How Mindfulness Can Bring Balance to Your World | Eckhart Tolle | Rubin Report

no matter what your life circumstances are the the message is wake up I'm Dave Rubin and joining me on the Rubin report today is the internationally best-selling author of the power of now which is sold 12 million copies worldwide since it was first published with translations into 52 languages along with his most recent book a new earth which has already sold over 15 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 50 languages Eckhart Tolle welcome to the Rubin report thank you I am I am truly thrilled to have you here and I suspect this is going to be an interview like no other that I've done do you have a preference for what language since you've been translated into basically every living language on earth is English gonna be okay for the purposes of this I'll be happy with English I wrote it in English I do give talks sometimes in German and Spanish but before I do that I was preparing myself in a read the German and Spanish translations of the book yeah well all right we'll go with English at least for the beginning portion of this so the way that you end up here because I think people are gonna go whoa this is this is a little different than what's going on in Dave's garage usually you came here by way of seeing an interview that I did with my my friend my mentor and really the guy that I think is the best interviewer of all time Larry King I thought that would be an interesting way of starting because that's that I think is how you got introduced yes I've also been a fan of Larry King for many years and I happened to come across your interview with him on YouTube and I was very impressed not only by you as an interviewer because you has you have that openness that many interviewers lack and that of course Larry King also has and I was very impressed by some of the things that Larry actually said about how he conducts the interviews he always come to a place of curiosity from a place of not knowing for place of wanting to find out the interviewees perspective and most interviewers of course come from a they have a mental position that they seek to protect or they are trying to prevail with their mental positions they're not really interested in what the interviewee has to say so after seeing that interview our grief during the interview with Larkin action mentioned he interviewed me a few weeks after rare I watch the interview and that was another coincidence and when Larry King interviewed me I mentioned having seen your interview with him and then our makeup artist connected us because she she works for Larry as well as for you yeah and here we are and here we are all right well I guess a good way to start for the few people watching that don't know you can you tell me a little bit about your background and until you were 29 years old spirituality actually wasn't wasn't your thing people are so associated about with you but can you tell a little bit about growing up yes I grew up in Germany out to the age of 15 at 15 I left school I just couldn't stand it anymore so I refused to go to school my parents had gotten a divorce my dad had moved to Spain and my mom didn't know what to do with me I was just hanging around at home didn't want to go to school anymore so I was saying too much we live with my dad in Spain where I lived for four years up to the age of 19 without going to school my dad was always a very unconventional person and he asked me do you want to go to school I said no and he said well and don't Wow so what were you doing I pursued my own interests I read some which started reading literature of course learning Spanish learning English I loved languages I loved reading enough literature at 16 I started working part-time as a translator of restaurant menus and then I became a to igano 17 I became a tour guide for taking people around from cruise ships around the Spanish town where we lived and then at 19 I moved to England to work in England I was immediately I they immediately felt at home there I have to feel some deep connection with England and I worked in England for four years full time and became a more interested in intellectual things so I took all the necessary exams that were required to get into university the cold well at the time they were called all levels in a levels and so on so I took those exams and finally I got a scholarship to get into a London University where I studied modern languages and literature and so that's the external story on the inside I experienced increasingly periods of terrible anxiety and depression even Bala while I was working and while I was a student can you describe what that was - yes it was an inability to stop my mind my mind was continuously racing along and creating scenarios of where I failed where I lost even a little that I had it went or not into the past - where felt ashamed about things that happen in the past but not only that there was a deeper existential fear an existential anguish that's how to describe it it is a kind of alienation from world alienation is probably the best word where everything that you come into contact with feels strange and alien you're disconnected from everything and everybody and that is something that I believe many people these days suffer from although it has also existed it has happened to isolated individuals in the past if you want to read about that state I recommend in the Old Testament there is the book of Ecclesiastes which starts with the famous phrase as in the old translation vanity of vanities all is vanity but what it really means if you use the modern term I would translate it as everything is so effing pointless what's the point of it all so that to be deeply affected by the seeming meaninglessness of life around you so I remember when I went into a department store in London or walked along the streets it's it seems so so absurd that people were buying all these things and then going out with their shopping bags full of stuff everything seemed so absurd and meaningless almost producing a kind of nausea and that no sense actually a novel by jean-paul Sartre where he describes that state mm-hmm so that's exactly how it is it's it is described in various places in world literature too for example in Anna Karenina at the end of the book just before she commits suicide the world the Tolstoy describes how she sees the world just before she commits suicide and everything is just every human being she sees is despicable and dreadful and in total disconnection from the world around her so that is the existential anguish that I also experience quite frequently did you have a sort of rock bottom moment with that was there a specific moment that then started your turnaround yes so I would often break up in the middle of the night in the stage of panic or fear and almost feeling Restless and one night I woke up again on three in the morning and my mind was racing along and then a strange thought came into my mind that said I can't live with myself any longer I can't live with myself any longer and after thinking that thought there was a kind of this little shift occurred I was standing back from that thought so to speak and it's not what a strange thought to think I can't live with myself and my one Who am I - who is that self that I cannot live with and Who am I so a kind of inner separation occurred and I felt like of disappearing into a kind of void and the next morning I woke woke up and I felt incredibly peaceful for some reason I didn't understand why it took me several years to understand why from that point onward there was always in sometimes in the foreground sometimes in the background its sense of inner peace no matter what my outer circumstances were but now I can exactly explain what happened that night there was a dis identification in my consciousness from the stream of compulsive and incessant thinking that most people have absolutely no control over people say I think but that is usually not the case because thinking happens to them they have no control