Just as 2007 is coming to a close I found this lovely book by Eckhart Tolle "A New Earth -- Awakening to Your Life's Purpose". I had often wondered about the cause of facination amongst poets, artists, and even "normal" humans with flowers, crystals, birds, precious stones etc. Here are some inspiring words from Eckhart Tolle -- words that struck a deep chord as I read them slowly and sliently. The meditative insight and power in these words surprised me:
As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purspose for them, that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival....
Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciouness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to that recognition.
Here is a great YouTube Video
Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would become like messangers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless. They not only had a scent that was delicate and pleasing to humans, but also brought a fragrance from the realm of spirit. Using the word "enlightenment" in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants.
Any life-from in any realm -- mineral, vegtable, animal or human--can be said to undergo "enlightenement." It is however, an extremely rare occurance since it is more than an evolutionary progression: It also implies a discontinuity in its development, a leap to an entirely different level of Being and, most important, a lessening of materiality.
What could be heavier and more impenetrable than a rock, the densest of all forms? And yet some rocks undergo a change in their molecular structure, turn into crystals, and so become transparent to the light. Some carbons, under inconceivable heat and pressure, turn into diamonds, and some heavy minerals into other precious stones.
...Since time immemorial, flowers, crystals, precious stones...have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all life-forms, they are, of course temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness. Their special siginificance and the reason why humans feel such facination for and affinity with them can be attributed to their ethereal quality....In the case of a flower, a crystal, precious stone...even someone with little or no Presence (still and alert attention in perception) can occasionally sense that there is more there than the mere physical existence of that form, without knowing that this is the reason why he or she is drawn toward it, feels an affiniti with it....So when you are alert and contemplate a flower, crystal, or bird without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless. There is an inner opening, however slight, into the realm of spirit...
One of the thoughts I would like to carry into 2008 is rethinking about the larger purpose of all that I do. Does my life and work have a larger purpose in the Universe beyond making money (for me and my company), new products, new technologies and a self defined goal of bettering the life of others in some way. In all the Technologies and businesses we are creating -- I hope we are helping a greater cause -- an evolution and a gradual transformation in the consciousness of humankind.
I have often pondered these questions since teenage but havent yet found clear answers. The search goes on... What are you thinking about as 2007 ends?
Btw: I haven't read The Power of Now, but there are some online summaries that you could look up.
