How to Avoid Getting Lost in Suffering

for many years now I've kind of been dealing off and on with certain degrees of depression sometimes more intense sometimes less intense well actually lately a lot less intense in large part due to discovering you and reading your works and stuff which has been super helpful so thanks for that but one aspect of this is that my ability to feel things as as I feel greatly kind of diminished over time things that I used to be excited about don't excite me anymore I don't look forward to things when I you know kind of hang out with my friends and things like that which is stuff that I enjoy the joy kind of goes away very quickly but what doesn't go away and what I can feel is the kind of negatives in my life the sadness and the suffering and stuff in it and it got to a point where I started to crave it in a certain degree because feeling those type of emotions almost kind of reminded me of my ability to feel at all and sort of reminded me of my humanists so I guess my question is how do you eliminate suffering when suffering in a certain way is all that you have left right what about your practice of giving attention to the present moment now we should give attention to the present moment you first you become aware of whatever it is that you feel within and then you need to be aware of within and without that's part of the present moment so that your attention is not completely absorbed by whatever it is that you feel because there's also the vastness of the outside world and so presence to be present means to be present within and without this in both worlds so you acknowledge whatever it is you feel inside you this moment be also very vigilant to see whether there are any associated thoughts with that feeling is there are there certain thoughts that go through your head that reflect what it is that you feel for example if you feel depressed do you have thoughts that are telling you that life is after all not worth living or whatever the thoughts are saying that people are people suck life sucks I suck we all suck I don't want to be here that kind of thought so you need to observe be aware on both on the west precisely inside is concerned be web on the both of the level of the emotions and feelings and the level of mind activity what kind of thoughts and so it requires vigilance so that you don't move indulge without knowing it in unconscious thinking and you can't separate the unconscious thinking and the feelings so only you can know I don't even know whether you can answer this question now because you have to find out in the moment of it happening what kind of mind activity accompanies those unpleasant feelings and to see whether this mind activity actually feeds the unpleasantness that you feel or the suffering that you feel that's a very important thing what role does your mind play in all this very important is your mind feeding it because this is you you have a big pain body there which is not in itself a bad thing because the pain body becomes a strong motivating force for you to awaken I also had a very heavy pain body that's why I had to awaken couldn't stand it anymore and you at this point too can't stand it anymore that's good so be very careful so that you examine your thinking am i feeding the the feeling and if you are that means there's enough awareness for you to realize it then you let go of the thoughts and one way you can do it by you remember I just mentioned be present within and without you can use for example your sense perceptions directing attention to your sense perceptions it takes attention away from thinking and then you experience the next step would be you still feel the unpleasantness but you're also observing sensory perception around you there's the sky say it's the flower my hand the hand and you don't have to I'm labeling it now but you don't have to enable it you it's better not to label it just to perceive it fully come to your senses look around as an entire world there and you're on earth your suffering ends here where your skin is what you excelling that experience is inside you just one step next to you there's no suffering isn't that strange so that the year that the table isn't suffering I'm suffering at this this inch on the chair here is not suffering it's just inside my this back of skin I am the suffering entity that's me and then if you don't know that then you identify with that feeling and then you look at this then you call and you still have the the the the conditioned thinking that reflects the suffering and say oh it's all pointless the trees is a pointless that sky is pointless what's the point of it all I don't see any beauty in this and this flower is going to die soon of course it old everything dies soon so what's the point in even living when there's a dog he doesn't look that healthy whatever it is then you would be just look at the world around you through the feelings so to be present you have to not label and just just look and think in the auditory visual perception breathing so and then of course and then you if you give it more attention to your surroundings especially when you're in nature but nature is everywhere even if you're in the middle of Seattle there's the sky well it's usually at this time of year it'll be great but that's mine too this one light filtering through the sky and you have lots of trees lots of trees the Evergreen stage Washington as it says on your license plate so that's good you have that and it takes your attention away from you're not think that you're not denying what you feel but you are adding a dimension trait the external dimension and then Nature has a very healing effect if you truly give attention to nature and you're no longer fueling these the suffering that you feel inside you east of course it doesn't go away immediately or a miracle could happen and it does but usually not it's just the beginning of it gradual dissolving or becoming transmuted now looking back retrospectively what you know if you even know the answer to this what kind of mind activity accompanies the suffering that you feel in your body what are the typical thoughts that go with that I guess it kind of depends on the situation obviously you know it comes in kind of phases but a lot of it is just kind of generalized self-loathing I guess I don't know if that's the right term watch our other through what kind of thoughts it might even be helpful to write them down if they're repetitive thoughts she'd see what kind of repetitive thoughts you can catch because they can be so they can obscure your awareness so quickly right especially all thoughts that come again and again and again they become a part of them your fictitious identity of the self the ego itself so you carry with you then the burden of an unhappy self I remember that I had there too carrying the burden of an unhappy self that is and that is what motivates you to awaken but there's already been a diminishment of your depressant absolutely yeah so that's a good sign that means presence is arising and it's is gradually dissolving this brain body in you but your work is not to renew the pain body through unconscious thinking so you need to be really enlarged and what's your mind so that you don't create more suffering by unconscious mind activity and if you no longer feed the pain body because that's now the pain body of course also feeds through drama in relationships it has the two ways of fading in your case perhaps more through your mind but I don't know could be also in acting and re-enacting drama emotional drama in relationships with your partner family members or whoever it may be usually people you're close to or work with but the closer the better the intimate partners are the best ways to treat for the pain body to renew itself through so because don't don't add to the the pain body it wants to feed it wants your unconsciousness but don't give it to the pain body you're not feeding it with your mind anymore and you're not feeding it by being drawn into insane drama in relationships so you so you're watching it it is it may not be pleasant but it's not that bad there's a the your prayers your presence is infinitely more powerful and it doesn't even fight the pain body it just by shining the light of awareness on it it gradually dissipates or a better way of putting it it gets transmuted because the energy is not lost there is enormous live energy in it but it's trapped it's trapped energy so it's failed as negative when that's freed it becomes part of presence it is fuel for presence the pain body is fuel for presents that's amazing so you are we have plenty of fuel for presents that's the good news [Music] you

Channel: Eckhart Tolle

Views: 827,070

Keywords: lost in suffering, emotional suffering, eckhart tolle, eckhart tolle 2019, eckhart tolle suffering, dealing with loss, dealing with suffering, eckhart pain body, emotional pain, overcoming depression, avoiding suffering, depression

Id: PyXrrbYjugg

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2019