Showing posts with label suicide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suicide. Show all posts

Monday, August 25, 2008

Chapter 5 - The Pain Body

Many people believe Eckhart's concept of the Pain Body is his main contribution to spiritual thought. Other's disagree.

Some psychologists think the Pain Body concept is misleading & downright dangerous for the mildly to severely mentally ill. Yet, Eckhart openly talks about feeling suicidal at age 9 & then again in his 20s, in part because of his parents' constant arguing.

He once again reassured this week's audience that a dense or heavy Pain Body can be a passport to dropping the ego, compared to a life that is not so burdened.

He points out the obvious about the chronic discord in family, love, political, national, cultural, & religious relationships, and describes all of this as the Pain Body. The body of pain that humans endure because they are lost -- lost in thought and not enjoying the Power of Now.

The ability of the Tolle Teachings team to answer questions from a world audience that may or may not be familiar with Eckhart's esoteric terms was quite striking, as the personal stories of their suffering was intermixed with the stories of strangers calling from Australia to Denmark.

We find out in this webcast that Oprah's beloved dog died on the morning of the second webcast & that Eckhart lost his ego and Pain Body on the same night. Is all of this true?

Monday, March 31, 2008

The Pain Body: Love It or Leave It

As we discussed on Monday, some psychologists think the Pain Body concept is misleading & downright dangerous for the mildly to severely mentally ill. Yet, Eckhart openly talks about feeling suicidal at age 9 & then again in his 20s, in part because of his parents' constant arguing.

He once again reassured this week's audience that a dense or heavy Pain Body can be a passport to dropping the ego, compared to a life that is not so burdened.

He points out the obvious about the chronic discord in family, love, political, national, cultural, & religious relationships, and describes all of this as the Pain Body. The body of pain that humans endure because they are lost -- lost in thought and not enjoying the Power of Now.

The ability of the Eckhart-Oprah team to answer questions from a world audience that may or may not be familiar with Eckhart's esoteric terms was quite striking, as the personal stories of their suffering was intermixed with the stories of strangers calling from Australia to Denmark.

We find out in this webcast that Oprah's beloved dog died on the morning of the second webcast & that Eckhart lost his ego and Pain Body on the same night. Is all of this true?

Why is it that more people aren't questioning this book?

One of the longest threads on Oprah's message boards is the one titled "Why is it that more people aren't questioning this book?" Interestingly, here at Tolle Teachings, we have received a lot of feedback from licensed psychotherapists who seem to be upset with Eckhart's teachings from a number of perspectives.

One is that the notion of egolessness may be a worthwhile goal for those whose egos are well-developed, but not for those with deeply troubled childhoods that caused their egos to suffer from arrested development. In the latter case, this kind of advice might have catastrophic consequences. Eckhart himself achieved self-realization during a period of extreme suicidal ideation. Should he have had a psychotherapist turn him in to a suicide help-line or should he have been left alone as he was & achieved enlightenment?

This week Eckhart will be talking about the Pain Body, which many spiritual commentators consider his most significant contribution to "New Thought". Yet, one psychotherapist wrote to us & said that she thought the notion was "demonic". She says the Pain Body concept suggests the planet is swathed in some kind of dark cloak from which we can not arise – a depressing prospect she would not share with her patients.

We'll see what Oprah & Eckhart have to say about the Pain Body as this is the topic for this week's webcast- one that Oprah has said there is much excitement about.