The Shift that Changes Everything | LIVE Global Immersion in Collective Presence with Eckhart Tolle

welcome everyone to today's live online event the shift that changes everything in just a few moments we're going to be joined by Eckhart who I know many of you know is widely recognized as one of the most Visionary teachers of our time eckhart's also the author of The International bestsellers The Power of Now And A New Earth and he has literally introduced millions of people across the world to the joy peace and freedom of living life in the present moment my name is Sybil and on behalf of Eckhart teachings and sounds true I want to thank each and every one of you for coming tonight and attending this session we're just so honored to have so many people from all over the world joining us and before we get started I just wanted to mention that part of the inspiration for tonight's talk comes from an online program that we're doing with Eckhart called doorways into presence how to quiet your mind and live in the now have you ever wondered what it's like to live a day in presence like Edgar this was a question all of us we're asking ourselves the team here at Eckhart teachings and sounds true and we're like I think there's so many other folks who are asking that too like how does Eckhart actually live in the now every single day many of us want to be present as we move through the day and feel all the freedom and peace that stems from the present moment but how do you actually do that right like especially when life throws you challenges or problems or it's just the general busyness of the day that can be so distracting well this new online program with Eckhart shows us how effort's going to be guiding a community of students through 14 experiences so we can learn how to use our everyday moments differently and build what Eckhart calls Presence Power and when you make this shift and live in the now each day it changes everything we're able to quiet our minds and continually experience the dimension of Stillness that's always available we're very much looking forward to this and the upcoming program with epgart and we hope you'll all join us too with a lot of students from all over the world and also today we're offering a special teaching bonus when you sign up so after you enroll you'll receive a collection called living free from Stress and Anxiety it includes three of eckhart's most popular audio audio programs The Secret Of Happiness the joy of being and freedom from the world we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to listen to these special teachings and prepare for the program that eckhart's going to be guiding us through called dory's to presence so in addition to receiving a special discount when you sign up today you'll also get these teachings when you enroll and if you're interested you can find out more about the program and register at Eckhart tolle.com and I'll also be able to give you some additional information about the program at the end of the event this evening and now without further ado please allow me to introduce and welcome our friend and guide for tonight's talk Eckhart Tolle Eckhart welcome thank you see Bill and hello everybody welcome to the present moment I'd like this session to be to become for you an actual experiential realization what presence is so I'm not just talking about presence but being present sensing the presence so that presence that you can sense is in between the words behind the words it's behind all sense perceptions it makes all sense perceptions possible it's behind all thinking it makes thinking possible it's behind all emotion it's what makes emotion possible but in itself it transcends all these things it is inseparable from sensory perception thinking and emotions but also transcends those it is likely that you have encounter presence and you do from time to time or perhaps quite often encounter a presence without recognizing it for what it is it could just be a moment when you feel at ease you feel a sense of well-being sense of peaceful aliveness not because you have desensitized yourself not because you've taken some substances not because you're about to fall asleep not because there's a lowering of your Consciousness no it's a heightened consciousness thinking of course is the manifestation of consciousness emotions are manifestation of Consciousness sense perceptions could not exist without consciousness so we are talking about when we use presence we're talking about the essence of what you are which is consciousness the light of consciousness one could say this vast Consciousness that is universal Consciousness to not only within you it is also without it is the one could say the intelligence that underlies or phenomenal manifestations of the universe there's a hidden concealed hidden vast intelligence that gives rise to the evolution of all life forms impossible for us to understand it but we can sense it within ourselves as the essence of our being so the easiest way to point to presence is to say that you encounter it when you stop thinking for a moment without losing consciousness stop thinking means the continuous voice in the head that usually comments on what's going on around you or comments on all kinds of things imaginary scenarios and so on the conditioned voice in the head that you live with everybody lives with that voice in their head that talks all the time inside or I think it talks a lot at your then you're considered crazy people say there's people walking in the streets talking out