Tips to Live in the Present Moment | Eckhart Tolle

and that is some a practice to to get used to until it becomes second nature to have the your attention in the present moment rather than elsewhere have the main focus of your attention in your daily life in the present moment the rest of your attention so that's the the main focus here is this the rest of your attention is where you want to go to your whatever task you're engaged in has a certain purpose the purpose is you want to finish the task and it has achieved its purpose and that's here and that's in the in your peripheral the peripheral vision of your consciousness that's where you want to get to and this is what you're doing in order to get there and your main attention is not where you want to get and in the meantime you're just doing it in order to get there you can see how that already creates an inner stress i'm here but i want to be there that's a normal way of living is this the main part of people's attention is there but in the meantime they are here where they don't really want to be to rather be there as shown in famous stickers on bumper stickers on cars which say something like i'd rather be fishing when i visited ramdas the spiritual teacher who is now passed away he lived on maui on his car i saw a bumper sticker which said i'd rather be here now that's a good teaching on a bumper sticker so your your attention is and this is a reversal almost of how you normally usually live it's the opposite and so that it's in itself already a shift in consciousness and then of course you're also aware of the past the certain things that you may have a relevance in the present that's fine so peripherally past and future usually future is more important because you're moving towards that and here's the central vision of present moment in the present moment you're either actively doing something or you are more passively perceiving something you're there as a an observer or you're just there not actively doing but simply perceiving that could be when you travel back from here already you might be sitting in a car if you're driving you're doing something there it's particularly important to be present or you might be sitting on a plane and there's a good opportunity for be being the you going to the witnessing mode there's nothing particular to do unless you get out your laptop and start doing that's fine and sometimes situations arise that are problematic that's quite normal in life they are challenging rather than problematic and then you you face the challenge you look at it so to speak not necessarily visually you give it attention this is a challenge instead of unconscious reactivity the challenge is your flight is cancelled it's not one of the greatest challenges a human can have but some people react as if it were and when any challenge arrives is there anything i can do to to respond to this situation or is that something where i simply have to say well for the time being and i accept the way it is because right now there's nothing i can do i heard for example at some airports they're so busy no not sufficiently staffed people when the plane lands they're still trapped on the plane for two or three hours it has happened in toronto and other places that's a good opportunity for surrender some people can't do that they start screaming and shouting doesn't that does not no particular purpose but they can't help it it happens to them so always the question was is this an opportunity for surrender or is action called for that is some a practice to to get used to until it becomes second nature to have the your attention in the present moment rather than elsewhere and it usually implies you are aware of your surroundings that's inseparable from present being in the present through your senses a more alert human being than a normal human being but an alertness in which there is no tension often alertness in a human is associated with with being tense but there is an alertness without tension but it's not enough to be just aware of your sense perceptions that's a good thing it also can help you to avoid dangerous situations that otherwise you just stumble into it you don't know how you got there you move a lot of your surroundings you see how animals in that sense are very alert because if they are not they get eaten by other animals so there many animals have this incredible and alertness not the same as the human alertness but it is an alert awareness of their surroundings that many humans don't have they walk over they will walk in the street and then they they're they're not really there in their in their mind thinking about all kinds of things except where they are and so they're not here whereas the the bird on a sitting on a branch or the deer that's stepping out of the forest and there's a field and the deer stops for a moment and in the ears they're very huge ears they go and it can hear probably a hundred times better than the human or a bird on a branch sitting it goes like this and then suddenly it goes and of course there's no decision-making involved when a bird suddenly flies off it did not think i'm now going to fly off this branch and i'm going to all go over there it just happens there's a flow to life there's no mind there is a consciousness there but there's no no conceptualization at all but when an animal rests an animal also rests completely it is completely at rest not thinking about my life i have to figure something out what's the purpose of it all this is why it can be very healing to live with an animal yes it can be quite a bit of work too but it can be very healing to live with an animal and to have an animal presence in the house dog cat usually this unproblematic existence except when the dark occurred are neurotic which can happen but their reasons for that you're usually connected to their early life just like like human childhood when things go wrong in childhood leaves traces so if but usually dogs and cats normal stages unless they're hungry or want to go for a walk they can be really rooted in being and joyful the cat pass the dog's tail wags and it's a joy just to see it no problem with no psychological problems unless it spend too much time with neurotic humans it's a conscious practice so an animal can bring you into the present moment just to look at an animal it's in the present moment an animal that is lives with humans may not be quite as alert as an animal out in the wild because it knows that the environment is relatively protected nevertheless dogs are quite alert and cats too so we you become again the center of your attention always bring back into the present because it's first of all because it's all there ever is well that's a good reason because it's life itself your life situation yes it exists in time there's a past and the future as far as your life situation is concerned but it's not your life i wrote about that a long time ago but it's so important you can people confuse their life situation with something more fundamental more real more immediate deeper which is called life life situation is circumstances and events in your life and most of your life situation experienced in your mind and then life situation is relationships work situation financial situation living situation all kinds of problems often problematic situations it's very rare that all of these situations are working smoothly and perfectly relationships family professional work financial environmented living situation health situation all working in harmony and perfectly it can happen for short periods but usually something somewhere goes wrong it has to periodically and frequently that's normal and that's good but your so your life situation always has this element of uncertainty instability too although you might not recognize that when you look at seemingly solid things and your life is your experience of this moment the only thing there ever is you

Channel: Eckhart Tolle

Views: 230,534

Keywords: eckhart tolle spiritual teachings, eckhart tolle special teaching, eckhart tolle present moment, eckhart tolle how to be present, jordan peterson present moment, stay in the moment ted talk, tips to be present, living in the present moment, the power of now

Id: 9Y3iH12qSyc

Length: 16min 7sec (967 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 09 2022