over it so it is actually wrong to say I think it would be the same as you were saying I'm beating my heart you're not beating heart it's done for you it happens to you yeah so there was this now called the voice in the head that I was completely identified with his soul I was completely identified with the stream of thinking that which is quite normal how many people are and a lot of that stream of thinking was of a negative nature so I did not experience the reality around me except through the veil of negative self-talk the veil the mental veil of negatives of negative labeling and interpretations and I my whole what I consider to be my life I hadn't realized until I decide enta fide what I took to be my life was a narrative in my mind and it consisted of certain things in the past that are identified with things that had happened to me it was a bundle of thoughts that record continuously that gave me my sense of self and it was an unhappy sense of self it was a narrative based sense of self and that night I stood back from this narrative which is fueled by continuous thinking I stood back and I realized for the first time it I mentioned of consciousness within myself that was deeper on quitz also say higher depends how you want to look at it deeper than thinking now this dimension of consciousness that's deeper than thinking I now call it awareness or sometimes call it presence and that exists in every human being but most humans are not aware of it at all they don't know that there is a deeper dimension of consciousness in them and that I mentioned is transcends thinking it you experience it when the mind becomes still for a moment this is what people want to achieve for example when they meditate it can also happen to you when you engage in a dangerous activity like mountain climbing well then you cannot be involved in thinking you have to kill concepts you're thinking stops but you do not lose consciousness so the important thing is there is a state of consciousness possible in humans where you are fully conscious without the activity of conceptual thinking that's also the essence for example of Zen and I would suggest that it's actually the essence of all spirituality is to find that state of consciousness in yourself where you can be alert and aware but yeah there's no conceptualization in your mind it doesn't mean it stays like that for a long time you then go back into thinking but if you're able to access that I mentioned in yourself you are no longer possessed by your thinking mind you are no longer used by your thinking mind you are actually able to use your mind instead of being used by your mind as long as you are used by your mind all your mental activity is a reflection of the conditioning that has happened to you so you take on the conditioning from a personal on a personal level from school parental background and so in that conditions the way that you think then you have the collective conditioning around you you take on the conditioning of the the culture that you in inhabit that's around you if you if you watch the media every day then you take on those viewpoints and that you think they are your thoughts they are not your thoughts you take these thoughts on from the outside and they become part of your identity so identity is a key word because identity is everybody is extremely interested and in finding their identity one could say that after after meeting the needs of food and shelter almost immediately after let's come to search for an identity which already starts with a child when the child has a toy that feels it belongs to me it's my toy somebody takes it away there's great suffering in the child it cries because the child began to identify with something and called it mine and that's only the beginning of course so please yeah well there's so many there's so many things that that I want to jump into so well I guess first we are going to get to some of the techniques that you you know said that many other people use to to attain this sort of level of peace and separation from that that's sort of endless stream but do you think that most people whether they're conscious of it or not are just all day long just sort of spinning like a top out of control where they they bounce in and out of this at all time so you might do all sorts of things during the day that are distractions and you can get upset about politics or do drugs or waste time with this or that but then we all have that voice in us that that sort of knows more of the right way to do things or more of a peaceful way to do things but we but we don't have any way to really I don't know it's controlled the right word I don't know if control is the right word but we don't have any way to really ascertain what's really happening yes unless you're you are completely neurotic or or even clinically insane you probably have some access I'm not talking to you instead you can diagnose me at the end if you're not if you're not continuously in a state of confusion or anxiety or depression if you're not if you occasionally you feel okay you feel occasionally happy you probably have some access to that I mention in yourself without knowing it without recognizing it so there are actually we could describe this as moments in your daily life brief moments when you're actually not thinking but they're very they tend to be for most people very brief but they're very significant these are moments perhaps you are looking at something and you're looking you might be looking at a tree or flower or the sky and for a moment there's three seconds when you take this in completely often it's something natural that you're looking at and you're looking at the sky and perhaps for the first three or four seconds we are looking at it you feel a sense of inner expansion almost like coming to a to rest and then perhaps after four five six seconds the mind comes in and interprets what you have just seen I also find that people find enter that state without knowing it when they relate to pets or to animals when you meet a dog you look into the eyes of the dog now the dog is a conscious being but the dog has no conceptual thinking so when you look into the eyes of the dog you instinctively realize that the dog is not judging you in any way because they talk at no concepts by which to judge you so you feel kind of when you look into the eyes of the doc you feel a moment of liberation from your from your conceptual self because there you have a being who has no conceptual self so you're able to feel what so to speak the beingness the being of the dog and that's and in that moment you're not thinking a few seconds of inner spaciousness and then it feels good to be with this animal I call dogs guardians of being and and so another one is look into the eyes of a bunny old baby when this baby is looking back at you and this baby has not yet arrived at conceptualization but there is obviously a luminous consciousness there and the eyes of the baby can be just amazing when the baby looks at you like this mm-hmm and you feel wow this touches you deeply in that moment you are free of concepts or thinking because the baby's not thinking conceptually and you're connecting with this beautiful being at a deeper level so there are moments when you are naturally free of the stream of thinking and those are the most worthwhile moments in your life ultimately it could happen also near out in nature you're hiking or you're you're doing some physical activity and you're not thinking very much you're taking it or the world that surrounds you their sense of sensory perception you're taking everything in you're completely present when you're in the forest or or the mountain on the beach you're completely present and suddenly you feel so peaceful why do you feel so peaceful do you feel so peaceful because you are out in nature well the indirectly yes but the real reason why you feel so peaceful is that in that moments you are conscious and consciously perceiving but not thinking do you think what do you think one way to describe it in