aloud and you say oh they are mentally insane but the only difference between a normal human being and those people that you call mentally insane is that those who do not go mentally insane they're still doing the same thing they're just not taught me out a lot what's happening in their head it's a continuous stream of thinking and that creates the ego the egoic sense of self and ultimately fictitious identity that you have infinitely more than the entity create by the moment of thought and the emotions that reflect the movement of thought there's infinitely more to you than what you conventionally call the person is the conditioned entity a form that Consciousness has taken and most humans unless they are Awakening already spiritually which is what we are talking about the arising of presence is spiritual awakening unless you are Awakening and many of you are Awakening even if you don't don't have words for it foreign to whom it is totally meaningless what is this guy talking about so you must have had a glimpse of what it is that I'm talking about and if you haven't perhaps you can have it now and that claims is the possibility of arriving at the briefly up at first the cessation of thinking the voice in the head stops and yet Consciousness remains and you can look around or look at yours look at this image on the screen or look around the room take everything in but you're not thinking about it you just it's just sensory perception and what is behind the sensory perception presence another word for it is awareness so there's an awareness that is perceiving at this moment and that awareness is silent but it's awake and that awareness is the deeper dimension to who or what you are that's no longer the person that you usually think of when you say I there's a diva eye a deeper sense of being that transcends the personal sense of identity so you can sense there's an awareness in you a consciousness and that Consciousness is perceiving it doesn't need to interpret it it knows at a very deep level but not conceptually you can look around your room or wherever you are you know that there's furniture or whatever there is but you don't call it anything you just allow it to be so there is instead of a person perceiving things which is when you are always interpreting commenting and labeling mentally instead of a person you're now perceiving not as a person you're perceiving as awareness so there's a shift from personal sense of self shift to a deeper level you could call it deeper higher doesn't matter to a deeper level of consciousness that you are not a person you are that which is prior to the person and that's awareness presence and that's amazing you can then be aware of that awareness you can sense this presence that you are in addition to whatever you're perceiving it's in the background of your sales perceptions the background of your life it's a there's a spacious vast presence that connects you to something that we cannot really Define or talk about it's deep and it's infinite it's just so it's not just the depth of your being it connects you to the very soul of the universe the Ancients ancient Romans and Greeks at this wonderful term Ani mamundi it's Latin for the soul of the world there is such a thing as a world soul and that is your your soul presence the Consciousness that you are is a ray or a spark of that Inseparable from the soul of the totality so it's a Liberation from the ego itself The Liberation of the self then life becomes more harmonious when you begin to invite that Consciousness into your life that presence your life begins to flow with greater ease more harmoniously not that you're not childish anymore challenges continue but all the challenges do once you begin to awaken to presence challenges then deepen your presence and in fact you need the difficulties in your life to deepen your presence as you begin to awaken any talents will deepen your presence in the early States it could also happen that challenges take you completely out of presence when you encounter difficult situations of people you can take you totally out of presence but gradually as you become a bit more established or rooted in that presence the opposite happens challenges don't make you unconscious they make you more conscious so in a nutshell presence is awareness without thought and then thinking becomes a more helpful tool rather than something that torments you many people there thinking mind torments them continuously they have an unhappy sense of self they talk to themselves using unhappy words they talk about other people music unhappy words good Concepts and they confuse but the voice in the head with actual reality out there they can't tell the difference between what is and the way in which they interpret what is which is the conditioning of the Mind when you come to an alignment with what is which is always now life becomes easier not free of challenges but much easier then challenges don't produce unhappiness anymore that's a big thing and the difficulties of your life don't make you unhappy anymore amazing I believe there are a few questions that people have submitted we're going to ask I don't know questions left civil you have some I do I have questions that people submitted prior to the session and the first one we wanted to ask you is from Randy in New York and Randy's question of Eckhart is if you could choose only one practice to bring about the greatest impact of presence in your life what would it be great wonderful question thanks one practice foreign that's not