Awakening Through Loss & The Nature of Impermanence

it seems almost redundant or Betty having to add words to our beautiful stillness when we read us doing the meditation I became aware of the air conditioning sound that keeps us cool here sometimes to cool but right now it seems perfect and of course one might think if you start thinking wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to listen to that sound because then we would have this beautiful complete stillness and maybe even some natural sounds if we could open the windows and then we could hear some parts of the BRE air leaves yes it's helpful to have that total stillness when you can find it but ultimately stillness is not ultimately an auditory phenomenon or they can be the beginning of it stillness when you become aware of it when you pay attention to it makes you still so when you pay attention to outer silence it's only through your inner stillness that you can pay attention to outer silence so the moment you notice it's still here you are still there needs to be something in you that corresponds to that and stillness is absence of sound when you listen to stillness there might be a few sounds he and there but mainly there's no sound so you're listening to nothing and that's the key that's why it's so helpful because you suddenly become aware of nothing and when you become aware of nothing what's left just the awareness which also is nothing formless in other words so whenever you encounter stillness maybe where you're live for when you go for a walk in nature or at night when most people have come to bed and the noisy collective mind isn't surrounding you anymore then use it notice it and then notice that in the moment of noticing you become still but here of course there's not complete external silence but that doesn't matter anything that arises can be helpful so this sound that's continuous in the background you can ask yourself who is hearing this how is it possible for me to perceive that sound to hear that sound and then you notice your own awareness I call it your own it's not really you notice the awareness and that's the stillness so you don't need the external silence although it can be very helpful well when you don't have it you could be in the middle of a noisy city can stand there or sit or walk and be aware of yourself as the awareness it perceives or than the noise and all the movement and then when you perceive all the movement around you and you become aware of yourself as the perceiving awareness then you have the stillness in the midst of movement and noise external noise so there's no need to demand like external conditions would be perfect so that you can become still in fact it's sometimes the case that is precisely when external conditions are seemingly unhelpful that can sometimes be a great opportunity to find that true stillness and especially that is the case when external circumstances have the appearance of actually being a hindrance something disturbing something happening that upsets the status quo in your life and those are great opportunities because then your motivation for going deeper as you suffer when things happen in your external life that quote unquote should not be happening then you begin to suffer and as you suffer the motivation eventually arises of going deeper or finding the place where there is no suffering and you could still suffer a little bit on the external level of your life so sooner or later we find in our life that life does things to us seemingly putting obstacles in our path seemingly having bad intentions towards us we experience diminishment in some form of course the ego says or the egoic self says that's terrible I don't want any diminishment diminishment meaning loss or something that had been come part of your sense of self it could be loss of possessions could be loss of a relationship loss of a loved one the loss of a healthy body diminishment of physical health loss of your persona of what other people think of you one day they tell you their the other greatest and the next day they tell you you you're awful diminishment and whatever kind is abhorrent to the ego itself there's a beautiful saying I believe it comes originally I'm not sure but it doesn't matter where it comes it comes out of consciousness so it doesn't really matter but I believe it comes originally out of Sufism and that is when the ego weeps for what it has lost the spirit rejoices for what it has found and those people who there's no human by the way.you does not experience this in life several times sooner or later the next one comes some people experience it even very early in life some children have experienced loss of a parent of both parents so diminishment comes sooner or later how do you meet it recognize it when it comes not as a monster or the work of some malevolent deity or demon that wants to sabotage your life but as an opportunity also now you may not be able to be grateful fight in the moment of it happening that would be perhaps perhaps too much to ask but you will find that later a year may pass two years depending on what it is suddenly realized that it has taken you deeper into the essence of who you are because something was removed from you that you thought you were but it was a fiction ultimately you had identified with something it ultimately is not who you are it's a temporary thing possessions not status great physically strong body good looks a relationship and then you'd retrospectively very often you are able to be grateful for the loss for the diminishment because it drove you deeper it brought out the essence of who you are beyond any form now it does not do that to all humans it's for everybody diminishment is only a potential deepening the the possibility is there many many humans are not able to use it because nobody has told them the knowledge this kind of spirit of knowledge is still very limited it is not part of mainstream culture people are dying every day without having any true assistance people are who are approaching deaths who are getting old the our mainstream culture still knows nothing it's just let's prolong life rest voice long as muscle even if it's totally pointless and it creates a lot of suffering let's just because we don't know what to do with death that's one of the reasons why the the foundation will hopefully be able to reach people to use the opportunity of this greatest diminishment which is death the greatest when su approached death an enormous opportunity for spiritual awakening realization but many humans of course miss the opportunity of that diminishment and with the result that the ego becomes even more hardened through it or in the words of brother David shriveled shriveled up children even harder lifeless thing then either you carry continuous anger or resentment or despondency for years which becomes part of your egoic identity and the ego loves any kind of identity if it's a miserable one doesn't matter I'll have it just give me a strong identity may I take miserable anytime over being nobody so the opportunity of diminishment is missed often you see when people they're wealthy people and suddenly something happens they lose their money and then they jump out of the window because the entire sense of self was associated with their possessions where people who lose their reputation or you remember of course the case of mr. Madoff he has a few years ago who had this scheme fraudulent scheme and people lost millions or billions of people who were investing with him on Wall Street they lost it was a pyramid it was a Ponzi scheme I think it's the word so he was deceiving all these people and they lost all their money and he had accumulated billions and then finally it all collapsed now he is in prison and his sons couldn't take it one one of his sons apparently the sons didn't know what was going on I don't know if that's true but they were also working in his firm in his company I think believe one died of cancer soon after and the other committed suicide would have been a great opportunity if only somebody had told them you've lost your money lost your reputation this is a great opportunity find yourself yeah the opening is there but it's just lack of information nobody told them I hadn't actually thought of this until this moment because we had want to bring that the teaching to places for it otherwise would not be go up not reach and I just thought of Wall Street [Music] we will donate books and CDs to a boss so we'll have to call goldman sachs tomorrow see if they agree now they won't be very interested perhaps at the moment but they may become interested in the future just wait you you

Channel: Eckhart Tolle

Views: 357,288

Keywords: the nautre of impermanence, the nature of loss, dealing with loss, eckhart tolle present moment, staying present during challenging times, eckhart tolle dealing with challenges, staying conscious in a crisis, the pathway to awakening, power of now, challenge in life, eckhart tolle presence, eckhart tolle youtube, eckhart tolle 2020, spiritual awakening, awakening, challenges, spirituality, mindfulness, loss, fear, anxiety, awareness, death, presence, impermanence, eckhart tolle

Id: UWNKNTG-EDA

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020