subject: How Rushing to the Future Killed Hundreds [print this page] How Rushing to the Future Killed Hundreds
Daily Spiritual Insight from Eckhart Tolle'sStillness Speaks
In a tragic set of circumstances, in which hundreds of people became crowded on a bridge at a festival in Cambodia, at least 345 of our fellow human beings were crushed to death.
People were pushing at both ends of the bridge, until the pressure in the middle became so great that those who were trapped collapsed to the floor of the bridge and were trampled.
Says Eckhart Tolle on page 29 ofStillness Speaks:
The egoic self is always engaged in seeking. It is seeking more of this or that to add to itself, to make itself feel more complete. This explains the ego's compulsive preoccupation with future.
How else can the stampede that took the lives of so many human beings be explained? Individuals who weren't presentwho were future-oriented, trying to shove their way to the next part of the celebrationended up killing all these helplessly trapped people.
Had people beenpresent, calm and peaceful, all these lives would have been spared.
Overcrowded bridges, stampedes at festivals, structures collapsing because too many are jammed onto themthese are frequent occurrences in our world, not restricted to any particular geography of the world. Such tragedies happen in the most civilized of countries.
When we are at peace within ourselves, fulfilled simply withbeing, we have no need to push and shove to get to the next event, the next entertainment for the mind.
Says Eckhart:
Whenever you become aware of yourself "living for the next moment," you have already stepped out of that egoic mind pattern, and the possibility of choosing to give your full attention to the moment arises simultaneously.
The egoic mind is narcissistic, thinking solely of "me and mine" and what we can add to ourselves.
Only when narcissism is controlling us can tragedies like stampedes at festivals occur. Only when we aren't present to the presence of other humans do we act in such irresponsible ways as pushing people.
This is true not only physically but also on our roads, as we tailgate or weave, as well as emotionally. The person who is centered in their true being instead of in ego has no need to try to manipulate others into doing what they want them to do.
Experiencing completionafullnesswithin ourselves, we have no need to add to our life by trying tomake something happen. This way, we don't harm others in our unconscious rush to "get to the next thing" to take our mind off our pain.