complicated at all we don't need time to master it this practice it does not take time obviously if a practice of presence take time it's not really working very well is it so the the most simple direct practice is to be aware of your breaths to be aware of your breathing for example now to be aware of it you're breathing no before we I just said that it's very very likely that you were not aware of your breathing unless you knew already what this this great practice is but the moment I said it your awareness you're going to your breasts and you can feel the air moving into the body and out of the body and you know so to speak you follow it with your attention you follow the air with your attention as it goes in and out that is the most direct and simplest practice of being present I'm not the first person to come up with that somebody called the Buddha already talked about it 2500 years ago it was called yoga is the practice of the ingoing and outgoing grass in-going and outgoing brass awareness now the breathing is almost there most of the time you're not conscious of it when you direct conscience to your breathing something very interesting happens it slows down or completely eliminates your thinking and there's only an awareness of your breasts so if you want to if you're being tortured by your thoughts as many people are many people don't even know that they're taught up by your thoughts they think they're being tortured by life whatever their lives it is so dreadfuls my life is so my life is so difficult and complicated and I can't just can't stand it anymore this is true and then the The Narrative continues and continues continues and you think that's your life not knowing that it's a narrative in your mind it's not your life to confuse a narrative in your mind with your life is a fundamental very Dreadful error but very very common okay has anybody taught you that at school or university probably not the most fundamental knowledge not to confuse the narrative in your mind with your life because your life isn't a narrative in your mind it's always now it is never not no this is most fundamentally your life is no not The Narrative of past and future that is helpful for practical purposes but no more than that not to give you an identity that's a fictitious identity your true identity is rooted in the power of the Present Moment The Power of Now be aware of your breathing you don't even have to control it there are certain meditation practices that have a very structured way of approaching your breasts and you can change the length of your breasts you can count your breasts you can do all kinds of things that's fine or meditation practices but the simplest thing is no matter where you are and you don't even have to say Okay I'm going to meditate now it's fine I love meditation but I sometimes make fun of it a little bit and you see then you enter totally different okay now it's time to meditate for 10 minutes yeah no and throughout your life Wherever You Are be aware of your breathing whenever you can it creates an inner spaciousness because when you have your breathing you can't do much thinking and most of the thinking as you may know or maybe it's news to you most of your thinking is not only unnecessary but actually very harmful it creates all kinds of pseudo problems one of the Mind Is Telling You it's working on solving your problems it's actually regurgitating old narratives not real problem there is such a thing as focused application of the minds that's of thinking thinking ability becomes enhanced when there is a presence behind it so when you have an actual real problem to solve in your life approach it not only with your thinking mind but also with the cessation of thinking you can continue step back from thinking into Stillness and you if you want to use your brains to access the Stillness it's a good part of be aware of your breathing so first of these are the problems when I have something to think about I usually because I'm old-fashioned I have a notepad and a pen and if I have to think about some what others what can I do in this situation what are the solutions I start writing down possibilities for example these people modern humans like you you probably use some device I don't know what you do on a keyboard whatever so you write write down what indicator can do in this what can I do to solve this if it's an actual problem because many things that humans come up with in your mind are not actual problems they imaginary from constructs if there's an actual problem okay action needs to be taken what is it that I can do to write down this is this and then you run out of ideas and then it's time to become still be aware of your breathing you don't need to close your eyes you can but it's not necessary to be aware of your breathing because you can be wherever you're breathing and stay still enough awareness left to be aware of your surroundings if you want to focus more deeply on your breathing you can close your eyes and then really focus on your breathing but I say even one conscious breath makes a difference in your life if you take that one conscious breath several times during the day what do I mean by one conscious breath it's one conscious in and out breaths how long does that take I don't know maybe let's see I'm doing it conscious price goes like this that was it in and out 10 seconds maybe it doesn't matter and that's one conscious price what does it do it creates a gap in your stream of thinking is stillness a presence arises that's all it has always been