Eckhart Teaches a Young Man - Full Length Movie

[Music] when I had been in my darkest moment I happy to read the power of now what Eckart Tolle a had to say about happiness has been the impetus to go on this journey it was in vancouver to meet him you were there on a park bench for two years and you you slept on the park bench rally but i did spend most of the dice on park benches in parks different parks in dungeons did you eat three meals a day no no one meal a day if i was lucky as you sit here is it possible for you to simply watch what's happening around you without adding any interpretation to it to just be present with what is and you get a taste in what it's like to be on a park bench with nothing further needing to be added to this moment the sounds sights people sound of the water the light just allow it to be as it is with that comes peace you don't get continuously drawn into events and thoughts and emotions and reactions your the wider space in which all these things happen your the awareness behind it without which none of this would be here to just be atoms and molecules in space you are the awareness that enables this entire world to be and so knowing that is who you truly are not through a concept but through the actual realization of stepping back and allowing the world phenomenal world to be as it is at this moment allowing this moment to be as it is that takes you deeper into yourself and you may notice there's a certain peace in the background what happens and alertness is required for this you need to stay alert to what is to sense perceptions and the energy behind sense perception searches the consciousness the alertness without the alertness you will drift off into thinking and then you think about them next what's going to happen to me tomorrow there is a place for making plans but not writing on the park bench this isn't the place for thinking about tomorrow because you miss all this beauty and aliveness around you in your cold think about it as a cold no it just is the sensation of it don't even need to call it cold and then that's okay too it's okay it's not the reactivity goes out of life against always against something wanting to clutch at something what about the search for meaning now you notice that just a moment ago you were in that state of alert presence and it never takes long for another thought to come in and ask a question because thought cannot tolerate the state of presence so it will always come in and say yeah but what about I don't quite understand yet can you tell me what does it all mean so it wants to add something it wants to control in some way by understanding what this all means now if you can let go it just for a moment not for the rest of your life just for this moment let go of the need to understand anything so that you're truly present in this moment so you don't need to do it for the next hour or the next ten minutes just right now just what is but don't forget yourself because you are the consciousness behind it you are the space the presence [Music] can you feel that your body is alive yeah so stay with that feeling and then proceed it's easier to perceive without interpretation when you can feel that your body is alive you feel the inner life that's throughout your body so some attention some of your attentions there the rest is on the outside world that roads you in the present moment it anchors here and if a thought comes into your mind we can watch that also just the same way as you watch a dog walking past you can watch a thought the rising in your mind and you don't have to follow it - it wants to go so you simply watch the thought that arises in your mind and let it go in the same way that the dark walks past you or if you choose to you can follow the thought and then you can say I just thought of another question I can't do that - but you see the possibility that also in the same way that you observe the outer world yes you sit on the bench you can also observe the inner world the world of thoughts and emotions thoughts want to rise continuously and that's fine that's what they do but there's no need to get drawn into each thought that arises and immediately go with it - it wants to go otherwise you're just you're always following every thought like like a dog following the scent doesn't matter which no it doesn't matter you can experiment you can experiment with thought you can follow some thoughts and you can watch other thoughts you find out for yourself you can play you can see that you are bigger than your thoughts you don't have to be dominated by your thoughts because thoughts create a lot of problems problems - unnecessary problems and they can obscure the aliveness of life at this moment there are many people walking around here who are thinking about other things so they're thinking about the next door they're thinking about tomorrow but this is not the place for that there is a place for planning and thinking about tomorrow but why spoil the beauty of this of the aliveness of this we're thinking about the next moment is that going to be better than this one what this is it work it's not going to get that much better this is what could could be more beautiful illness [Laughter] it's the awakening of something within you that is deeper than thought that's really the main thing and that's already there you just didn't know it why didn't they know this it's a deep-seated habit being totally identified with thinking it's a human condition which could be described as lost in thought because up to now evolution has been unconscious it was automatic but now evolution is consciously chosen by a species and that's a revolutionary thing and you are part of that which I can still make movies and still have a girl yes even fun yes you didn't - yeah it's a beautiful it's a playground you play around with the world you can you take action you relate but you're not lost in it most humans are lost in it what about pain I mean physical pain or emotional pain of losing someone most of the young pain is psychologically created there's an enormous amount of psychological pain suffering I call that when suffering goes and there's a possibility for humans now to live without suffering that is the possibility there may still be some physical pain it may be that you get two things or bodily pains from time to time suffering is another level that lies on top of the pain suffering implies a story a little me that is unhappy the mentally constructed entity a little me that has an unhappy story that is its identity and that creates an enormous amount of suffering not only do you make yourself suffer you make people around you suffer to be at one with life is to be at one with the present moment because it's the only place where life can be found you cannot leave the space of now that stays with you whatever you're doing where we go your life has never been not now and will never be not now are you making the present moment into an enemy some way internally through thinking about some something which is nothing nothing no I need to figure something out well first of all be here fully and then whatever is needed in your life comes it comes out of the power that dwells in the present moment that most people overlook there's an enormous power here which is the power of life itself and most people look for something and ignore this and the power of life itself is inseparable from who you are in the depth of your being many times you will forget but the moment you realize that you forgot there's the possibility of saying oh yes I lost the present moment there's the possibility of choosing to re-enter the present moment the first thing that happens when you re-enter the present all you become more aware of sense perceptions you suddenly there's greater alertness and then you become more aware of the aliveness in your body you feel the life within are it's like the entire vibrational frequency of your body shifts when you become present it's a different state of consciousness more alert more life and many times you will lose it and then you'll remember that's good enough now they don't believe the mind when it tells you oh you can't do it now you've put too much on your mind you can't be bothered with the present moment yeah those are just thoughts there's no need for you to follow those thoughts just to watch them they're thoughts that the mind throws up you don't need to believe in them because they're not true when the mind tells you you can't