sort of simplistic terms would be that when you're doing sort of what you're supposed to be doing that you can lock into that kind of thinking because I can give you two quick examples from myself I've had a few moments in the hundreds of interviews that I've done where there's something where I can lock eyes with someone and we are so right here doing exactly where we're supposed to be doing what we're supposed to be doing that actually some of the background almost gets a little bit blurry I can I can feel I mean I can feel a little bit of it right now actually there's and you can't you can't hold it it just comes and goes and all those things so I've had it in this very room and then the other time that I think I've had it was when I was doing stand-up and there was one particular night where I was killing I mean I had the room in my hand and I remember seeing myself from behind myself it was actually I could actually see the back of myself and I don't even remember what I was saying but it almost was like slow-motion it was like yes this is what I was supposed to be doing is that is that a good way to miss that can happen when you're engaged in an activity and certainly you're guided by an intelligence that is greater than the collected information that you have in your mind now that intelligence that cut is I call it the unconditioned consciousness whereas the mind is the conditioned consciousness that intelligence can use your mind and then your mind becomes a creative tool so and then you can be spontaneous in for example in your presentation when you're on stage and you will come up with things that you could never have thought of if they they come because you're concerned and connected with a deeper level of consciousness within yourself and that ultimately is the way to live as much as nobody is connected a hundred percent of the time with that but to be connected with that when you're engaged in your whatever your main activity is that's a it's an act of grace if you're able to do that and then you are empowered whatever you do is empowered by something much greater than yourself and what is that it is I say you have access to what I call the Psalms perhaps a little bit mystical universal intelligence of which the human mind is only one expression there are countless expressions of universal intelligence and all spirit all the ancient spiritual teachings they actually point that way Mayock if I if you don't mind if I may interpret some interpret something that Jesus said between I believe is actually exactly the same thing Jesus often talks about the Kingdom of Heaven interesting expression and there's a line which I open the Bible the other day and I saw the line said Jesus went from village to village and from town to town and said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the the whole thing is already contained there repent means it's miss it's a mistranslation repentance the original Greek is better noria which means a turnaround shift a complete shift so the repentance whether people think of it as apologize or something like that yes we do yourself up I'm such a miserable sinner that's not let's a missin the misinterpretation of repentance started when it was translated into Latin into the latinus penny 10 thea which was already wrong and now we have Metanoia as repentance no a complete reverse a complete turnaround in other words a shift in consciousness repent now what does he mean by the kingdom of heaven now Christians traditionally believed it's something it's going to come let's see belief they completely overlooked when they asked Jesus when when does the kingdom of heaven come he said the kingdom of heaven does not come with observation in another translation it says the kingdom of heaven does not come with signs to be perceived you cannot say it's over here or it's over there for the kingdom of heaven is within you now what is that thing that's within you where you can never say it's there or it's there I I retracted of heaven into modern terminology for Kingdom I would substitute dimension at heaven what is heaven when you look up into heaven you see the vast sky the spaciousness of the sky he used that analogy to point us to an inner reality he is used because of the language usually refers to external things that you can see in touch so the closest that Jesus could find in the external world to point to something in the inner realm was to look at the vast spaciousness of the sky which in itself has no particular form but it's amazing and he said the kingdom of heaven then is heaven my translation is spaciousness in a spaciousness which is the uncluttered mind consciousness without concepts work without thought inner alert stillness the dimension of spaciousness find that I mention of that's the primordial teaching we in Jesus find that within yourself find the kingdom of heaven find the dimension of inner spaciousness where you're able to be alert and still completely conscious but not thinking and that's the essence of Jesus teaching to find that when you find that then you wreck when you really relate to other human beings you can sense the same dimension in the other human although they have a personality which is a condition itself but underneath so to speak the personality there is a deeper being and the Deva being is their unconditioned consciousness but it's not consciousness is not a personal thing so when I look at you first thing I would see is your personality and of course the physical body and the personality whatever makes up your personality but if I look more deeply and not just look but actually sense your presence I know that beyond your personality there is an essence in you that it is one with the essence in me and one could describe it as consciousness itself the essence of who you are the essence of who I am is consciousness when I recognize that consciousness the same consciousness that in me this consciousness beyond the condition itself recognizes the consciousness in you that which is beyond your conditioned self and that recognition is what Jesus called love and therefore he said love thy neighbor as thyself but that as a separate statement it doesn't work but when you put it together with Kingdom of Heaven that reads find the Kingdom of Heaven within you the dimension of spaciousness then you will recognize your neighbour which is anybody buddy that with then you will recognize him aha as yourself in this recognition that in essence you are one that you are deeply deeply connected that you share the conch the one consciousness when you recognize them in the other then you have suddenly an outlaw benevolence and goodwill and love not the ego love but true love towards the witch in the Old Testament in the New Testament agape spiritual love for another human being you can sense their very being 'no so and that's the whole secret of the growth of all spirituality it's in Jesus in the teaching of Jesus it is so the the our purpose here beyond the personal purposes that we have everybody has their personal purpose the work you do whatever it is there's a deeper purpose that the personal purpose must be aligned with and that deeper purpose is to live from that deeper place the way I interpret you know in the English language doesn't have a word that describes both men and women it's the German language has mensch which is also used in here is just a German WA s mensch means both man or woman for a long time I regret it that the English language doesn't have a word for human you have to say human being but now I'm happy that I have to say human being because that describes exactly the two dimensions the human is a conditioned self it's a personality your historical person just comes from the past based on past who you are as a person they could includes your physical body and your psychological self I called it sometimes your form identity there's a physical form and there's a psychological form of you that's the human and then there's a being the being is the deeper self that is consciousness unconditioned