there is always there underneath all the thinking so presence doesn't it is it not something that you need to achieve or Attain it's something that you discover because it's already there so you can't really work hard to become present because it's already there this is why in some traditions we would say well you are already enlightened and and the person what are you talking about my life is a complete mess how can I be enlightened all my relationships are sandals I'm not in line well underneath all that mental noise and emotional turmoil there is a presence there is a deeper so the simplest practice is to be aware of your breasts and even if it's only one conscious breath but taken many times during the day whenever you remember and you might want to take two or three instead of one even better two or three conscious breaths while you're on your computer on your keyboard okay stop for a moment one or two or three conscious press or just just observe that you are breathing and just just direct your attention there it's your breathing out jumps you are breathing there's no doubt about it you're breathing so just observe that you're breathing breathing happens to you you're not doing it but for most people thinking is the same thinking happens to them they're not doing it they have no control at all what their mind does they have no awareness so thinking happens to them in the same way that breathing happens to them but this doesn't have to breathing that yes that always happens something in you want to live and it's breathing it wants you to live in this Incarnation and that's why you're breathing and no matter how unhappy you are you cannot kill yourself by stopping breathing you won't be able but nobody's ever committed suicide by stopping your breasts holding their breasts something in you does not want to commit suicide it once wants to to come to the end of your Incarnation naturally and only the silly person wants to commit suicide so get in touch with that in you that does not want to commit is not unhappy presence is not unhappy the awareness is not unhappy so the simplest practice be aware of your breathing now that can lead you into the next practice that they very closely connected the other practice is to be aware of the inner energy field of your body when you're breathing that connects you almost inevitably with the inner energy field of your body because you breathe into and if you can feel that you're breathing into as deep as the abdomen without you doing no effort It's Just Happening no don't make an effort It's Just Happening you're breathing and your attention follows the breath as deep as the abdomen belly although the air probably doesn't go there but your attention goes with the breasts and from there you can sense an energy spreading out throughout your body and inner energy field it pervades the body I call it inner body awareness it's also an ancient meditation practice if done in a more structured way it's called vipassana or going back also probably taught by the go there too evanges we only have fragments of his teachings he talks about the possibility that your your whole body can be full full of light that's what he's talking about so in our body awareness to sense the inner energy field of your body and press awareness across related and sometimes breast awareness inevitably could connect you to the inner energy field of the body and then they merge into one practice you're aware of your breathing and you're aware of that your body is pervaded by a sense of aliveness that you see intelligence that inhabits your body it transcends who are what you are as a person do you feel intensely alive not in not in an excited way in the calm way so it express awareness and inner body awareness they emerge into one foreign we have a question from Southern California from Tam at Garden she says she loves all of the tools that you've given so far and it's been really really helpful throughout her entire life and there's times where some situations happen and it just becomes really overwhelming what's your best advice to help become present when we do have these overwhelming times and it just feels like it's too much to bear and none of the regular practices of presence are working when you see or hear something that's extremely upsetting or you just feel totally overwhelmed and consumed in unconsciousness in the moment recently it felt like all the wonderful tools that we're helping so far didn't help in moments of overwhelm and stress and probably probably deep unconsciousness what would be your advice to help pull me back to Consciousness when that happens thank you we probably need to differentiate between different things here there is such a thing as emergency situations emergency situations in your life that require an immediate response you're being attacked by a wild animal or a crazy human or your house is on fire there's an earthquake all these things are happening more and more these days by the way as you probably know for many people actually emergencies happen and they require an immediate when this happens there is no time to think about how can I be present the emergency can either cause you to become to enter a state of panic and extreme where Panic is Extreme fear yeah it's also possible that an emergency makes you very present itself it it it uh one it it can have a one either one or the other effect on you it can make you panicky and fearful or it can make you intensely alert and out of that alertness comes whatever response is required in that