by Ray Hemachandra

With the 1999 release of The Power of Now, his New York Times No. 1 bestseller, Eckhart Tolle became one of the most popular authors in the spiritual marketplace. His teaching now is available through a raft of books and CD and DVD recordings, including A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, an Oprah Book Club pick.

Soft-spoken and focused, Tolle presents here a teaching mindful of our readership of independent retailers who sell spiritual products.
 
Learn more about Tolle (pronounced Toll-EE) at www.eckharttolle.com.

Ray Hemachandra: On your website you declare Eckhart Teachings Inc.’s ultimate purpose to be “union with the Divine.” That strikes me as the boldest vision statement I ever have read. What does that vision--the idea of literally being one--mean functionally for a business?

Eckhart Tolle: It means whatever you do in your business comes out of a state of inner alignment with life and the source of life itself, so peace flows into whatever you do. It does not necessarily change what you do, although you also may change that, but it changes the energy that flows into what you do. It comes from an inner state of peace.  
   Rather than wanting or needing to change something so you can be at peace at some point in the future, you already are in a state of peace. You already are aligned with life. That is the foundation for whatever you do.

Hemachandra: Some retailers struggle to maintain the balance between their idea of the mainstream, profit-oriented business model and their understanding of higher purpose. Are making money and spiritual teaching at odds in any way?

Tolle: If the main purpose of what you do is making money, then of course, yes. You are using what you do as a means to an end, which is not the awake way of living. The end could be money, power, or some kind of mental image of what life should be--like, for example, the revolutionary or the terrorist, who have some image of what they want to achieve. 
   The present moment becomes a means toward an end. When you see the present moment itself and whatever you do in the present moment as means toward an end, that is unenlightened thinking and action. It creates further suffering no matter what the end is. The energy that flows into what you do is not aligned with life, because you are not aligned with life. You are coming from egoic consciousness. 
   Money is a good example. An enlightened business is not concerned primarily with making money, because when you are concerned with making money you want the future more than the present. Whenever you want the future more than you want the present, true intelligence, which can flow into what you do only when you are totally aligned with the present moment, cannot flow into what you do. In other words, what you do is ego, or it comes from ego. 
   Of course, when you take action, there always is a purpose, which is in the future. Whatever you do in your daily life, driving from here to there, trying to reach someone on the phone, doing this or that, you always are going toward somewhere. That’s inevitable. But the question is: Is that purpose in the future more important to you than what you are doing in the present? If it is, then it is a form of ego. The ego always looks toward the next moment for some kind of fulfillment. 
   The realignment means the primary purpose of your life is whatever action you are doing in this moment. The primary purpose of life is to be fully in whatever you are doing. Let’s say you have to catch a plane, and you are packing your suitcase and moving fast. Most people would call that stress. Most people live like that all the time. 
   Next time you have some kind of deadline, and you have to take physical action--getting ready, meeting the deadline--investigate and see: Is it possible to be so present in what you are doing that the future moment is not primary, but the quality of how you do what you do in the present moment is primary? That means doing it consciously. That means enjoying the doing itself. 
   Yes, you have to get to the airport. But you enjoy the high flow of energy at this moment, while you are picking things up, putting them in your suitcase, and looking at what you need. Even running to catch a train or a taxi, you can enjoy the high energy of the moment. People are amazed when they realize that even hurrying toward an appointment, they can enjoy the moment rather than be stressed by it. If you enjoy it, you cannot be stressed! You still can move fast. 
   Stress means there is something wrong, and you are not aligned with life. Of course, most of the people in this world are stressed, and most of those who are not stressed are totally bored! (Laughs.)

Hemachandra: Why is stress so common, Eckhart, and what are the consequences of living stress-based lives?