and no human life is fulfilled unless the human has at least some access to this dimension within them that really is the ultimate purpose to at least maybe not complete access but at least to have glimpses of that which transcends the self to have glimpses of self transcendence in your life if you no matter how successful you are in this world if you have never had even a glimpse of self transcendence then your life is pretty purposeless and and it's very unlikely that you will be a happy human being is the ultimate paradox with all of this that it's almost impossible to hold on to so even someone that has spent their life trying to attain that state that you can't hey you can't you to function it as a human maybe not as a human being but just as a human it would be almost impossible to constantly be yes state in a world that doesn't exist in that state yes not constantly but it's possible to to to not just have that when you are perhaps they engaged in spiritual practice or you're meditating or when you're out in nature and some happy moments out in nature it it is our task to as much as possible incorporate that deeper level of consciousness into our daily life even if we don't succeed all the time that's fine that's part of the practice so one could say then our purpose in our daily life beyond the personal purpose which is also important because we need to honor who we are as a person too and we need to honor our identity as a person because no doubt Italy that exists and whatever it is that makes up your identity whether it's mostly personal kind whether you identify with a concern a collective around you it could be your religion whatever it might be or the culture that you grow up in that has its place that that's nothing wrong with it but if that is all you know about yourself that's very limiting so you honor it but there's more to you than that and that's what the ancient Greeks said starting from Pythagoras 500 BC know thyself the most perhaps the most important dictum in ancient Greek philosophy which was carved crafts on the walls of the temple of apollo at delphi know thyself very deep saying know who you are in your essence so because you have the form identity which is a personality the form and you hasn't have as i call it an essence identity and so to know yourself as this essence is it called in in in indian some in some Indian Indian spiritual philosophy is called self realization so you know and then the practice becomes in daily life to as much as possible live from that I mentioned for example now that countless examples one could give very simple things like I recommend for example whenever you are waiting for something at the elevator or you're in the elevator or you're waiting for phone call or you're waiting in line somewhere the airport you're waiting this will look quite a bit of time we spent waiting traffic lights in waiting now these days mostly people get out their phone when they are waiting because this means there's a the continued continuously your mind is being cluttered one more I call it clutter clutter is useless information they get often they get out their phone they don't know why they get out their phone because it's probably next to them is getting out their phone and then they start switching your often there would be a moment whenever you're waiting an opportunity to in that moment to declutter your mind and create a little bit of inner spaciousness the key remove her from the dimension of spaciousness for example this is very ancient and very simple method by becoming aware that you are breathing you're becoming it I call it it's a mini meditation one conscious press which is the embrace and you follow the breast with your attention you feel it the air moving into the body you might even feel it into your evening to your abdomen the energy and then you breathe out one and what does that do why is it so important when you're aware of your breathing you take attention away from thinking you cannot be completely aware of your breathing and think at the same time you can either think or be aware of your breathing so that's a quick way of having a little bit of spaciousness in your life one conscious bus may be - conscious breaths everybody has time for one or two conscious breaths from time to time during the day nobody is so busy that this guy cannot take six seven or eight seconds for contra called over the mind might tell you noise too much to do it's a lie don't believe every thought that comes into your head and then you create spaciousness the more spacious we create the more effect if your thinking will be when you start thinking again because then thinking can link into this creative intelligence that is the unconditioned intelligence in you and then it can be inspired by that I would select every creative person who create something really new had some access to that dimension in in the area of their creative endeavor probably not in the rest of their lives if I require what could as crazy as everybody else know the rest of their lives but when they engage in their act of creation they have access to their dimension and that's so this is once you you touch this power within you which is not egoic power it's not power over somebody else it's primordial the power of life itself when you can sense that within yourself that becomes the basis for your sense of who you are and no longer the story in your mind and that's the shift so you become free of identity having to completely identify with your past arrive because once we are from your historical past which is most people's past it's just a very mixed back and there's a lot of it that you may not like instead of that your sense of who we are comes from a deeper place and that resolves all questions of what people are concerned with self-esteem self-confidence people go to therapists you build up their self-esteem because that's not enough but once you touch that level of consciousness within yourself self-esteem comes from there but it's not comparative anymore then you can sense the power that dwells within you and you don't need to compare yourself to somebody else and say I'm powerful because I have more than this person you know in essence every human has that but they mostly don't know it but it's there as a seat one could say in every human being it's just it's so wonderful this realization where does where does past guilt which I think you're sort of reference I just fit into this because we mentioned right before we started that I've been on tour with Jordan Peterson and during the q and A's I see so many people that will say to him you know I just read your book and I'm applying the twelve rules for life and my life is better my relationships better I'm not doing drugs whatever whatever it may be I've mended relationships etc etc but they have trouble getting over some sort of past guilt yeah and I think what you're describing here is the first step in getting away from that but I think a lot of people think it's something that you can do like this right but but it's not no you need to recognize where it comes from how it arises in you of course guilt is related to grievance when it refers to another person it's a grievance you have a resentment or grievance towards another person when it refers to yourself then it's called guilt by it always refers to something that was that either you did to somebody that you now recognize as bad in some way not ethical you did something perhaps when you were younger perhaps you brought up your children in a way that you now recognize as dysfunctional in some ways or you injured somebody or you inflicted suffering on somebody whether it's emotional suffering mental suffering even physical suffering in extreme cases you might even have killed somebody you need very extreme cases and that brings about guilt now guilt is something that you did that you now recognize as bad this becomes a thought form in your head it becomes incorporated into your sense of self what you don't realize is you did something because you