situation not no thinking is involved in an emergency situation if you're present if you're if the emergency forces you into absolute presence then there is it's not a practice you can't say I'm real house is on fire and say okay now now I need to practice presence you know but it may be that the emergency itself creates with this intense presence in you and then that an intelligence operates in you and causes you to take right action for that moment whatever that may be it is not premeditated and it does not come from the conditioning of your mind the accumulated conditioning of your mind so you're not reacting in some old predictable way when you're present it is more likely should you encounter an emergency situation but you have been practicing presence in your daily life beforehand it is your chances of staying present and experiencing an intensification of presence when an emergency happens is much greater it is in other words it is more likely when you've been practicing presence already in normal situations in your life when Drew emergency happens that Brands will become very intense and that means immediately it will take action through you and you will do just the right thing for that situation nobody can predict what that might be so uh sometimes people think people you've probably ever heard of accounts of people who have performed heroic actions maybe they have saved other people the heroic things and they and when they later ask how what did you how did you're so brave how could you do that and they say what I couldn't and I just did it I couldn't help it there was no thinking involved it just happened I did it and when this happens also you don't take credit for it if you if you save somebody's life because it's just the action then happens through you a greater intelligence one could say act through you it takes action so you're more likely to be prepared you will be prepared for True emergencies if you have been practicing presents because The Presence Power has been growing in you so you you will not be paralyzed for example by an emergency some people are they're either paralyzed or they go into intense mode of panic and no it's not likely that the Panic will lead to really intelligent and effective action they will probably do the wrong thing that makes the situation even worse or gets them killed that's Panic uh sort presence practicing of presence is a good reparation a short life presents you with an enormous seldoms an immediate in an emergency that needs to be dealt with immediately so that the emergency does not overwhelm you you you you can face it um that's one thing but there's another form of overwhelmed that's to do with the uh the thinking mind so you have some problems in your life and or maybe a succession of problems that you might become overwhelmed you have several problems not emerging absolute emergencies but difficulties in your life somebody close to you dies and you lose your job the next day and then you get home the following day and your wife has left you or your husband left you or whatever many things suddenly go I can't take it anymore I'm so over well okay so here we're talking this is a somewhat different situation from the actual immediate emergency uh this overwhelm is produced by the thinking mind trying to find some kind of coping with an impossible seemingly impossible situations that you cannot actually do anything about right now at some point you can take action to to solve situations but right now because it's not an emergency so right now you just have all these problems arriving in your life but here's your my investments have collapsed if you had any uh my bank account is empty I can't pay my rent I can't stand it all these things are could lead to overwhelm but what is the overwhelm is uh the thinking mind uh creating havoc in your mind okay oh my God I can't take anymore what should I do my life has come to an end I can't cope with the name Etc I said and there you need to take action and here again the preparation for that should it happen that in your life you are faced with several problems occurring in a short space of time uh to practice presence in your daily life again is a wonderful preparation for coping with a series of problems that may arise in the short space of time in your life so that's why it's very important to practice presence when things are going relatively okay so that what I call Presence Power grows in you and as President's power grows in you when these situations happen you are able to take your attention out of the chaotic thinking mind and bring your attention into the present moment in whatever way through your breathing or your awareness I don't believe your mind when it tells you I can't do it now I can't I've got I need to think about my problems I can't I can't do presence now it's impossible this this sword is a lie if you have been practicing presence and then you have this thought it says why can't we know there's no point in partner you don't believe in every thought that comes into your mind that's another great practice to don't believe in every thought that comes into your mind your thought says I can't do it now there's no point of course you can take a conscious press there's nobody who cannot take a conscious press if you decide to take a conscious breath and if you don't believe your mind it hurts it you can't do it then you take advantageous prayers on a practical level uh physical movement helps if you feel overwhelmed uh go out into nature and breathe consciously there