Eckhart Tolle explains in Stillness Speaks that while the wisdom contained in ancient sutras was available only to certain groups, today these insights are being made available to the whole of humanity because there is “an added sense or urgency,” given that humans now have the technology to wreak unimaginable horror.

At the heart of the entire evolutionary enterprise of life on this planet is the survival instinct. Some months ago, our beloved Norwegian Elk Hound of fifteen years became ill and started into the dying process. As we watched her decline, it was so obvious that she wasn't ready to give it up yet. She wanted to live!

Whether we are talking ants migrating from one nest to another, some creature cornered and fighting for its life, or humans going through an illness, the survival instinct is a powerful driver of the ongoing abundance, diversity, and development of life.

Does the whole enterprise of becoming a conscious person sometimes feel like a rather difficult, even intimidating, let alone elusive venture to you?

If it does—if you find it mystifying, puzzling, and yet so very enticing—I think you have good reason.

We are living on the cusp of a new era in the development of the human species. Let me briefly trace where we have come, so that we might see where we are going.

There is something greater than the self we think of ourselves as being. This deeper reality constantly calls to us, seeking to get through to us, trying to get our attention. 

Troubles have a way of breaking down our massive resistance to the gentle pull within us to a fuller, more creative, adventurous and exciting existence. Through troubles, we experience the awakening of a spiritual center that few of us grow up knowing we have.

Alice imagines that her time down the rabbit hole, in the new movie Alice in Wonderland, is only a dream.

So, if it's her dream, then surely she can change the dream, alter the characters and circumstances, right? Can't she just "imagine away" the ones she doesn't like?

In a dream, all the characters are a creation of our own mind. They don't exist in their own right. Indeed, the whole of reality is a projection of our mind whenever we are in a dream state.