Freedom From Information

 

In the movie The Matrix everyone is stuck in a giant machine, their minds possessed by aliens who feed off their bodies’ energies. The problem is that they just aren’t aware that their life force is being sucked out of them by the machine.

Sadly The Matrix scenario is all too real for many of today’s human beings. The Matrix is the internet combined with mobile technology, which is locking people into a world of abstract illusion that is not actually real – while mega-corporations bleed them of their attention, and more often than not, their cash.

Hong Kong, where I live, is in this regard by far the worst of any city I have ever been in. The level of internet addiction here is alarming. Many people cannot sit for more than a few seconds without pulling out a gadget to fiddle with. What hope is there for the presence of Spirit in such circumstances?

Don’t get me wrong. The internet is wonderful in many ways, and is a giant evolutionary step in human consciousness development. It makes information instantly available to all of us. It makes us much smarter in many ways. You would not be reading this if not for the internet, and you would not be able to watch the video I am about to recommend at the end of this post if not for the computer or gadget in front of you.

That video is of Eckhart Tolle, speaking at the Google complex. Fascinatingly, Tolle uses the same analogy I use in Discover Your Soul Template, and suggests that the internet threatens to turn humanity into a bunch of zombies, cut off from their essences. He too acknowledges the potential benefits of the internet and ubiquitous computing, but says we have to learn to balance our lives. We can do this by making time each day for moments of presence. You’ll note in the video that he suggests a very similar tool to what I recommend in my book –focusing upon the breath in order to centre yourself.  The reason the methods look similar is because they are exactly the same. Yes, I stole the idea off Mr Tolle. My Lawyer is on standby just in case he gets angry.

Another process for allowing presence is to simply to bring your attention onto something close to you and focus upon it, staying relaxed even as you do so.

When the mind becomes present, the mental world of judgment and projection vanishes like magic. Suffering ceases, and the joy of existence opens up before us. We see the world as it is, not as we are. What a blessing, and there is nobody who can take that away from us. Unless we give them our power, that is.

Here is Eckhart Tolle explaining just this point to Google employees. It is a wonderful thing when perhaps the world’s biggest information technology company acknowledges the importance of stillness, of freedom from thought, freedom from information.

Marcus