be present now because you've got too much on your mind then okay let's you can say okay let's see if that's true when you feel it's an aliveness in my hand there's no lifeless in my body there's beauty all around and you become frozen to gain alertness the alertness returns and when when there is time to think than you think then you say don't say okay let's think what plane am I going to catch tomorrow or time to have to go to the airport what you have to do now pick up the phone make a phone call fine it's beautiful you're not losing yourself in future it's practical matters and once you've done the practical matters you've thought about you've planned for next week then you come back to the now the inner transformation is not really about finding lots of answers to your questions but finding a new relationship to thought where not every thoughts or seduces you anymore and if a beautiful girl runs past and you find yourself following her you don't have to think oh I shouldn't be watching this girl because I'm spiritual now if you can let go it just for a moment not for the rest of your life just for this moment let go of the need to understand anything so that you're truly present in this moment it's just right now just what is don't forget yourself because you are the consciousness behind it you have a space the presence [Music] life wants to support you but first you need to be open to life so you've probably come here with lots of questions but let's start off with me asking you just one question and then you can ask yours okay may I ask how old you are yes joy fork not that it matters just so 24 means you've already had quite a few life experiences you've been to school and you've fallen in love and fallen out of love I think so and have had all kinds of experiences perhaps in different places meeting different people different circumstances the body probably has been well most of the time that you've also experienced maybe one or two illnesses now is there in all those things that you have experienced so far which is consumed continuously changing flux of things is there any ingredients in there that was always not the same that didn't change just like you two asks you to see if you can find any ingredient in all the things that you have experienced so far that's always been the same because it let's we could start perhaps by us asking could it be the things around you obviously not because the things around you change continuously could it be your thoughts no because the thoughts that go through your mind also change continuously could it be your feelings or your emotions no your process you know they also change all the time so what is it if anything that hasn't changed it doesn't change is there one ingredient in all your experiences good or bad up or down it's always been there I think I've been in in here I've been inside now when you say I what does that mean what what incident I know because we've already seen it can't be your thoughts because they change all the time your feelings or emotions they change all the time your sense experiences things that you perceive around you change all the time so wherever we look this changed so when you say I can point to the eye as that which doesn't change it cannot be what happens to you it cannot be the thoughts that go through your mind it cannot be the emotions the feelings that you experience so what is the nature of that eye what does that word mean or point to so listening that's what hears what's behind what's behind the thoughts what's behind the sense perceptions what's behind all the experiences and the feelings and so on so the question that I'm asking does not really require an abstract answer but I want you to actually feel or sense inside yourself that which doesn't change no matter where you go no matter what you do or who you're with or whether the body is well or unwell when I asked you said it's I and I've asked what's the nature of that I and now you may be stuck for words but you said one word and that was listening now in when you're truly listening there is a certain alert spaciousness otherwise you're not truly listening and so if that had to be expressed through a gesture it could be you could raise a finger gently and say listen so I see I say to you listen and you listen there's a moment of splashes awareness and there's no salt in it so when you said listening you are actually getting very close to the nature of who you truly are underneath all the circumstances of your life and circumstances includes thoughts and emotions if you don't find that who or what you are underneath all the circumstances no matter how many questions you ask and how many good answers you get won't help you very much and there will be no end to the questioning because every answer generates further questions so we're talking about becoming familiar with a different state of consciousness not that that has never been there it's always been there because it's the I but it's always been overlooked because the circumstances things that happen to you and your thinking and your emotions have such overwhelming pulling force that they always pull your attention in completely and so attention is that which is there when you're truly listening and in the moment of attention there's no thinking but there is an aware presence so the answer that you gave is absolutely right not everybody would have put it this way but listening points to who you truly are underneath all the things that continuously change now I'd like you to as we speak this is not an intellectual discussion because if this were intellectual you should have gone to a professor of philosophy or some intellectual at a university right and ultimately you get many answers but all those answers will all you always make you end up with more questions because they don't get you to the core of who you are so let's start off with that and what we are pointing to is a sense of eye of beingness that is deeper than anything that happens in your life it's always there has always been there right now and that is closely related to the state of attentive listening to get in touch with that to sense it underneath it all there is a timeless presence even in 50 years time in 60 years time when this body is getting old and this body the cells it won't be the same body the cells of the body will have been renewed many times there's not a there won't be a single cell materially there won't be a single thing that's left in 50 years even though you may still be alive there won't be a single thing that's left materi that's here now every cell will have been renewed and so the body will have grown older and yet something time deep within will still be exactly the same as it is now untouched going time hi I before it becomes this or that because the moment you say I am American I am this or that I am a professional or I am a jobless person or I am a millionaire or I'm a homeless person there's all form identifications with changing circumstances and so people look for something there to provide permanency in their lives they want to identify with something that they finally contain there that's it I found it what they really want to say is I found myself finally so they look for themselves through external possessions through acquired knowledge through an accumulation of experiences or sexual encounters some people derive their sense of self from that the more women you can conquer or seduce or have sex with the more you think I'm I'm getting somewhere of course after a few years you realized it's not getting you anywhere not if you are nothing will get you anywhere which is means to yourself if you're looking for yourself in any experience and that's the fallacy of most people they look for themselves in changing circumstances they look for themselves in their thought processes they identified with their thoughts and opinions and their judgments and this in that and it changes your opinions may change you may be a Democrat now and in 15 years time when you have become a solid citizen you may be required to come a Republican you have totally completely different set of opinions it's just different set of opinions in the new field the thoughts have changed the the underlying AI hasn't changed so can you go through life being in touch with that being in touch with that in different situations different circumstances different places so that you're not completely lost in the things I sometimes call it to the