FUN WITH ECKHART TOLLE
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5oiqvbptGM[/youtube]
I've been getting a lot of questions about Ecky, so I'mma lay on y'all what he's all about. Let me start by posting his Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle
SO WHAT DOES HE TEACH?
As the title of his breakout work suggests, he's all about being in the Now. That means eliminating mental clatter by silencing it and focusing on the present moment. Not what you did wrong or right yesterday or ten years ago, or what could go good or bad five seconds or five years from now. In his words, he teaches you to start using your mind instead of letting it use you.
Seriously, think about your thoughts most of the time.
When are they? People spend a lot of time thinking about the past or future. Planning for the future is all good, as is reflecting on the past... but how often is doing so useful? How much of your mental clatter is productive
planning and not just static? When you think of the past, how often are you
learning from it, and how often are you just watching a movie in your head?
And while you're thinking all of that, how much are you missing as the world keeps spinning, right here, right now?
Tolle says fuck that. Learn from the past and plan for the future, yes yes. But
live in the present.
IS THIS GUY SOME SORT OF NEW-AGE FREAK?
Kinda, yeah, but only insofar as he uses some hippie terminology to get his point across. When he says "focus on your inner energy field," what he really means is "pay attention to the feelings in your body." Hell, I've been an avowed atheist for about fifteen years now and I still dig the guy. He was my first foray into spiritualism apart from Catholic Sunday School stuff. And I found out that spiritualism still has a use in this modern day because we're still human, and that use is therapeutic. Whether you think God exists or not, meditation of the kind that Tolle recommends has been in use for thousands of years, for good reason. It's ancient psychiatry, in a sense.
And according to a guy I know who studies this stuff hardcore, his philosophy and methodology seems to be mostly Taoist. And Chief is pretty Taoist, so I guess that's good.
WHO ELSE IS USING THIS?
As far as I know, Tolle first came into the Community via RSD. I'm not sure who first introduced Tolle to Tyler, or if he found him on his own, but the RSD boys caught Tolle Flu and we've been preaching it ever since. I'm not sure who else is using it now, but I'd imagine that most natural game dudes who know what he's about would at least give him a favorable mention.
HOW WILL THIS HELP MY GAME?
Tolle is an inner game juggernaut. You'll lose various Anxieties because you aren't focusing on any point in time except the present. No fear, no shame. Those exist in the future and past, respectively.
On an outer game note, your subcommunications will do better as well. You'll come off as chilled out and happy because you will be. You won't judge the people you're in set with, nor will you be afraid of them judging you. Your mood will be whatever you want it to be.
"Opening a set" becomes "going over to talk to these people." "Stacking material" becomes "I've got plenty to talk about. Who needs material?" Rapport becomes so easy it's a joke. It gets so easy that Juggler-style rapport-based game suddenly becomes an extremely attractive (if slow-moving) style. Shit, stack on the Vibing Article link in my sig and you're ready to get some daygame numbers.
Tolle will make it much, much easier to relate to everyone around you, which will make
everything easier. And with your mind quieted, your day-to-day life will simply get better.