didn't your consciousness your level of consciousness will at that time manifest it that kind of behavior no human being can manifest behavior that's beyond their level of consciousness so if you inflicted harm on somebody the ego tends to then make it into an identity for yourself and that brings about guilt when you see through my that this is your sense of self is guilty that can be a huge ego boost they can also be a huge ego boost to declare somebody else's guilty it's somebody who did something to me so people carry a grievance or resentment sometimes for many many years and then again what they are doing is they're transforming somebody's I call it unconscious behavior when you inflict suffering on another human being except of course self-defense or whatever but you inflict suffering on any life form or a human being you'd do it it's it's unconscious you'd Jesus is supposed to have said on the cross forgive them for they know not what they do translated into modern terminology is they are unconscious they know not what they do so people do all kinds of things sometimes in states after they've taken drugs they become even more unconscious or they've consumed alcohol they be makes you more unconscious even they're not more unconscious in normal unconsciousness by unconscious by the way and perhaps need to explain what I mean by unconscious which is in spiritual terms in conventional usage unconscious means obviously or right of lost consciousness but in spiritual terms unconscious means you are at the mercy of the conditioning of your mind and your emotions the ways in which emotion has been conditioned your being run by that conditioning there is no way that this young being has any awareness of their conditioning there's no awareness whatsoever and the human being who has zero awareness perhaps not to throughout their lives in moments when they I very unconsciously get triggered by something as I said to take drugs whatever they'll become zero awareness and then they do what they do later you look back on that and and then you erroneously incorporate that time of your life when you you weren't even there you were run by an automatic program in your mind and in your emotional field you weren't even there but the ego will transform it into an identity and since I I did this is no matter who I am or it will do to to somebody else there was a long time when I had resentment towards my father because my father was pretty unconscious except very late in life had a very strong ego and living with him as a child was living with an unexploded bomb that could go off at any moment be artistic intense rages would suddenly several times a week so I lived in a constant state of kind of background anxiety but his minuses bomb going to explode again next and then for a long time in my twenties I had a resentment towards him until I went to the shifting consciousness and I suddenly realized he he did what he had to do there wasn't enough awareness in every act any different so he was at the mercy of his own conditioning and once you see that you don't wanna make it into an identity for him and so you free him and really perhaps this is the meaning of forgiveness you can forgive yourself by not making unconscious behavior in your past into an identity for yourself or for somebody else now a question may arise this is an interesting point now does that mean people are not really responsible for that they do so that's that's an interesting question in ultimate terms is to say it is true they are not responsible for what they do but they will have to suffer the consequences of their unconsciousness because we humans are meant to become more conscious here and one of the ways or even one of the perhaps the main way in which a very unconscious human evolves eventually or potentially is by suffering the consequences of their unconsciousness and sometimes the consequences might be they have to go to prison it doesn't so but it does even if you meet a prisoner it's important if they did something in the past they let's say they killed somebody in the past of course they have to suffer the consequences and consciousness but when you meet a human being like that you can still you may be able to sense that there's more to this human being than this this unconscious person so how does that play into your perspective on free will then free will ultimately does not come in until there's some awareness in you that's where free will comes from until you have some awareness you are run by the conditioning of your mind and so you have no choice the element of choice comes in when you become aware for example of your the thoughts that go through your head and you might realize suddenly and for some people that's the first time they awaken spiritually when they realize that for years they've had a voice in their head talking to them which could be a monologue it could be a dialogue you could have a conversation with yourself you can you know you can beat yourself up and say why why you're no good enough aren't you and then the it's on the part of yourselves as well well I'm doing my best I'm just I can't I can't do it I'm not I'm not good enough the voice in the head for some people the spiritual awakening comes when they become aware that there's a voice in their head and there's the awareness at the moment esta wareness you might even be able to choose to let go of a certain thought a repetitive thought that you don't need anymore that you don't want anymore and then you you surrender it or you breathe it out you don't need it you record an emotion but sometimes people's and the grip of strong emotions but if there's a little bit of awareness there if at let's say it's anger you're suddenly anger arises but in the background you aware that this emotion of anger so there's a small element of choices come in do you want to then attract this person if there's awareness you can observe the anger but main main longer may no longer need to act it out I'm not talking about suppressing but recognizing the more awareness you have or presence the more choices in your life and then it's only then that you actually become truly intelligent because this awareness is not an IQ thing the way you can have I've met highly intelligent with one or two or three PhDs academics and others were completely unconcerned aware still just completely in their minds and people who do in their personal lives of very dysfunctional personal lives so it's not to be equated with intelligence this awareness it's what do you make of that life actually so if there's someone that exists in that state all the time but then becomes any you know a world-changing scientist or mathematician or or athlete or whatever it takes they have to stay in that whether it's consciously or not they have to stay in that mode of thinking what what do you make of that life that maybe doesn't lock in to hearing the inner voice well it can be a very extremely unbalanced life and no matter how intelligent they are even people who have there are some people who are very creative in one area but the rest of their lives is completely unbalanced and then some people are almost destroyed by the by the UH the lack of balance in their lives like famous people like even some famous pop artists who were they were quite quite creative in the way Michael Jackson for example as a person he's just come she's just I mean he's passed away now but I remember seeing him an interviewer as a person he's just doodled it I just got much to say mr. teammate and reformed but the moment he moves he makes a dance movement or just a power flow through him and I saw that but these the important thing is the this said this the creative intelligence needs to come into the interest of your lay your knife needs to become a work of art the creative work of art not just a little area your life so what the world needs is actually not more intelligence it doesn't need more knowledge I mean we're just we're drowning in facts and information we don't need more of that to use an old-fashioned