thinness of life one thing after another there's nothing wrong with that but if you haven't found yourself yet you have don't know what that is then you're looking for the eye in things and things include your thinking because every thought is also a formation it's a it has a certain form a thought form it comes and then it goes every emotion it comes it's an energy field inside you it comes as a certain lifespan and then it subsides and then another one comes that's all the thickness of life it's forms that come and go all the time the only thing that doesn't come and go is I that which underlies all that and that's not an intellectual thing that I'm trying to convince you off because they would not be helpful the question is this moment can I sense the presence that I am that is prior to anything that happens to me or has ever happened or can ever happen in a sense that right now yes you can because if you couldn't you wouldn't have said listening because listening you already knew it came from that deeper place of alert attention that in itself has no content the content comes when things happen but in itself the I that you are one could describe it as space it's not lifeless it's full of life all of life comes out of that but in itself it it is spacious Buddha called it emptiness and it's completely misunderstood by people because the university professors look at the word emptiness and then say the Buddha was Buddhist teachings us life denying the total opposite is true because Jesus called the same space the fullness of life because at the same time it is life in its fullness to be able to sense that at first it's very subtle in the background but as you become familiar with it I mentioned it's always there somewhere no matter what you do even when you meet a beautiful girl and you're talking to her and you can from from there you can you can listen to yourself talking and it's fine you're not totally lost in your experiences it's always and a sense of aliveness and peace in the background and that influences how you live your life let's sense the I the timeless I because on the surface you have the the time-bound I that that grows all right it's identified with thinking and emotions and things happen to it and so on but underneath it is the timeless I know the word I is probably the most frequently used word in the language whenever you listen to people to say how what's the most the words they use most frequently when you listen to a conversation probably you'll find it's the word I know what they refer to is not the timeless because they haven't found that they refer to a superficial sense of I identification with things thinking with emotions I am angry I am American I am this I am that identification with something so that I is the greatest illusion because there's no substance there nothing permanent so if I'm not something a mind nothing yes I would pronounce that differently though I would say you are no thing no there's a difference between no thing and nothing nothing is simply a denial but no thing means there is a presence there but it has no form nothing that you can grasp it has no shape and no form and no name the ancient Chinese call it the Dow which cannot be named there's a beautiful it's 3,000 years old Chinese book of wisdom the daodejing I recommend it to everybody and the first line in it is the Dow that can be named or spoken of is not the true down and so that there is the presence that you sense a presence that has no form in ancient language Christian Hebrew there's the word spirit but I don't use that word because it's been used for hundreds of years and misunderstood so if I used spirit people would immediately have some image of what it is some form or call it the Holy Spirit and this hundreds of years of misconceptions of what the spirit is so we forget about the word spirit but in its original true meaning that's what spirit points to the essence of who you are is formless now we could use the word consciousness as the essence of who you are and you can sense it but you can never grasp it and you cannot really know it you can only know something that is not you and object anything that becomes an object of consciousness I look at this plant and I know it by looking at it and by having a thought for a name for it I say I know this plant this plant is an object that arises in consciousness and I look at you I see a shape and a form and obviously what I see nobody knows whether what you see out there is actually there because the image that you have in your mind of your surrounding environment is there's an optical the eye are like a camera lens they send a picture to them into the brain at which the the pictures translate into nerve impulses and chemicals that reach the brain and the brain decodes what I see and then reassembles a picture and then suddenly I see you nobody knows what's actually out there but let's just leave it here we have looking at you this is an object that arises in consciousness in the space that I am then I look away and another object arises in the space that I am or I listen to something that arises in the space that I am a thought comes that arises in this place that I am the presence that I am but the presence itself you can't know it in the way that you know a plant or you know a person or you know a sound or you know a thought because it has to it would have to reflect back on itself you cannot make it into an object so you cannot make yourself into an object of knowledge you can only be that presence but you can't know it because you would externalize it and this is the mistake that humans have made over thousands of years they made themselves into an object and there's a talk about me and my story I'm sure you have one your story of me and so when you make yourself into an object you live with yourself some people love themselves one day and they hate themselves the next day and then following day they're not quite sure and then you have some other and then you have feeling guilty people have relationships with an image that they have in their minds of themselves me people talk to themselves in their mind well that wasn't very good you didn't do a good thing shouldn't have done that who is talking to whom there's a voice in the head that talks to yourself the mind has split itself in two and is talking to itself and out of that continuous talking comes the story of me and identification with that and the questions that you are going to ask probably have a lot to do with the story of me to find out more about it about my life because after all that's what everybody is most interested in you are here because you are the main character in the story of yourself and the main character in that story has quite a few things that it feels he feels puzzled about and doesn't understand and wants questions and the story in some ways it's worked and in other ways it hasn't worked and so the character in the story has come here and wants to know how to make the story work better isn't that so yes now whatever answers anybody can give you of how to make the story work better there are things you can make the story work better but all that doesn't really help understand get to the bottom behind the story the eye behind the story then if you've are in touch with that throughout your life the story will unfold with much greater ease because there is a deeper dimension that is there but if there's only the story nothing will ever satisfy the main character in that story you if the main character in that story you has never known the deeper I the timeless presence that is the consciousness that you are the attentive spacious can you feel that your body is alive mm-hmm because when you feel the aliveness inside your body I call it inner body the usually hyperactive mind slows down now the hyperactive mind is extremely repetitive you might have noticed that 90 probably 99% of your thoughts you've had them before they are repetitive so new thoughts are relatively rare when there's only the hyperactive mind it's just the old same old things going through your mind again it again the moment you feel the inner body in order to be able to feel the aliveness here some of your attention has to go from the head within into the body so you're removing some attention away from thinking it doesn't necessarily mean that thinking stops totally but it subsides slows down there may even be little spaces in between one thought and the next thought so thinking