to want to be 'sparklingly ordinary'? Is that possible? Can you be the best ordinary you can be? I don't mean 'special' in any ordinary sense. I guess I'm talking about self actualization as part of God's will. I have this sense that He wants me to be a FANTASTIC worker among workers; that because I CAN give more I SHOULD, but not for recognition, simply because it's the role I'm asked to play.

An Irish Friend of Bill said...

Doing ANYTHING to a VERY high standard for the service of others is not an 'ego feeding proposition' of itself.
but yes, there is no place where you can effectively 'hide' from the ego. even if you do precisely that, you will STILL be tempted to see yourself as 'better than'. All mental constructs are BS, and provide an opportunity to BS oneself. So nothing short of ongoing vigilance will prevent you from getting too big for your boots.
But yes, as intentions go, that one does not appear to be ego feeding.
As far as excellence goes, 'the god is the enemy of the best' (tradition 2) is a good maxim.
I don't see how the world benefits (at all) from you choosing to be average and mediocre in your application to any task. So yes, 'Go for Gold' as my fave old timer used to say. Why not? It's not a crime to be brilliant at something. after all,we are supposed to be having FUN and REALLY enjoying our lives as MUCH as we possibly can..

An Irish Friend of Bill said...

but yeah. for me 'proper' ordinary IS sparkling. Perhaps sparkling is the wrong word. I prefer charismatic, or disarming.
It is the 'special and different' ones that communicate underlying dis-ease no matter WHAT they do or say. they are always slightly uncomfortable to be around..
Therefore quite UNattractive..

Alcoholic Outsider Artist said...

wonderful, thanks, I had never seen this man before.

Alcoholic Outsider Artist said...

wonderful, thanks, I had never seen this man before.

Unknown said...

Listening to Eckhart transforms my cells. It's like "mana" from heaven. So nurturing to the soul and enlivening the physical and mental. I feel love for every ONE of us!

An Irish Friend of Bill said...

Cool Catherine. i think you would love amaro too if that is the case. but who knows? it can be very personal the way we react to these people..
but yeah. glad you like!

amaro is on http://www.abhayagiri.org/index.php/main/media#talks