word what the world needs is wisdom wisdom is inseparable from awareness it arises out of awareness without wisdom you are told you know you may be identified with the the polarities of life there were perhaps worth mentioning here you know the ancient yin and yang Chinese way of looking at the world there's the the yin is the feminine principle and the yang is the masculine principle so these the polarities are everywhere in life this is a very for Western mind is a very strange way of looking at things but the Chinese philosophy ancient Chinese philosophy says this is there's a play of the the world is a manifestation of the play between yin and yang the feminine and masculine principles you may remember the symbol of yin and yang the birth and here too you can be you can be in the grip of a particular energy movement without awareness you can get into the grip of yang and then you would become quite destructive if you go to an extreme a country can be in the grip of yang energy like Germany was Russia China any country where this dictatorship is in the grip of an extreme grip of Yang and traditionally society in at least in the West has been dominated by the yang energy with occasional interludes of yen in-between but relatively insignificant for example the Romantic movement in the 19th century in art and literature was again coming in but not for too long so would you put the Enlightenment in every yen stated in enlightenment there was a bit of yen coming in yes yes but to the first half of the 20th century was an extreme manifestation of yang the world wars the genocide in in Germany in Russia and China Cambodia and other places absurd unconsciousness yang a Yank then the world the Western world especially experienced as a reaction to the extreme yang an influx of yen it started in the 60s actually a very strong influx of game and with that came the woman's women's movement and all those things more empathy towards other human beings came in also an openness to work to support spirituality more instead of the rigid patterns of institutionalized religion there was an openness towards influx also of Eastern spirituality coming into the West there was an embassy over with this is where the embassy where with a disadvantaged humans came from an embassy to the suffering of people who are physically disabled be mentally disabled or the so called marginalized all those things this is a wonderful thing human could sense their suffering so more empathy came up and this was a great thing it's a necessary thing education changed completely from being dominated by the yang energy discipline and yang and now education became more and more permissive you do your own things it became so permissive that eventually there was no structure anymore all and schools became chaotic and family many families became totally chaotic and so and the the wonderful empathy towards other human beings turned into political correctness quickly if the world was moving towards an extreme of a yen at to counterbalance but there was no awareness so people first were in the grip of the yang movement and identified with that as a collective and now a significant portion of the Western civilization not all but a significant portion of the population is in the grip of a yen movement and it's not stopping it's going to an extreme where something that it was initially good and necessary yeah now anything that goes to an extreme becomes destructive and another ancient saying in Greek philosophies nothing in excess nothing in excess so now the collective is is in the grip not all of it but to give him part the especially the the mass the media universities and so on are strongly in the grip of yen Germany is a interesting example they like to go to extremes they were an extreme of yang they became the most aggressive country in Europe and now they're going into extreme again they are the most compassionate country in Europe except Sweden the most common they open their borders completely so please we want to help you this is this is this consists of two things there is the compassion that arises when the incomes in there is another element that needs to be mentioned yes there is also guilt which plays its part to the combination of of guilt and yen energy so yen is symbolized as this this is yen receptive open this is yang you can see yang issus mask in the thrusting principle it's almost a sexual gene yang so yang says let's close the borders on extreme form of yang says let's expand our country and then close the borders let's attack the neighboring countries and then we'll be even bigger the extreme of yen says no borders at all anybody can walk and this it's if it feels so good to be able to stay how can people deny human being someone to better life how can we written 9 it feels so wonderful to say that but what's lacking is wisdom and compassion is there and it's wonderful so you have yin and yang what's missing is if they need to be instead of two polarities you need to be a triangle at the apex of the triangle you need have awareness if there's nothing where 'no Stanek stream of eyes i general yang you know it's so interesting because i wasn't really planning on doing anything sort of political with you but actually i think in the last few minutes you've given me as good political analysis to sort of where we are so without getting into the the nitty-gritty of politics if your premise is basically right and this is why i always say the road to hell is paved with good intentions but I'm frustrated with right now that you're describing as Yin I don't believe there are evil people there can be there can be bad actors within that let's say or people that aren't acting in their conscious but I don't believe that the bulk of them are but if we're active if we're right now we're caught between this how does the good decent person that I think most people are that can check in and out of their higher self and all of those things but that want a decent world how do we how do we help these sides to get to that place well first you have to be careful with yourself so that you think okay do not get drawn to either one or the other extreme because now the reactive mode of course - fine - again it would be to go too far into yang and so a society they it goes totally into yin would put fascism again that's a danger so the individual needs to be aware that they don't want the reactivity so that you remain aware so you don't contribute to the polarization in the world so what what you contribute whether it's only social media or in person when you speak to somebody or you write something be careful that you do not confuse also somebody's mental emotional position which may be whether they are there with who they are and then regard him as an enemy the ego feels strengthened the more enemies it can have the stronger it feels there's always the tendencies the unconscious ego to make others into enemies so it's we need to develop enough awareness to be able to conduct a conversation with another human being without regarding the other who might hold very very different mental positions as an enemy I was very happy to see recently happen to see an interview on YouTube with a guy who has come quite a long way Russell Brand mm-hm has come a long way with it a breeze doing great sea drinks now even anybody who hasn't seen that matter for a long time should see him again he met with Candice Owens oh I saw I thought and they exactly pretty incredible they had an interview he's on the Left she's on the right they were in many ways opposing opposite viewpoints respected each other as human beings without making the other into an enemy that is a wonderful step if they can do it but can other people don't do it it rust requires a little bit of awareness so that you can then have a conversation and it's only by having a conversation that you can find somewhere a middle a middle way somebody this is a Buddhist expression Buddhism is called the middle way you find the middle way somewhere if we don't have conversations with