slows down because part of your attention is in the inner energy field aliveness that most people never feel because they're so absorbed in their thoughts they can't they don't even feel that they are alive anymore so thinking subsides and then or even little spaces in between thoughts and then it's much more likely that thoughts that come then a new thoughts sometimes they are insights there are new ways of looking at things sudden realizations they can only come if you are able to calm the mind but not as something that you feel I need to calm my mind but simply by diverting attention away from it not by making some effort to calm your mind all you do is do you take attention away from it and so then there is more spaciousness not just one sought after another and then your thinking actually improves which means it's more life more original you have it's more powerful you have better ideas and the way in which you interact with people has more is more real because the real comes not from the accumulated stuff in your minds that's all the roles that you play not just you everybody everybody plays their roles them have been conditioned to play certain roles you have an image of who you are when you meet a beautiful woman you play a certain role you want to have the best possible image you present and present the best possible image and she does the same you can observe it when two young people are attracted to each other they meet the first few days and weeks there they look different from the way they usually look because they present an image that wants to attract the other in it's unconscious it's a role that they play it's only after the honeymoon when everyday life begins that gradually the image and you believe that that image that you see in her is who she is and she believes it you don't know that you're both playing roles and but you cannot keep up the roles indefinitely so after the honeymoon gradually they wear down the roles and then there comes becomes some discontent arises and suddenly the mask slips the role is new you can't play a role continuously the role of me the attractive month so that's to get out of the role-playing that otherwise you're stuck with for the rest of your life you have a certain role for your partner for a while you have another role for your work situation you have another role from wherever you go you slip into this little differences in the way in which you behave when you talk to the chairman of the board or the Dalai Lama you will you will behave in a certain way and then you might notice when you talk to the plumber there will be subtle differences in the way in which you talk you play a different role you think of what this is not appropriate here right it's only when you stop playing roles when you observe the Dalai Lama how he behaves no you might have thought well the Dalai Lama probably plays the role of the Dalai Lama but he doesn't there's such simplicity openness and genuineness in him he talks the same way to everybody whether he meets the plumber the Pope makes no difference because he doesn't play conditioned roles anymore and that is only possible when you access that I mentioned within yourself that is deeper than the mind and we just did it or we are still doing it simply by taking attention away from thought and direct it into the aliveness of the body it means suddenly there's some space between thoughts and then you can relate to other human beings more genuinely and you don't need to prepare things that you're going to say next you don't say things in order to manipulate that person you don't say things in order to create an effect they simply spontaneity comes out of that place the spontaneity doesn't come out of the accumulated stuff in your mind the spontaneity comes only to the extent that you can access that I mention that is deeper than mind which we may call the deeper eye which we may call stillness that is always there alert spaciousness access that so mind subsides then you live differently the more you access not at the moment these are only glimpses for you but that's good enough a glimpse later becomes a why displace that so that is something to remember not as a memory but to remember to do in your daily life as much as possible wherever you are whatever you're doing whether you were talking to or even when you're alone go within sometimes and feel that the body is alive this life in my hands you don't not imagining anything you actually feel that there is an aliveness here and then once you can feel the hands you can feel the arms the feet the legs you are inhabiting the body and the the body loves that it loves your attention if most people don't give their body attention even if they look after the body extreme like you go to a dream everyday or you use all kinds of stuff to put on your body you might think that these people are looking after their body or or they're looking after it's the the external of the body they are not necessarily present within they cannot feel the aliveness some maybe they can but most not they're only concerned with the external body here we are concerned with the inner so it and it doesn't matter the inner body has nothing to do with the how what the external body looks like whether you're 18 years old or 20 years old whether you have a young body on old body the sensation of the inner body is always the same it's alive and the body loves your attention it's bit like when you don't give enough attention to its laughter while the child cries because it wants to attract your attention the baby does it and then fun you give because attention is in its energy its enormous energy the most attention attention is consciousness most attention for most people is continuously absorbed by thinking you can see it when you talk to them they're not they're really they're thinking they're looking at you but they're thinking about the next thought they're going to ask as you sit there maybe you're thinking about okay after what's my next question and that's normal it's not a personal fault of yours it's normal to lose yourself and then you know that means you're not really present when you're thinking about the next thing so it's normal so you don't have to beat yourself up for that it's normal but there is another way to live and that's the way of to be present to give attention not just to your thoughts to give attention to your body if you don't give enough attention to a child of course a child can also become addicted to attention well that's a different matter there needs to be a balance but the child does need attention from it's vital not an excessive amount but enough because attention is energy and the body loves it as much as a child it wants to be noticed it wants your attention and if it doesn't it cries it might become ill that's a crying of the body you're neglecting it the infant you're not you're not you're not inhabiting it you're inhabited the uppermost loft in your house you're in a big house and you live always in the under the roof you never go downstairs there are lots of laws you have no idea what's going on there so that's the vital thing and it is a way of also accessing the space within that is the the eye that has no form that is the consciousness that is also intelligence we thinking of intelligence as the minds ability to accumulate knowledge and to solve problems let's probably what we consider in to be intelligence but that's an extremely narrow view of what intelligence is what people can measure in IQ tests is an extremely narrow view of intelligence I cannot solve the most the simplest of IQ tests so I've never done a total test but I'm sure my IQ would be extremely low because that is not how this mind works solving little puzzles I've never been able to do that but intelligent is a much vaster thing than the ability to accumulate information and so and then regurgitate it or analyze it or cut it into smaller and smaller pieces what they do at universities research projects the pieces are getting smaller and smaller and smaller the PhD subjects are getting more and more and more specialized because yet so many people are working on things and then you have to watch your tiny piece that ok I take this piece in Wow my PhD about that dick cut can cut that up a hundred times and then once you've written your PhD somebody else comes and takes a tiny piece out of registers I can cut this up even further and let's consider intelligence but through intelligence the joint