and take in your surroundings nature is a very healing thing when your life is because especially when your life has become a chaotic go into nature even if you live in a city there will be nature somewhere maybe you have a backyard maybe you have this a big park where you can go the European nature somewhere you can get out of the city even better soon you go into nature and nature can help you become present it's more easy it's easier to be present in nature than to be present in a city once Presence Power grows in you you make partly any difference or you may still have a preference for nature but you can be as present in the city too but in the early stages of presence arising in Europe nature is very helpful so when when life becomes a burden to you then go into nature and bring your attention to your sense perceptions and your breathing be there fully and it can liberate you to some extent deliberately from this mental overwhelm this was perhaps the interesting story on my early life when I was a child I was I didn't have a happy childhood well there were some happy moments yes in fact this is what I'm going to talk about now on the whole my life my home life was not happy because my family environment was chaotic and a lot of screaming and anger and a horrible my parents meant well but they were in the group of their own unconscious conditioning they couldn't help it so I was not happy there I was very unhappy at school too so I carried this unhappiness and at some I don't know how old I was maybe 10 I got a bicycle for Christmas so I was able to get out of the city it wasn't it was a medium-sized City so I got took like 15 minute bike ride and that would be odd it wasn't the grand nature like it just corn fields and hedges and trees and little rolls but it was nature so like I was I got out of the city many times on my bike and the moment I reached nature I felt so much better and there was one thought that repeated itself every time I did this it repeated itself in my mind and that thought that I didn't fully understand what it meant but I just thought that this will always be here this will always be here this will always be here and when this refers to Nature so I just intuitive realization there's a human-made world which was the world of unhappiness for me and there was a natural world which were represented The Liberation from unhappiness said and he's repented and well-being and Harmony uh so that's and by first but it was my first spiritual uh experience in life was that occurred many many times so nature is wonderful I mean in a way you could people may not realize the world that you inhabit consists primarily of human-made things and natural things you can divide all your sensory perceptions into your own made things that surround you all the things furnish our cars buildings utensils everything human made and then you have nature even as I said here in my room I can see all the human-made things and then there's nature yes look out of the window there's trees this nature and I've got some plants here potted plants this in human way world and there's a little plant and there's another one behind me it's another bird that is and that's natural and it's interesting to see that you have these these two dimensions the human made things and the natural things and then of course there's always the sky is all the evening in the middle of the huge City with it you can't see a single tree there's still the sky is still there and the sky is a beautiful thing that rep actually can represent the inner Consciousness this is why Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven like this which in my translation is the dimension of spaciousness which is an inner dimension which is presence so Jesus talking about the Kingdom of Heaven Dimension Kingdom of Heaven vast spaciousness it's the inner spaciousness presence Buddha talked about soniyata usually translated as emptiness but a better translation is spaciousness again as an inner State a realization of this inner dimension all pointing to that it all comes together it's all there's only one truth one true teaching Concept in just different forms so overwhelmed yes actually emergencies and then there's the overwhelmed by your mind and that you can do something about and get ready for it because we all get challenged and we're living in a Time when collectively Humanity is going to be challenged more and more so there will be challenges that affect every one of us there have already been some and there are some now the collective challenges so you're either prepared for them or you're not if you're not prepared you can become very unhappy and you won't be able to cope but if you are prepared it will the challenge is that that humanity is facing will be an Inseparable part of the Awakening of humanity humans don't awaken even other life forms don't awaken unless they are challenged deeply that is part of the evolution of consciousness so it's all good what looks bad on the surface on a deeper higher perspective is all good and it will make sense be ready for the challenges in life it's incredibly important to grow in presence so to speak so The Presence Power can manifest itself more fully through you presence itself is timeless of course but your ability to to become a vessel for presence a conduit for presence that we pray that grows in time because here we inhabit the dimension of time and yet presence is the Transcendent Dimension that is timeless eckered along those lines uh the final question as you know the the