How Rushing to the Future Killed Hundreds
Author: David Robert OrdDaily Spiritual Insight from Eckhart Tolle's Stillness 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 of Stillness 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 present—who were future-oriented, trying to shove their way to the next part of the celebration—ended up killing all these helplessly trapped people.
Had people been present, calm and peaceful, all these lives would have been spared.
Overcrowded bridges, stampedes at festivals, structures collapsing because too many are jammed onto them—these 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 with being, 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 completion—a fullness—within ourselves, we have no need to add to our life by trying to make 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.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/philosophy-articles/how-rushing-to-the-future-killed-hundreds-3718929.html
About the AuthorDavid Robert Ord is Editorial Director for Namaste Publishing, publishers of Eckhart Tolle and other transformational authors. He writes The Compassionate Eye daily on the Namaste Publishing website, together with his daily author blog Consciousness Rising:
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