tangents resides in that dimension of alert stillness if you have access to that that's where the original intelligence resides so anybody who is creative they're not that many human beings in this world who are truly creative anybody's Grady has some access perhaps only in the little area of their field of expertise whether they have some access to that I mentioned this is the stillness Einstein had it he was very slow he was not considered intelligent at school because he was too slow they said not suitable to for mathematics they said odd in physics because he his thinking was very slow now what does it mean it means there were lots of spaces in between the thoughts he didn't he wasn't at school like one of the these so-called intelligent servant always when the teacher asked the question they've the hand goes up immediately I know I know it's very superficial occasionally it may be okay but there are some children and it is not recognized by our society who are very deeply intelligent but not in the way that we consider what we consider intelligence and they tend to be slower they don't immediately have an answer because they know it's superficial to have a true answer you have to go deeper within but if you allow those children to go deeper then you would see how original their thinking actually is so when we just went into the you went into the body already you noticed some new thoughts came not the old thoughts it only requires a tiny space for something new to rise not that you're doing it in order to have new thoughts you're doing it because it feels good to feel the aliveness within you and the more familiar you become with that with inhabiting your body the more strongly you can feel that aliveness it's almost as if you could feel every cell of the body vibrating slightly so and it's a beautiful feeling just an aliveness there and that is an enormous ly healing thing to do for the body I'd really want to know about guilt I feel guilty oh you know all the time for little things I'm doing or that I'm not doing and there are things that I know I did that were mistakes to other people so I know that you're supposed to be free and liberated in the now but shouldn't I feel bad about this stuff I mean and what's gonna keep me if I'm free and liberated in the now from like doing bad things to people human beings act out of their conditioning so every human being is conditioned by their upbringing by the surrounding culture by manufactures conditioned to think and feel and behave in certain ways and so people do all kinds of things to other people and even to themselves without knowing what they're doing they're simply acting out the conditioning of their mind and jesus knew that because they he said on the cross forgive them for they know not what they do so humans create an enormous amount of suffering for themselves and others but they don't know that this is what they are doing people act out of conditioning so when you suddenly see it's something that you did in the past created suffering for yourself or others or both when you see that that's the seeing of it does not come out of the conditioning of your mind when you when you become aware of certain behavior or thought patterns in you the awareness the presence the deeper presence that you are has come in and from there you can see what you did was very limited it created suffering for yourself or somebody else or other people and you didn't even know it so what was acting at that time if you say that was me and therefore I must be bad you are equating the conditioned mind you're conditioned mind the conditioning of your mind with who you are if you say I did that therefore I'm bad or and continuously think about it you're equating who you are with what we could call unconsciousness unconsciousness means to be totally identified with the conditioning of the mind so you just have to act it out now there's still millions of humans on the planet who live in that way because the dimension of awareness hasn't arisen yet so they never know what they are doing they continue to inflict suffering on themselves and others to act unconsciously but they don't know that this is what they're doing they cannot do otherwise so the moment you realize this is what I did who you are is the awareness that sees that who you are is not what you did what you did was the conditioning of your mind playing itself out so you become you trap yourself in an illusory identity if you feel that I did that know who are who is speaking who is I are you the conditioned patterns of your mind or are you the awareness that sees it's the spaciousness within the deeper I let sees what the mind is doing it sees what the mind created in the past it even sees what the mind is creating at this very moment if you could be aware of the things these thoughts that go through your head how you speak to another human being you may be acting out a role and suddenly there's an awareness that you know that you are acting out and wrong and then it comes the possibility of instead of being the role being the awareness and then act in a truly genuine way with enhanced intelligence so the unconscious action was unintelligent action because it was action created by the conditioning of your mind which has nothing to do with who you are so there's a tendency for the mind to personalize the conditioning and say I did that and that creates guilt and that keeps you trapped in a very narrow sense of self because you have equated who you consider to be yourself with conditioned patterns that you act it out at the time it wasn't you it was unconscious human unconsciousness no more and now you see it so you see it and at this moment you would not act in this way because the awareness is there maybe the awareness will stay and this will never happen again it may also possible that the awareness becomes obscured again and the same behavior pattern happens again and you don't know it except afterwards when the awareness comes again oh I did it again and this is happy it can happen quite frequently so it's important it's good to be aware afterwards if you do not misuse the mind don't allow the mind to misuse the awareness and make some attaint identity manufacture some identity out of that for yourself and saying that was me it wasn't me that's the main thing who are you you are the awareness anything else's forms that arise sort forms emotional false behavior patterns so your destiny and your purpose in life is to increasingly be the awareness rather than the conditioned pattern but as long as the condition pattern is there it's there it's good if you if the moment the moment of transformation comes if the awareness is there while the pattern plays itself that's the beginning of the end of the condition pattern so if it's if it's a certain kind of behavior perhaps with women you do the centrally the same kind of thing and it happens again and again and the awareness comes afterwards and one day the awareness comes in the middle of doing it in the middle of it yo you see what you're doing there's a seeing of it and that's the beginning of the end of the pattern then it may just one or two more times the pattern may come up in a weaker form and it will then collapse so in other words you are making what was unconscious conscious and that changes it so you do not have to manipulate yourself and try to engineer inner change I have to make myself into a better person that doesn't usually work it just creates conflict because you have one image of yourself as the the the good person that you want to be or that you'd like to think of yourself as that or you'd like others to think of you as a good person and then you have unconscious behavior patterns and completely contradict that image of a good person and then for the rest of your life you live in that conflict you have and you the good person can talk to the bad one in your head it's just the two thought patterns so that doesn't work what works is to be the awareness to see it to be awake enough alert enough and that where the present moment comes in to see are you present in this moment to what happens in this moment not only externally but internally also and are you allowing it don't reject anything if you feel a thought comes in and emotion comes in and it maybe it's not a good thought maybe your mind says after the thought has come in your mind says oh that wasn't a good thought I shouldn't have thought that but they're both just thoughts the so-called