Tolle: The whole world accepts that stress is the normal way to live. In fact, people think you have to be stressed to be successful. They think if you are not stressed, something is wrong with you. But any action that arises out of stress is low-quality, and it contributes to human suffering. 
   Stress is a form of suffering. If you could look at your body and see what stress does to your body and its functions--what it does to the heart, to the circulation, to the immune system, to the digestive function, to the liver--if you could examine all that, you would see that stress is extremely harmful to the body. 
   You can be very much aware that when you are stressed, it always is a sign that you have lost the present moment. Once you realize you have lost the present moment, you can choose to re-enter the present moment. Even in a moment of stress, you can say, “OK, can I enjoy the doing itself? Can I enjoy the flow of energy of this moment?” And of course you can! 
   Then the future recedes. It becomes peripheral. You know it’s there. You need to get there, yes. But you can enjoy the present moment, and you can be aligned with the doing. Presence flows into what you do. Even though what you do may be the same, there is a fundamental difference: The energy that flows into what you do, although it may be high energy, is very peaceful energy. 
   So, that is for people to learn: You can be effective in this world without stress. It is not necessary to do things in a state of anxiety or anguish. That is not the way to be aligned with life.

Hemachandra: What is the most direct way to begin to align yourself with life?

Tolle: Work to begin to recognize the primary importance of the present moment. A good little pointer toward that is to ask yourself, “What is my relationship with the present moment? How am I relating to it?” 
   These are important questions that can bring you back to realizing the now is all you ever have. There never is anything else. So, you might as well make the now into your friend. Otherwise, you are out of alignment with life itself. 
   One can live in such a way, as a friend of the now, and then many changes come into your life. When you are not making the present moment into a means to an end, you also are not making every human being you meet--in your business and even at home, in your family--into a means to an end. 
   When you always want the next thing, every human being becomes a means to an end. Even when people deal with their children: “Have you done this? Come on, do this, you must get this done.” If you go into some households, their whole lives consist of, “What’s the next thing we have to do? Come on, let’s go.” That is not the way to live.

Hemachandra: What does this understanding, then, mean for a business or an organization?

Tolle: You meet customers in your business. Are they means to an end? If the present only is a means to an end, the people you are meeting also become part of that, because you want something from them. You want the business. You want the information they are going to give you. You want their money. Whatever you want, they become means to an end. That reduces the quality of human interactions tremendously. Human interactions become egoic, because the other people then also make you into a means to an end. 
   When you meet another human being and the present moment is primary, then the primary event is what A Course in Miracles says: Whenever you meet anybody, it is a holy encounter. The primary event is the energy field of presence between you and the other human being that arises. There is deep joy in the meeting. 
   Then, whatever you want to achieve is secondary: the business, the exchange of information, whatever it may be. Yes, you do that also, but there is a deeper foundation. 
   If you get the business, fine. If you do not get the business, that’s fine, too. It seems to me those people who already live like that, because some do, are actually very much more successful than those for whom every person they meet is a means to an end.

Hemachandra: Would you give an example of such a person in the business world from your own experience?

Tolle: When I bought a car some years ago, the salesman totally was in a place of joy. I could see he didn’t care whether I bought the car or not. He was enjoying showing me the car and taking me for a test drive. And it was for me to finally say to him, “Yeah, I’m taking your car.” But I know very well if I had said, “I don’t think I’ll take it,” he would have remained just the same. And, perhaps, three years from now if I buy another car, I will go back to him and buy. 
   Let’s say you also are going to buy a car. If the salesman sees you as a means to an end, then if you don’t buy his car after he talks to you for an hour, shows you cars, and goes for test drives, the salesman is going to be upset. 
   So, all he ever wanted from you was for you to pay your money and buy that car. He was not interested in you as a human being. He was not interested in the present moment. He was interested in the future moment. 
   People can feel when you are making them into a means to an end only. And people are much less likely to do what you want them to do--for example, to buy the car--when they feel you are reducing them into a means to an end. 
   Everything flows with much greater ease when people live as one with the present moment. Then, you are one with every human being you meet, and that’s the only way the world really can change. 
   The world is in such a mess because of continuous conflict that arises between human beings, not only individuals, but between tribes, nations, and groups. But change can come in only when people start with themselves. 
   Everybody has to start with themselves. Nations consist of individuals. It is for every individual to bring in a different quality--the quality of awakened consciousness--into their lives and into their businesses! 
   And, then, everything will change. When enough humans do that, the relationships between nations will change. The whole madness we still experience, which is the old consciousness, will come to an end.


Ray Hemachandra is the former editor in chief of New Age Retailer magazine.

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