Tag: Great Teachers

Who are your top 100 spiritual movers & shakers?

Tolle drops one place on the Watkins list of spiritual movers & shakers. Thich Nhat Hanh has taken the No 2 spot front Eckhart Tolle cf 2012 list!

I know its silly but my personal rank order is 2,3 1!

As I look through the list I see that I know of some, and not others. What would be our own personal criteria for choosing the list – since some make me feel profoundly uncomfortable – e.g. where does all the money go? – and others are redolent with integrity, long-service, simple & accessible profundity, a speaking from a genuine place, humour & dignity.

Are some very small fry and some charlatans?

1- Dalai Lama. Born Lhamo Dondrub, Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama. Tibetan Buddhists believe him to be a reincarnation of his predecessors and the Buddha of compassion. He is a vocal activist for Tibetan independence and has made an incredible contribution to global spirituality. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2012 and donated most of the prize money to the Save the Children fund in India. Time Magazine call him “The most influential person in the world”, while The Times commented “He draws crowds that no other spiritual leader or politician could hope to match…he seems to look at life in a different way to everyone else”. His latest books How to Be Compassionate: A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World and Towards The True Kinship Of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together are now available in paperback.
www.dalailama.com :: Born in Taktser, Tibet :: 06/07/1935 :: Spiritual Leader

2 – Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master, poet, scholar and peace activist. During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam and his courageous efforts moved Martin Luther King to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He founded the Order of Interbeing and the Unified Buddhist Church, along with monasteries and spiritual centres in Vietnam, the USA and France. He lives in Plum Village, his meditation centre in France, and travels widely, leading retreats on the art of mindful living. His latest book Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting through the Storm was published in November.
www.plumvillage.org :: Born in Thua Thien, Vietnam :: 11/10/1926 :: Spiritual Leader

3 – Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. His books, The Power of Now and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth are two of the best-selling Mind, Body, Spirit books in the world. Tolle’s free online “un-course”—video teachings offered as reminders to the true source of peace and freedom within yourself – provides free resources to work towards a deeper level of consciousness.
www.eckharttolle.com :: Born in Lünen, Germany :: 16/02/1948 :: Modern Teacher and Writer

Go HERE to see the Watkins top 100 list for 2013

Reflections inspired by Eckhart Tolle: 1

Could we experience stillness, oneness and Self without brain, mind and concepts!
Could we experience stillness, oneness and Self without brain, mind and concepts!

Perhaps arguing with Mr Tolle might be more accurate, great teacher though he is!

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.  When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness.  This is the I AM that is deeper than name and form. Stillness Speaks p.3

IMHO

1) It makes sense to distinguish between self and Self.

Self is Source/Wholenesss/Ultimate Reality/God etc, but unless you admit the usefulness of self as well no communication or pleasure or learning or anything is possible.  So its not yourself its your (true) Self – that gives meaning, purpose and en-formed identity.  If there is only Self talking to Self ad infinitum it is just God having perpetual inner dialogue.

2) The World is anything, at any moment, that stops us being in touch with Self.

4) I am as well as I AM – and that was God’s will.  The duality is the key dynamic in His ‘Great Big Teaching Machine’ – i.e. embodied reality – in this world – with others.  The ultimate extended metaphor of physical reality is another way to refer to His ‘Great Big Teaching Machine’.

5) ‘Name’ and ‘form’ is the means by which we come to discover namelessness and formlessness.

Reality and spirit – in relation to education and Personal Development

We each have a different take on reality, and a different worldview or ‘pair of glasses’ through which we read the world.

Beyond all of that diversity however reality Reality is, according to all of the great Teachers down through the ages, one.  Like all of the individual rays of the sun we all emanate from a Singleness.

WHAT IS SPIRIT, SPIRITUALITY & SPIRITUALIZATION?
Spirit is the life-force.
Spirit is the relationship of elements that determines levels of being; plant, animal, human etc.
Spirit is will, including the will to focus.
Spirituality is concern for the development of those virtues & positive characteristics that are pre-eminently human – chief amongst these are truthfulness, beauty, goodness and justice.
Spiritualization is the process of arranging for experiences – for self or others – that lead to the development of virtues and positive characteristics that pre-eminently make us human.

WHAT’S ‘PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY’
‘Perennial philosophy’ is that which all, of the great world religions hold in common about the spiritual life and the journey of development that each soul makes.

REALITY as THE SEVEN MAJOR POINTS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY – TWO VIEWS A) BY KEN WILBER AND B) BY DEB PLATT

HERE IS HOW KEN WILBER SUMMARIZES THE SEVEN MAJOR POINTS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY, IN HIS BOOK GRACE AND GRIT:

1. Spirit exists.
2. Spirit is found within.
3. Most of us don’t realize this Spirit within, however, because we are
living in a world of sin, separation, and duality–that is, we are
living in a fallen or illusory state.
4. There is a way out of this fallen state of sin and illusion, there is a Path to our liberation.
5. If we follow this path to its conclusion, the result is a Rebirth or
Enlightenment, a direct experience of Spirit within, a Supreme
Liberation, which–
6 marks the end of sin and suffering, and which– 7 issues in social
action of mercy and compassion on behalf of all sentient beings.

THIS IS HOW DEB PLATT PRESENTED HER LATE LAMENTED SITE ON WHICH SHE BROUGHT TOGETHER A VAST AND BEAUTIFUL SELECTION OF QUOTATIONS FROM WORLD RELIGIONS (If anyone knows what happened to her site please tell me)

• There’s a reality beyond the material world:
• Which is uncreated.
• It pervades everything,
• but remains beyond the reach
of human knowledge and understanding.
• You approach that reality by:
• Distinguishing ego from true self
• Understanding the nature of desire
• Becoming unattached
• Forgetting about preferences
• Not working for personal gain
• Letting go of thoughts
• Redirecting your attention
• Being devoted
• Being humble
• Invoking that reality
• Surrendering
• That reality approaches you through:
• Grace
• The teacher
• You’re transformed so that you embody that reality by:
• Dying and being reborn


If there is a weakness in Deb Platt’s model it is that, unlike Wilber’s model, it doesn’t end with action in the world, i.e. compassion and service to others – though surely that is implied.

FURTHER READING:

SEE Aldous Huxley’s book Perennial Philosophy or Chap 2 of Jack Miller’s Educating for Wisdom & Compassion

NB Holistic Education doesn’t have allegiance to any one religion or philosophy, but Perennial Philosophy is very important for many who have a Holistic outlook or worldview.  It is the Universalist position –  and is the position of this site.