a
Eckhart Tolle
What does it really mean for human beings, at their
current evolutionary stage, to “become more conscious”
or to “awaken”? If I had to put it in a nutshell, I would
define it as “disidentification from thinking.” When you
realize that the voice in your head, your incessant
compulsive thinking, is not who you are, then you have
begun to awaken. A new dimension of consciousness has
arisen, which we could call awareness, presence, or
wakefulness. You haven't fallen below thought; you have
risen above it. Now you can use thought instead of being
used by it. Your sense of self shifts from identification
with your mental positions and narratives to the alive
presence within you, which is consciousness itself. You
realize the Being behind the human, so to speak.
Something that transcends your conditioned personality
begins to emerge. You realize your essential identity as
unconditioned consciousness itself, and you can verify
within yourself the truth of Jesus’s words: “You are the
light of the world.”