bad thought was just a thought and the next thought they thought it wasn't a good thought with just another thought now it's possible that the bad thought made you do something bad it's possible but the good thought cannot prevent that the only thing that can prevent that is to be conscious so that the thought does not control you the conditioned mind doesn't control you be there ask the witness to your thoughts just don't reject anything so don't go wrong there I know you're concerned about your mind in certain thoughts it goes through your mind and you would rather be a good person and have good thoughts all the time but it's not happening and I can assure you it's not happening to anybody somebody is just having good thoughts because the human mind is the human mind it has polarities of good and bad in high and low so don't try to bring about on that level the perfect me it doesn't exist allow yourself the imperfections allow us the swords to be there they come if you fight them you make them stronger people have the worst problems with thoughts are people who are spiritual so to speak they see themselves or a seen by others as spiritual they have to live the role for example the vicar the priest they have to live the role of a spiritual person and they cannot admit to themselves that they have bad thoughts so they suppress and they FA may have bad emotions anger resentment and they and they say no I'm not having bad emotions I'm a good Christian they can't even admit to themselves and that makes it even worse and then suddenly very bad behavior comes out of them and they don't know where it came from so on all you have to be thought all you need to be concerned about is to be the awareness allow the thought then they actually have less power over you because you are not don't look for yourself in any thought that comes into your head it's not who you are they're just thoughts it's not who you are if you have bad thoughts for two hours doesn't make you into a bad person it just means that so-called bad thoughts are going through your head and then you watch it and as you allow them there's a deeper space the eye from there you watch thoughts are like clouds passing you don't have to follow every thought and then thoughts can become very tedious make you think you can have one repetitive thought pattern going on in your mind for hours or even days you don't have to follow every thought when you're aware you watch the thought then it comes what you're going to do this is to this obnoxious person I'm going to kill this obnoxious person comes to thought and sand and salt drifts out of until where nice remains and then it's lost power already it's nothing so you find a spacious relationship with your thoughts that's you are not you are nothing that arises in that beautiful space of who you are the consciousness that you are which is spacious intelligence none of that is who you they are forms they come and go so thought is not a problem be there as the witness to what goes on inside you then change happens by itself the mind will always have good and bad up and down it has polarities but that's not who you are and you don't have to act on it increasingly you act from the state of where presence action can come from the limiting mind and it's not usually skillful action or action can arise out of the state of aware presence so that's the end of guilt what's the test I mean how do you know how do you know that this is out of the words after the fact if you could go back and look at your I should come yeah that was out of Lorna snow but that wasn't how would you know well you know awareness doesn't create suffering for yourself or others when it comes out of awareness so you know when you look at action it has a totally different quality to it it's not self-serving the action did not happen because you needed something from that person awareness is not needy when action arises out of awareness you do not need to use the other human being for some purpose ulterior motive but when you act out of the conditioned mind the egoic mind you're always trying to not you're not only trying to use the present moment because you're hoping to get to some better moment you make the present moment into a means to an end you also make other human beings into a means to an end because you want something through them so that's where the you want to be with a beautiful woman you because you want to be seen with her or you want to conquer hands and so enhance yourself image all you want sexual pleasure from her but you want something if you if you're acting out of awareness it's not the acting is not under the law of wanting it's not that you want anything and that's also where loving action can only arise out of that because love does not want anything true love does not want anything so that's where it's it's totally selfless action and when you look back on it you can see very clearly whether there were self in the action you wanted something for yourself to enhance yourself or whether that was truly action totally free of self and that's the most effective and the most powerful action is when the self the image of me the thought structure of me comes goes out of the action and action arises that is totally selfless that action doesn't create problems such the Buddhist monk said when he was asked what's the meaning of Zen saying Buddhism what's the meaning of sin and the monk said oh that's easy no self no problem that's it so you begin to live and act without the mentally constructed self you live from the aware presence but for a while the two are there and the awareness often comes in after something has happened that was unconscious and you see it don't beat yourself up he's only the human condition but whenever you see unconsciousness has just happened or happened the other day and now you see or you see it in the middle of it it's good to see it the more you see the more awake you become don't personalize it it's nothing it's not who you are that's the main thing so can the now make me rich powerful free happy smarter more loving more loved yes all of those things yes let's start with rich and then we'll look at the next one can the now make me rich yes now what does it mean to be rich rich means it's not what people think it is it's not to have lots of possessions that may be one aspect of being rich but rich means to be in touch with the fullness of life and the only place where you can find the fullness of life the intense aliveness that you sense when you are present or now just here when you are open to the present moment what comes in is a gratitude for what is no matter what it's a little plant the air you're breathing the light that's coming through the window the sound of the bird whatever is there's a goodness to it and even if it looks bad even if it's a dead animal or dead human when you are totally aligned with the present moment there's a peace that comes into your perceptions and where that peace comes the gratitude that is very deep and so you're experiencing really life for the first time when you become present and so to be in a state of gratitude from what is is really what being wealthy means the present moment is always enough and so the definition of wealthy real is to be to have enough to feel already the fullness of life an expression that Jesus used he said I want you to have the fullness of life and people didn't quite understand what he meant most Jesus talking about shopping malls that you have hundreds 500 shops in one huge shopping mall and you have thousands of things to choose from was he predicting the arrival of shopping malls is that the fullness of life we can walk around and buy and have lots of money and credit cards and you can buy anything you like now there are people who can do that they are not happy so then he's not talking about a many many things when he talks about the fullness of life it's not he's talking about the one thing it's to feel the intensity of being alive and you can only feel that intensity of aliveness when you're in moment with your attention one way of being in the present moment as you know is to feel the inner aliveness of the body to feel the aliveness that is in every cell of the body it's alive them and the more you go there the stronger that feeling becomes and once you are connected with that you feel that the world around you is intense new life - it was alive before but you didn't see it because there was too much thought stuff going