Eckhart Tolle describes meditation as direct awareness of a formless dimension beyond body and thought. Like a canvas beneath a painting, a silent presence underlies all experience and cannot be grasped, only lived. Everything we perceive could dissolve like a dream, but the being behind it endures as reality's true ground.
Meditation is becoming aware that there's a deeper dimension to who you are than the physical world, the physical body, or your thoughts or emotions. why we are here. Not to believe that there is a deeper dimension to who you are— it would just be another thought— but to actually realize firsthand that dimension where, from a viewpoint of mental conceptualization, you cannot explain who you are anymore. There's an unknown dimension to who you are, and that's the depths of your being. You become aware that there is a background to that experience, which is a little bit like the canvas on which the artist paints. The difference here is, of course, this metaphorical painting, which is the experience that you are having at this moment, is not fixed. The painting, once it's done, is fixed on the canvas. This is a fluid, continuously moving painting, which is your present experience. In addition to the experience you're having, there is a silent presence that has no form. You can't grasp it, you can't analyze it. In fact, you can't know anything about it, and yet it's there. It's the one thing that is beyond doubt about the reality of this moment. Everything you're experiencing at this moment could be a dream. It evaporates quickly. Dissolves and then something new appears. The dream is happening right now. What is it that enables the reality of this moment to be? Since I used the word "to be," we could say it is the being that is behind everything.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
