A Cover is not the Book

We’ve all heard the expression don’t judge a book by its cover. I always thought I knew what that meant. My dad said, “You never really know somebody until you marry them or go into business with them.” The expression was about other people, not me. Of course I know myself, how could I not? I always know what I am thinking.

Then I read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. He introduced a new concept that never occurred to me. Here’s a quote from the book.

“You no longer derive your identity, your sense of who you are, from the incessant stream of thinking that in the old consciousness you take to be yourself. What a liberation to realize that the ‘voice in your head’ is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that. The awareness that is prior to thought, the space in which the thought-or the emotion or sense perception-happens.”

He is telling me that there is more to my consciousness than thought. Thoughts are the cover. Of course I believed I was my thoughts. That was my operating system my whole life. It’s like talking to a fish about water. If the fish could answer it would probably say “what water”. That’s all it knows.

The following is the best explanation I’ve heard about this concept. I was asked to close my eyes and imagine a ripe red apple. Now I picture a big oak tree. Finally I think of a white picket fence. I am not the apple, tree or fence. I am the awareness that generates the images.

In The A Gate post I wrote about being the gate keeper of my mind. I get to decide what thoughts dwell there. If that is true, which it is, then I must be more than just my thoughts. I am the awareness or presence behind the thoughts. This is one of the biggest paradigm shifts I have ever experienced. The implications are far reaching.

I’ll be writing about those implications in future posts. For now, this concept is big enough to stand on its own. I will leave you with one of my favorite songs, The Cover is not the Book from the new Mary Poppins movie.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipezh3aNo14 Part of the refrain is,

“Chapter titles are like signs

And if you read between the lines

You’ll find your first impression was mistook

For a cover is nice

But a cover is not the book”

May you have enough today, one moment at a time.