Day 226

Thoughts: Our bodies are more than just a physical form. They can also be a portal into a new way of being in the world. I am day 1 into this cayene, maple and lemon cleanse. I realize how much presence is needed, and am aware of my busy thoughts and listening to how my mind tries to talk me out of this, and I listen to it and believe it, until I remember here is me and there is the mind chit chattering! I am present to these thoughts, and also how these thoughts don't just come up because of a cleanse, but how they are the ones that usually talk me out of doing things. My mind can be so afraid, so afraid of death and looking bad, well looking bad is ultimately death to the ego. And here I am, keeping my ego alive. Practicing letting go and accepting this moment for all that it is : as it is. 
Eckhart Tolle emerged as a great spiritual leader over the last few years. His teaching through such powerful work as The Power of Now, guides all to truth, through being present in the moment in the Now, and awakening to who we truly are: natural state of Being. Below are excerpts from The Power of Now, Practicing the Power of Now, and Stillness Speaks. 
Having access to that formless realm is truly liberating. It frees you from bondage to form and identification with form. It is life in its undifferentiated state prior to its fragmentation into multiplicity. We may call it the Unmanifested, the invisible Source of all things, the Being within all beings. It is a realm of deep stillness and peace, but also of joy and intense aliveness. Whenever you are present, you become "transparent" to some extent to the light, the pure consciousness that emanates from this Source. You also realize that the light is not separate from who you are but constitutes your very essence.
You are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien universe, briefly suspended between life and death, allowed a few short-lived pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be spoken of - yet I am speaking of it now. I am speaking of it now not to give you something to believe in but to show you how you can know it for yourself.
Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of "feeling-realization" is enlightenment.
The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.Beyond the beauty of external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence. Whenever and wherever there is beauty, this inner essence shines through somehow. It only reveals itself to you when you are present.
When your consciousness is directed outward, mind and world arise. When it is directed inward, it realizes its own Source and returns home into the Unmanifested.
Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.
Reincarnation doesn't help you if in your next incarnation you still don't know who you are.
Stillness SpeaksIdentification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It is this screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there is you and a totally separate "other." You then forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is.
Many expressions that are in common usage, and sometimes the structure of language itself, reveal the fact that people don't know who they are. You say: "He lost his life" or "my life," as if life were something that you can possess or lose. The truth is: you don't have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
Can you sense deep within that you already know that? Can you sense that you already are That?
Stillness SpeaksThe Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best, it can point to it. For example, it can say: "All things are intrinsically one." That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point.
When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life.
Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.
Challenges: My husband Andrew Roth was exhausted today after only drinking water with maple syrup, lemon and cayene. Because of his physical performance required throughout the day he chose to eat some fruit in the afternoon. He is now altering his cleanse and will continue with the drink plus adding fruit to sustain his energy. He said "I can see how my own mind turns against itself - I set a goal, an organic goal that I have an intention for, and the mechanical part of me thwarts it. It had me convinced!" It is always challenging on a cleanse, I was in the supermarket today and everything looked appealing! The nectarines, mangoes, cherries, nuts mmm! I am looking forward to a new appreciation for food :) 
Triumphs: Mind over matter. “Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind” Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes
What I Ate Today:
Food fest 1: Water with maple syrup, lemon and cayene pepper cleanse! Day 1 out of 7! 
Exercise: I went for a bike ride to the supermarket and a walk with my husband :)