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Use This Eckhart Tolle Quote to Deepen Understanding of Your True Self

It’s about the sky and the clouds.

David Gerken
Change Your Mind Change Your Life
3 min readAug 5, 2021

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Spirituality uses many names and concepts to describe the conscious self, that entity that only exists when we are present in the moment. Some call it awareness. Eckhart Tolle calls it presence and spaciousness. Witness consciousness and being centered in the seat of self are phrases used by many spiritual teachers, including my favorite, Mickey Singer.

The problem is that these words and phrases are confusing to many. And since this concept goes to the heart of most spiritual traditions, it’s important that we “get,” as best we can, what this means.

With that in mind, I pass along this Eckhart Tolle quote that offers a beautiful and apt metaphor describing what the conscious self is and isn’t:

“You are the sky. The clouds are what happens, what comes and goes.”

So we have the sky and the clouds. Let’s start with the sky. That’s who we are. Why? Because the sky is always there. It doesn’t change. It has no name and no history and, like our true self, it is formless.

The clouds come below, around and through the sky — sometimes as thunder, hurricanes and blizzards, other times as mere soft, billowy clouds. These come and go. They are the…

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Change Your Mind Change Your Life
Change Your Mind Change Your Life

Published in Change Your Mind Change Your Life

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David Gerken
David Gerken

Written by David Gerken

Meditation and Mindfulness teacher. Dad of three precious kids. Former writer for THE WEST WING. Follow me at davidgerken.net.

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