others we have different viewpoints then the there will be deterioration and eventually it might even be violence so it's interesting because I know you talk a lot about the collective conscious which obviously I mean look you happen to see me on YouTube that brought us here now your message can get out to you know tons of other people and all of that stuff which is absolutely incredible so that's the that's the great part of the internet that I think has fed the collective unconsciousness unconscious but then there's another part of it where we seemingly are just fighting all day long and you mentioned before we're distracted all day long so if we're standing on a corner we automatically go to our phone do you think that level of distraction and technology and our our adolescents relative to knowing what is really going on by having the world in your pocket at all times do you think that is leading us to to a sort of strange existential crisis that actually could have never happened before just because of the the speed with which yes we can communicate and learn and and ate and all of those things yes well there's both what is community what is communicated through these devices but the very fact that there is this device this was a many years ago there was a book by Marshall McLuhan which says the medium is the message and it was about television but the the nature of the device itself we we need to be very careful because what it does is it contributes to the clutter of our minds so no matter potentially it it can be be a very beneficial thing to connect with humans through these devices but at the moment the dangers that it might be destructive are greater I can see what it does to children who from an early age interact with these and no longer able to have personal relationships increasing number of children have attention deficit disorder now what is attention deficit disorder they can't focus on anything very long anymore what does that do to human consciousness what does it do to a civilization if humans grow up now without the ability to focus on tension for very long because ending any creative act requires you to be present with something a period of time to give it attention and if humans lose the ability to give attention then they lose the ability to be creative if they lose the ability to be creative they lose the ability even to solve their problems because the problems that they have created it requires wisdom and true creativity to solve those problems so all kinds of scenarios are possible scenario of a breakdown of civilization within two generations is a possibility but these things if these things I we need to learn how to use these devices in the same way that we have to learn how to use our minds because they are an extension of our minds so if become more aware of what our mind is doing then it might be easier also due to behind all these devices because they are an extension and amplification of the mind and the dysfunction that we see on the internet with all these dysfunctional behavior and so on it's just it's an externalization and an amplification of the dysfunction of the human ego you can just see it much more clearly now it's all for everybody to see and that might be a good thing to see it because then become really aware of it what are we doing to ourselves that's a good question to ask what are we doing to ourselves this is becoming insane and the moment you see that it is insane then there's some sanity in you because nobody who knows they're insane is completely insane the really insane people don't know their answer so if you see the insanity in the work way that we collectively communicate you say okay I am NOT going be part of that it's necessary to see it and then your responsibility as an individual is not to feed it to stay conscious to stay present so that your input is conscious and does not seek to destroy other human beings and deem demonize other you dehumanize and demonize other human beings so you view that really as the antidote let's say to the mob culture that we have because there is this you can feel this you know it's funny out this morning I was scrolling your Twitter feed in it and your Twitter feed is basically a breath of fresh air it's like when I was reading it I could there's like a breath and it's and it's Pleasant and you know there's there's some of your sayings and some of the ways that you want to help people think clearly all other things but that's so the reverse of the way most of Twitter is and I'm part of that other world and sometimes sometimes I feed it and I try not to but you know I'm not perfect either but I do see this thing where where the mob is sort of moving around on Twitter and sometimes it comes to get me to yeah and there's this there's an innate human feeling you see something and it has a lot of attention and it's shiny and it's whatever and that everyone wants to get in but basically you're saying if you would take that breath if you would just say I don't want in on this that eventually you can actually you can almost pull other people out of it to by your own behavior yes because this isn't just about you yes also not to feed other if other people post negative things about you in many many cases non-reaction is the best thing instead of feeling that's ours and I need to learn I will try to take that other thing that applies both offline and online in your personal life too often it's just well I believe Jesus was talking about non-reaction when he's talked about turning the other cheek I don't think it's to be taken literally but it means when somebody at somebody attacks you not not physically it's an analogy he uses it's a parable turn the other cheek just be free of reaction and that that very quickly deflates even the other person's ego it doesn't the ego needs the reaction it needs the reactivity so that's a powerful thing but how do you avoid then just becoming a pushover within that well in some situations something needs to be said but even then that can come from you could say let's especially if you're with somebody that kind of behavior is unacceptable you can say that in a conscious way rather than in a destructive and aggressive way you can one can actually be very firm and conscious or when you say no to somebody it doesn't have to be aggressive it's just yummy a clear is I call it a high quality No somebody says can you lend me again $2,000 I need I know are still owe you 20,000 but I need some more and then and then not to make the other engine enemy just know I'm sorry can't do it anymore it's an eye quality no that's your present what do you say it and then you can set boundaries if necessary so in some cases something needs to be said we need to do something but in many other cases complete non reactivity can be very very powerful what gives you the most amount of joy in your life now the little things in life the little things walking around in nature sometimes sitting quietly in a room just being I love being nature I still enjoy traveling and the greatest joy is teaching giving talks because that's my life purpose and so once every every time I engage in my life purpose then I'm real in state of joy and heightened aliveness and that's why I'm still doing it yeah would you say your are you an optimist inherently as far as human destiny is concerned you mean or humanity or in general yeah and I don't mean it personally actually I mean it's just in the in the wider world or are you hopeful oh yes I'm opting I'm well I sometimes call it I'm a long-term optimist I wish a world weary active short-term I don't know it's possible who knows where humanity is going right now nobody could predict where it's going all the individual or the individual can only take responsibility for their own state of consciousness but they ought that matters very much because your state of consciousness the travel determines the way in which you experience reality and that has many repercussions you affect many other humans through your state of consciousness so let's don't