through your mind continuously the world became dead because everything was immediately labeled mentally that's a tree that's a dog the moment you label it and you don't look anymore it's not alive anymore everything gets dead and just through mental abstraction when you go around the voice in your head immediately calling things calling things names giving things names so when you become more present this is alert attention with which you meet your surroundings [Music] once you know the fullness of life that is already here now and then gratitude arises for what is no matter what it is then living in this way eventually that fullness that in essence is an inner realization rather than outer that's so that's the foundation for wealth is to feel the fullness of life within and then if you live in that way in Kentucky connectedness with that eventually the fullness of life but also manifest for you externally in various ways meaningful activity is a form of wealth to know that what you're doing is helping other human beings brings an external fullness also into your life which is a form of wealth and wealth may also come in the form of things coming to you more conventional things home or car or whatever it may be those things also come much more easily when basically you already feel the fullness even long before it comes externally so basically you feel already wealthy when you live fully in the present moment you never feel really poor I perhaps spent 10 years of my life at least living what people would say below the poverty line and I never felt poor I always felt rich although for a long time I had nothing no external possessions but life was so it was so fulfilling to live every moment fully present to the moment that life it felt I felt wealthy abundant and much much later and it actually external abundance come into my life to some extent and that didn't make me feel better I feel just it when now I have a car during those years I used to bicycle mostly or the bus and I don't feel better now because I have a nice car I feel exactly the same but just like it's nice to have a nice comfortable car with air conditioning in the summer and so but it makes the fullness hasn't changed it hasn't done anything to change that so too already the foundation is to be fully alive in the present moment and then it is much more likely that external Wealth's will also come to you as a outer manifestation of an inner reality if you feel wealthy already but if you feel poor and feel that you really you need to make money now even if you achieve it you'll be unhappy with your wealth because it comes out of the unhappiness so there are many people who creating wealth these days they built up a big business on enterprise but it comes out of a deep dissatisfaction with what is it comes out of an enormous neediness to show to the world that you are somebody or to prove to yourself or the world how good you are and that can that is not conducive to true happiness the wealth there are many wealthy people who are unhappy in their wealth so that's and they are not really wealthy and they they are basically still deprived they are deprived of the fullness of life and they have perhaps five or ten houses in different places cars yacht and yet they are deprived of the fullness and so they need more and more and it doesn't help so here we have living in the present moment brings you into the fullness of life now and then eventually it will also manifest in different ways externally for you power was the other thing will it bring me power yes but not power to the ego it will make your life more empowered then what you do much greater power flows into what you do because what you're doing the action that you are performing whatever it is in the present moment the only place where you can do anything the action that you are performing in the present moment is not a means to an end for most people they are active but we are active because they want to get there to that point in the future they want to the end result their eyes on the end result so they may be busy building up a business because they want to become wealthy but they reduce the quality and aliveness of the present moment because they are reducing the present moment to a means and they give it inferior inferior status in their minds the future is more important because that's where they're going to be wealthy but then the pattern remains inside them and even when they have the money they still have the same basic psychological pattern which means they need to the next moment and always they reduce the present moment to a means to an end so the action is not of high quality does not contribute to happiness they don't make themselves happy and they don't make others happy with what they do so that's not truly empowered and it is low quality action high quality action comes when you don't reduce the present moment to a means to an end that's truly empowered action it only when you no longer reduce this moment to a means to an end can you give your full attention to whatever it is that you are doing now some great artists do it sportsmen do it when they perform they are totally present it's not a means to an end they're totally in the now and so high-quality action comes out of that and this is empowered action so living in the now brings power into your life true power not the pseudo power of the ego and then whatever comes out of it out of that action will be good in one way or another it will not be one could say I call it it's not karmic action which means karmic action it's an eastern term Karma calming action creates more happiness it comes out of unhappiness and creates more unhappiness for yourself into others but out of presence alignment with now comes non karmic action it does not create more suffering on the planet because so many people are very very active but a lot of that activity ultimately creates more suffering on the planet so that's the power what's the next thing that the null will bring you and what was the question I really want to know about guilt I feel guilty oh you know all the time for little things I'm doing or that I'm not doing and there are things that I know I did that were mistakes to other people so I know that you're supposed to be free and liberated in the now but shouldn't I feel bad about this stuff I mean and what's gonna keep me if I'm free and liberated in the now from like doing bad things to people because I'm that's a fear I think the only place where you can be free of the conditioning of your mind because freedom is not an external thing it's an internal thing you can be in prison and you can be free people have written to me from prison and they've read the power of now and they said they now feel free what does that mean true freedom is freedom from your mind from the conditioned all the conditioned thoughts and emotions that otherwise otherwise control you freedom is the freedom to step back from the conditioning into the deeper I the awareness that you are it's freedom from thought ultimately so that not every sort controls you so that's it's a freedom from conditioning and basically it's the freedom from the past so you're no longer determined your behavior and your thinking is no longer determined by your past it's also freedom from future because most people have a desperate need for the next moment its I call it psychological future they need the fulfillment that they think the future will bring them it won't so this is something for you to be aware enough because I know that pattern also still operates in you believing that something in the future we'll bring you greater fulfillment than you have now but it won't if you don't have it now you won't have it then you have to access the power of now regardless of your external circumstances you can have that now you can't wait for the future because once you're in the waiting mode you'll always be waiting for the next moment even when you become a famous actor it won't feel quite right maybe already famous I don't know but it won't feel quite right and and you will there will be many things when you're very famous I've met one or two famous actors and they come to this teaching why do they come bottom don't they have everything no they've realized they don't have what really matters and suddenly they discover the spiritual dimension because they've achieved everything else on the worldly dimension so go deeply into the present moment become deeply aligned