Do You Ever Really Question Yourself? - The Little Prince Series
Do You Ever Really Question Yourself? - The Little Prince Series
In the daily blog The Compassionate Eye, we've begun a study of Eckhart Tolle's book Stillness Speaks. A key aspect of this book is that, instead of encouraging us to read it from cover to cover like a regular book, Eckhart invites us to sit with the statements, treating them like sutras.
A sutra engages the thinking mind as little as possible, thereby evoking the presence that's our nature. Change comes from beingpresent, not from thought. The more conscious, aware, we are, the greater the change in our external life.
It's quite amazing to me that whenever I go on Twitter, or visit a congregation to speak either in the service or at a workshop, I encounter so many who believe that to change theirthought is the way to change their life. I am talking about people who have read eitherThe Power of Now,A New Earth, or both, which show that thinking is what blocks consciousness.
The Little Prince has discovered what it really takes to change our life: the practice of self-inquiry coupled with self-confrontation.
When the Little Prince asks a question, for him it's never a matter of head knowledge. It's always at a practical level.
There's a reason he asks only practical questions. As the author of the story quips, "Again, as always, it was thanks to the sheep."
In this wonderfully insightful tale, the sheep stands in contrast to the boa constrictor. It represents a peaceful way of being, simply doing what sheep spontaneously do, whereas boa constrictorswell, theyconstrict us, shutting us down to our true self, quite the opposite of the freedom the sheep enjoys. Under the regime of a boa constrictor, we can't feel, can't be caring, can't be compassionate.
If we are in touch with our essence, we are going to shift out of a conceptual approach into a practical approach, which has to do with theheart rather than the head. By "heart," I don't mean being led along by the surface chop of our emotions, but responding to the deep, peaceful current of our feeling being, with which our emotions are often in conflict.
Not too many years ago, I used to love to debate any and every issue with friends, especially at dinner parties. I look back now and can't believe how differently I feel. I have no interest in debating issues. It's the difference between the sheep and the boa constrictor.
The thinking mind is alien to conscious living. To live consciously has to flow from the heart. It's about beingconnected in a present moment manner. The Little Prince is connected to a certain flower.
So when the Little Prince asks whether sheep eats flowers, even flowers with thorns, he's not asking because he wants to be a botanist. His question doesn't revolve around head knowledge. He's asking from hisheart, because there is a particular flower with thorns that he cares about.
As the teacher Adyashanti explains in some of his talks, self-inquiry, followed by self-confrontation, gets us beyond the head and deep into the heart.
We begin to uncover whatreally matters to us.
When I think of all the time I wasted debating topics I had no honest interest in, even taking a contrary view just to keep the dinner table debate going, all of this was a way of avoiding the heart connection we all long for but are so afraid of.
In those days, I used to never let go of a topic, taking a position I would defend to the hilt. Just like a boa constrictor.
How different is the way the Little Prince, once he asks a question, never lets it go. It isn't about debating a matter, arguing a point, but about the kind of inquiry that comes from his heartquestions that have everything to do with his future actions with respect to this particular flower.
When we start asking, "How do I really feel? And how do I truly feel toward this person, this situation?" we begin to discover aspects of ourselves that we have been asleep to.
Conscious living is all about waking up to the heartto compassion and true caring. It's about learning we are essentiallylove.
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