underestimate the importance of your state of consciousness in the present moment in there's so much more we can do here but I want to be respectful of your time so I'll ask you one more and then when we end this I'm going to beg you to come back but if someone's watching this right now and is really in what Jordan Peterson would describe as the state of chaos or the state that you were in in in your late 20s before you had your awakening and they hear you and they say well just you know taking that first breath isn't going to do it if they're really just out of sorts right now what would be some some way that you think you could help shake them out of it give them something concrete that would help them click you know stop on this thing and and fix themselves or begin the process let's say you know yeah well the good best starting point is the present moment now whatever I say any advice I gave it's quite possible if not likely that their condition mine will deny what I say and it'll say that's not going to work so don't believe what I say now if your mind says it is not going to work don't believe what your mind says just try what I've got what I'm saying now so we become more fully conscious of the present moment right now because this that's all there ever is your entire life is experienced and unfolds in the present moment most humans don't seem to even realize that because they always live as if some other moment we're more important than this one you need to honor this moment it's the basis for the soaked will hope for the future all that unfolds which never comes because when it comes it's and now and the past never happened except when you remember it it's over and you remember it now so coming to the present moment be aware of your breathing and another one I recommend anybody this is actually very powerful it sounds almost too simple but it's very powerful feel the aliveness inside your body and if you don't know what I mean I'll usually I advise people to close their eyes hold their hand like this and ask themselves without looking at my hand or moving my hand how can I know whether my hand is still there that question requires you to direct attention into your hand and then after few seconds you'll probably feel a little bit of a tingling or liveness in your hand that is the beginning of being able to feel what I call the inner body this is here the energy field that the it that pervades every cell in the body if you can start with the hands then you feel your legs your feet your hands simultaneously and then you incorporate the totality of your body and so your attention is moved from your mind you're taking consciousness into the body so one could say you're now inhabiting your body consciously and when you it's a very very lovely feeling and you'll notice that you're no longer thinking very much you can't and all the the problems that you have to a large extent we are created by dysfunctional thinking and the emotions that accompany dysfunctional thinking most of the problems reside in your mind so if you are able to become more present then you access a higher or deeper dimension of consciousness and to become more present you have to be able to step out of your mind without losing consciousness so the consciousness the goes into the body if the body becomes an anchor you can hold it true several minutes at a time becomes an anchor for being present become as present as you can or the present of sense perceptions it's very important sense perceptions can also bring you into the present moment an expression you could use is come to your senses in both meanings of the work expression come to your senses look around because consciously take everything in without label that is needing to label it mentally and then you son you're aware of your surroundings your way of your inner energy field here in the present moment and in the present moment there's no problem copy is not an emergency sometimes yes and you have to act but it's not an emergency he is no problem then your ability to deal with your so-called problems becomes a much greater if you're able to access the power of your presence then when you choose to deal with your problems okay now I apply focused thought what can I do when you return to presence it's always going thinking back in to learn what presence is it's there it's the the kingdom of heaven is at hand sati it's right here it's right here don't look for it elsewhere and then you realize the a lot of the unhappiness in one's life the Buddha called it dukkha suffering he says every human suffers unless they have awakened but and a lot of the suffering is not due to your life circumstances or the most people think it is the the larger part of your suffering is due to your mental commentary about your life circumstances your mind is telling you something that creates the unhappiness even you can test it out in a simple situation you're in line somewhere you get irritated it's taking too long you're waiting you get very angry and irritated then experiment how would I experience the situation without adding any thought to it if I didn't add any thoughts to this moment just and then suddenly well it's actually fine it's not before you aren't happy but we are not unhappy because of the you had to wait you aren't happy because of the narrative in your mind so there are millions of people who carry very toxic narratives in their mind and they call it my life that's not it's a it's a terrible bad and they carry around it doesn't have to be like that and the essence of all spirituality is to be able to step out of that realize if only a little bit of self transcendence which is inner spaciousness and then that grows and then you can begin to sense there is a power in you that transcends the person and that is also the place where you can transcend the the feelings of happiness and unhappiness which fluctuate continuously I'm not saying you've it's not happiness that you ultimately find happiness it's a little bit superficial yeah I made it in the next day or the opposite it's something that transcends happiness and unhappiness it's a deep sense of rootedness in being of a deep sense of inner peace that really have nothing much to do with your personal circumstances I've had letters from people in prison who have written to me said I feel free now because I've read your book and I've practiced it and my life is transformed and now I'm just teaching others from many letters from prison prisoners so it's it's well no matter what your life circumstances are the the message is wake up wake up out of complete identification with your mind and so let's you're the ultimate purpose in life it's to awaken this has been a an absolute pleasure I think that I'm not I think I know that I had a few of those brief fleeting moments while we were here and I thank you for that and I think if my audience gets even 1% of that through the internet waves they're all out there I think this will be something that I will always remember I hope we can do this again because we thank you just started here I normally tell the Twitter handle of my guests but in this case I'm going to look at the camera and tell you guys just to take a breath you [Music]

Channel: The Rubin Report

Views: 1,319,647

Rating: 4.8844914 out of 5

Keywords: rubin report, dave rubin, eckhart tolle, eckhart tolle 2019, the rubin report, power of now, the power of now, emotional triggers, mindfulness, tolle, consciousness, enlightenment, a new earth, spirituality, spiritual, zen, higher self, yin yang, balance, politics, idw, intellectual dark web, news, Rubin-Bericht, rubin rapport

Id: HHhEPUp5X_I

Length: 80min 25sec (4825 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Mutedplum]

At around 9:10 in the video Eckhart describes a pretty similar situation to Jung with the number 1 and number 2 personality etc.

[u/Mutedplum]

at around 10:30 he says 'thinking happens to them' ...same as Jung's 'ideas have people, rather than people have ideas' etc

[u/MowingTheAirRand]

This is a very good talk.