and at one with the only thing that ever is in your life the present moment and that is that is where true power resides and that is the only place where you can be truly free what's the next thing that you want happiness it can happiness come in the future when I achieve this or that then I'll be happy when I make it but every situation that you go into will have a downside it's not if you're expecting circumstances to make you happy they can do that for a while and then you find oh it's not quite what I expected and there's always another side to it and very often the very thing that makes you happy if you have an external thing that makes you happy that very thing will also make you unhappy an example a woman comes into your life who makes you happy one two three years later the same woman makes you unhappy it's the same thing or your a job a great job is offered to you and it creates so much stress that you make yourself ill it makes you happy first and it makes you unhappy you become famous and then you see the downside of fame you can't go out in the street alone anymore there's a riot the moment people see you you're president of your house you can't go out without two or three bodyguards is that freedom and you thought you would be free when you become famous I've met one or two famous people or they can't go out alone it's too dangerous and and people stop them all the time and think either around them they have to stay inside everything has to be organized after jumping the car with tinted windows and bodyguards is that freedom are they happy because of their fame no they have experience in town site of fame it doesn't mean that you should not pursue goals there's nothing wrong with being famous but don't expect you to make you happy the true happiness has to be found it comes from being aligned with life internally and where's that now here a complete openness and yes to the present moment that takes you deep into the present moment that is true happiness comes out of that and then you can go on and do things and see if you can become famous why not experience that experience as much as you can without hoping that some experience or when you've accumulated enough experiences you'll finally feel fulfilled and fully yourself that won't happen there's no end to accumulating experiences and achieving this or that you cannot find yourself there you can only find yourself in the present moment the own for everything else you time to achieve success in your career to learn to play the piano to learn a foreign language even - if you want to meet a woman it takes time you have to walk somewhere where the beautiful women hang out and then you have to it takes time everything takes time and so the mind things okay finding myself who I truly am will also take time it thinks when I added enough to who I think I am maybe recognition from other people Fame some possessions put all these things into the back of my back I'm gonna have enough things accumulated then I will be full and that moment will come at some point in the future it doesn't because the back no matter how much you put in it will never feel full besides from the fact that also often things fall out of the back you put something in here and something else falls out you suddenly get Wealth's and then you're unhappy in your marriage or you're happy in your marriage and suddenly the job doesn't work anymore or you're it's always there's nothing stability isn't to be found in the external world in constant flux this universe is not stable people have this absurd illusion that they're living in a stable universe and that they can have some kind of stability in their lives they are shocked when suddenly big disasters happened and you realise how unstable really everything is so if you looked and that doesn't mean is to be rejected play in the world and enjoy the play play as much as you can but don't expect anything out there to truly make you happy or fulfill you happiness is to be found directly within yourself it comes from being connected with who you are this comes as being suspect where we started to be in touch to feel the deeper I and there's enormous joy in simply feeling the beingness that you are to feel the I am that is deeper than this or that I am leave the very life that you are to feel that to feel alive that's out of that comes true happiness and then you can play around in the world and you acquire things and then you lose things require some more and then you lose some more and then you add in the end you lose everything that's everybody does you lose the body in the engines form dissolves sooner or later but it's finding something that is deeper than any form inside yourself that's true happiness love also come true love comes only out of the true eye true love cannot cannot come out of the psuedo eye that says I the actor I the good-looking actor I the famous actor I the American I the poor one or I the wealthy one or I who is good with women true love doesn't come out of that eye it's a pseudo eye that's what most people refer to when they use it worth it so common eye but the true love comes out and you're connected with the deeper eye the eye that has no form the one thing that never leaves you the one ingredient that's always there no matter where you are what you do what you experience it never changes the eye the consciousness that you are when you live in connectedness with that aligned with that that's where true love comes because when you meet another human being you can sense in them also there's the depths of say my that is your identity you recognize yourself in the other and the other s yourself and you feel a deep connectedness much deeper than anything that you can say or think with the other human being and that's true love love is to feel that you're ultimately not separate you're one that can only come out of the spaciousness there is part of and now and now is space what happens in the now is formed don't confuse the two the reason why people think there are many many moments in every day in every in your lifetime in every hour because what happens change is continuously the forms around you change continuously the thoughts that go through your head change the emotions that you feel change the people around you change so people think every time it's a new moment this moment in another moment into another moment she looked more deeply you see it's not another moment it's always now but the form that appears in the now changes continuously but it's always now and ultimately now is who you are the space of now is this place of I and then things happen in it and they change continuously so they're two ways of saying when they ask you what is it that never changes what is it that's always there in your life no matter where you're going what you do you can say it's always I the deepest I not the superficial I that changes the thoughts emotions who you are in the world but the deeper eyes always that that's always the same and so another way of looking at it is say it's always now and now never changes and then you find the miraculous thing they're actually won the space of now and who you are in the depths of your being is consciousness itself before it becomes something the very foundation out of which all life comes you could say God God dwells in the depth of your being not as some entity but as the formless one life itself that is the deepest meaning of what now is and that's whether now can they believe you so I am and now in essence I am NOT what happens I am the space in which everything happens that's your true identity and when you live one with that knowing that your life will be fruitful and a great and wonderful adventure when you don't know who you are then no matter what you do what you'd see where you go who you meet it won't satisfy you that's how simple it is [Music] [Music]

Channel: Eckhart Tolle

Views: 2,346,931

Keywords: Sean Mulvihill, Eckhart, Tolle, Eckhart Tolle, Kim Eng, Living Luminaries, Eckhart Teaches a Young Man, Power of Now, full length movie, Interview, A New Earth, Enlightenment, Mindfulness, Presence, Awakening, Present, Staying Present, Aliveness, conciousness, meditation, spirtuality, spiritual, transformation, now, liberating, liberation, mind, body, spirit, egoic, egoic mind, ego, evolution, thinking, empty mind, observer, aware, sensations, unconciousness

Id: eGH6sdODcOw

Length: 98min 42sec (5922 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 29 2018