title of tonight's event is the shift that changes everything and the final question we wanted to ask you this evening is what is that shift that changes everything and why is it essential right now for Humanity to undergo this shift right thank you so I've already started kind of already started talking about that question before you asked it foreign so it's the Awakening to use that term you may a term Awakening has been around for thousands of years uh Buddha the word Buddha means the the one who is awake Buddha means to being awake Jesus talked quite often about staying awake it's misunderstood in most churches Jesus said to call it's a little quote from this is probably one of the fragments that he actually truly said I can't remember what gospel is from said and what I say to you I say to all stay awake that's Jesus Buddha is the one who is awake when people ask Buddha who are who or what are you he said I'm awake so what does that what is that awake awake is there they have gone through this shift in Consciousness from the egoic Consciousness that is totally identified with the thinking function to a deeper or higher Consciousness I usually prefer the term deeper but higher spine too a deeper consciousness that transcends all this so that if you find a deeper sense of identity than the one that is based on your personal history for most people their sense of identity who is based on their personal history and however they interpret their personal history their personal history is a narrative they tell themselves the story they tell themselves and they call it my life it's very it's very limiting and ultimately very frustrating because this this narrative is never fully at ease it's always it's a lot of the time it's an unhappy narrative sense of identity it's a burden that people carry it's the egoic sense of self it creates problems where problems didn't exist before it creates dysfunction as reflected also collectively in world history read the history of the 20th century first half especially with any history oh my God this is insane Millions I can't remember nobody knows except now how many humans were killed by other humans in the 20th century alone it's like hundreds of Millions and that's correct this is the the manifestation of all the collective level of of this unconsciousness so unless we now we have created enormous Technologies uh which can amplify the dysfunction of the egoic mind it's already been doing that so that it amplifies the egoic madness and if we don't don't transcend the egoic State of Consciousness to a higher the state of consciousness we're going to kill ourselves because we we are we it's just technology amplifies the mental dysfunction that you must have been carrying for thousands of years it wasn't so bad in the past few of the people had only got they had all these Smalls to kill each other and then the technology grew and grew and grew and now we have confronted with the digital technology the uh which to a large extent also amplifies the dysfunction of the human mind all that what people do on on Facebook many not everybody can you can use it consciously too but millions of people are using it to Simply to amplify their egoic equate of who they are at some fictitious image and now through technology they can project this image to the outward World using of course lots of filters so they look everybody looks beautiful with all the filters they can apply to their Facebook pages even I could look beautiful but it doesn't apply all everybody's looks so great and everybody looks so happy and it's all friction so if you have the externalization of the human ego through the technology we could we can talk about this for a long time but there's no need here and now but to see there is enormous amount of dysfunction in the human mind that we need this all the ancient Traditions talked about that already the human mind has great possibilities but it's it has a an inbuilt fundamental dysfunction the Buddha Called It joker suffering you always wherever you go your fans are you encounter suffering is it unless you wake up and Jesus in Jesus terms it's called sin sin means really missing the mark of human existence at the original translation of the word sin in the New Testament is to miss the mark so you miss the purpose of your life that's sin the purpose of your life is to awaken as a human being to become more conscious to to work awaken to this Consciousness there is no other purpose to your life then this Awakening all the others are secondary purposes yes on a personal level you have secondary purposes in your personal life everybody is different personal doses but they must be aligned with the greater purpose which is to live more consciously to awaken to this new Consciousness these are these are the ancient teachings have also already spoken about this but for the first time I would say in the history of humanity is the Awakening now a an absolute necessity rather than a kind of luxury so in the past a few humans here they're not all many of them we had never heard of there have been humans always awakened humans in history but it has never been an absolute necessity for Humanity to to go through this shift in Consciousness but now unless we go through the safety Consciousness we are undoubtedly going to destroy ourselves so this is why it's all vital but the strange thing is that we need this we need this crisis the evolution of Consciousness meets this crisis so it's not a bad thing it's actually a necessary thing to be facing this crisis and because that is a that can that will bring about the Awakening then we begin to inhabit a different world not a world totally free of challenges but not the Havoc that we are creating at the moment which is all whatever word humans create is a manifestation of the underlying state of consciousness it cannot be otherwise and so with the only thing that what is threatening us is the human mind the description of your mind it's it's within isn't there no external enemies ultimately the true enemy lies within so that's what it is all about so the shift in Consciousness is now absolutely necessary but it is also more available and somehow I would say easier to realize than it has been in the past that's a good thing it is more very more accessible and easier to realize than it has been in the past but be ready big challenges are coming and either they will bring about your Awakening or they will make you very very unhappy to say the least so it's a wonderful thing that uh that this the possibility of human Awakening that is the essence of our age the age we live in is uh deep crisis leading to The Awakening of human consciousness and it all comes back to where we started this moment presence it's called presence because it's it's happened from the present moment that's why it's called presence intense present moment awareness of course you remember the past when necessary you can plan for the future when necessary fine but otherwise the focus of your life is present moment then everything shifts just this this is all database actually there's nothing else ever so you might as well recognize it at the present moment awareness that's all there ever is this is your life not the memories or future projections this is your life your life is now it's never not now so you become a friend of the now friendly with now wow you wake up into the now so to speak wow and no longer carry this heavy burden of the this exclusively personal sense of self the the heaviness of the self Buddha talked about the fiction of the self the illusion of the self the Mind Made itself with its heaviness of course it's still there but you're not trapped in it anymore you're still a person but you there's more to you than the person that you can sense that there's more to you than the person so it comes it's all comes very simple present moment present moment awareness is your wealth whatever is in the present moment sensory perception feelings occasional thoughts and you're aware of yourself very important you're aware of yourself but not the self that's the person but be aware of yourself as the awareness itself as the Consciousness itself can sense your beingness so to speak you can sense your presence you can sense the I am which has nothing to do with your history well your personal history was it was a wonderful success story or great disaster doesn't matter anymore there's something that transcends that if your personal history was a great success story you're probably not motivated yet to enter a presence because you are satisfied by superficial things until they collapse because they will your personal history is a disaster then there's a better chance of Awakening but for most people it's a mixed bag bad things have happened good things have happened but wasn't that great it's very limiting so you go deeper so you become aware of being aware that sounds a little weird you sense yourself as being as a consciousness the presence I am the presence I am and there's no time in it there's nothing to do with whatever happened to you in your past nothing to do with it and nothing to do with what's going to happen to you in the future and there's enormous power there it's the power of life itself it's the doll whatever you want to call it and so and then gradually you live more in that you become more rooted in that dimension and that's the shift that is needed thank you everybody stay present that's all it ultimately matters your state of consciousness is the most important thing it's not an ego thing at all your state of your your entire world that your experience is mediated through your state of consciousness thank you thank you thank you so much Eckhart thank you and thank you all of you for being with us this evening I wanted to invite you again for those of you who are joining us a little later in the program to eckhart's new online program if you want to continue this teaching with Eckhart the program will be beginning in several weeks and we hope you'll join us in a community all over the world and tonight when you sign up after you enroll you'll also receive a special bonus teaching called living free from Stress and Anxiety and it includes three of epgaard's most popular audio programs and we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to listen to these special teachings and prepare for the upro upcoming program with epgart where he'll be guiding us through the doorways into presence so in addition to receiving a special discount on the program you'll also receive the special bonus teachings when you enroll today and I hope you had a really really good experience here tonight it was so wonderful being with all of you and you can find out more about the program and register at eckartole.com thank you so much for joining us this evening

Channel: Eckhart Tolle

Views: 198,030

Keywords: Eckhart Tolle, Eckhart Tolle Meditation, doorways into presence, eckhart tolle live, eckhart tolle live event

Id: tWhHe-dKr6s

Length: 70min 10sec (4210 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 29 2023