- It is madness to argue with is. It is. (tranquil music) Intelligent action arises if the starting point is alignment with what is internally. (bell dinging) The nature and function of challenges and difficulties in the
evolutionary process, we can use the term challenge, which already has a positive spin to it. Something happens and you
call it, it's a big challenge, (audience laughing) but without the positive spin, you would say, "It's really bad. (audience laughing) Oh, it's so bad, what just happened." Then you become more spiritual and say, "I'm faced with a challenge." Okay. Now, challenges come in many forms. There's no human life that
is not profoundly challenged in one way or another. Some humans are challenged by physical challenges, difficulties. Other humans are usually challenged by dreadful psychological challenges and their own minds, personal challenges in your personal life, collective challenges that affect millions of people at the same
time, all in various ways. We've just had one. So it seems that many things are almost designed in one's life to stop you from evolving
or becoming more conscious. And many people say, "If
I only had surroundings, if I lived in a place
that was peaceful and calm and my needs are met, my basic needs are met and I got pure food and everything else, so I don't have to worry
about things anymore, if I could only live in
this perfect environment, I could really make spiritual
progress if I only had that. But I don't, I can't." And no matter what stage you're at, always obstacles arise continuously. Sometimes things go well, and
then another obstacle goes, and then they go well again, oh. Obstacles come in many, many forms: physical, relationship,
financial, home situation, all kinds of things. Pandemic is a collective one and other collective ones
most likely coming soon. The strange thing is evolution happens only
when faced with obstacles. That happens on every level,
physical level, every level. It's only when an obstacle is encountered that there's a call for more energy and then more energy flows in and whatever the frequency of energy, could even be physical. For example, if you want
to have a stronger body, it's not going to happen if
you lie on your sofa every day, drinking beer and watching Netflix. You can say, "I want a stronger body." Yeah, well, it's not happening. (audience laughing) Now, what do you have to
do to have a stronger body? To put it in strange terms, you have to, at first, you have to make
life difficult for your body. For example, you go jogging. (Eckhart panting) And you think I wish I was
watching Netflix on my sofa, but the body doesn't like it. But you say, and then you lift the weight, (Eckhart grunting)
(audience laughing) but you making life difficult
for your body, very difficult. But only then it happens. Your body then demands more energy and an influx of energy
comes that eventually is translated into
muscle growth and so on. And then a point comes when
actually more energy has come, then you suddenly enjoy that. But the enjoyment is preceded
by experiencing difficulty and obstacle. On every level, humans evolve. Many, many people here, I know that from what people have told me, it's always the case. Many of you would not be here if you had not encountered
very difficult life situations, either through loss or breakdown of relationships, loss of loved ones, serious physical illness, accident. Many people have told me, "I would never have come,
realized what this is about if I hadn't gone through this
difficult period in my life." It's then there's an influx of energy that comes and at the highest level, it is an increase in consciousness. As you're faced with difficulties, some difficulties can be removed on a practical level. Many other difficulties require
an increase in consciousness for you to overcome
them or transcend them. I've had correspondence
from people in prison. For many, some are in prison for life, and they've said, "I have awakened through coming into
contact with this teaching. I have awakened and I am
free in a prison cell." So it is in your comfort zone, it is very unlikely that the awakening will happen to any human being as long as they remain
in their comfort zone. Perhaps if they'd had, this
is the last incarnation, as they've already gone
through an enormous amount of evolution in previous lifetimes, and then perhaps, at a very early age, they can already awaken. But most humans, they
do not awaken as long as they're in their comfort zones. Oh, it's good enough. Oh, I mean, comfort zone is
not all that happy mostly, but at least it's not too bad. But when you're taken
out of your comfort zone, that's where evolution happens, the evolution of consciousness. So in other words, you need the bad to evolve. Sorry. (audience laughing) And life doesn't leave you alone. Even after awakening, you
got challenges coming. (Eckhart imitating whooshing sound) Oh my God. But what changes is, and this is important,
that you no longer demand that the world should leave you alone and should make you happy. It can't. As long as you think it should, and there's always something wrong when you're being
challenged by this or that. You think there's something
deeply wrong with my life. I'm being challenged, or in other words, I'm experiencing all these difficulties. And so then you realize,
you drop the demands that the world should make you happy because the world isn't here for that. It's here to make you
conscious, to awaken you. And it does that by confronting you with difficulties one after another. Now, some difficulties are
so bad that they kill you. That's true. That could happen. And then you get another
chance after that. It was perhaps the philosopher
Nietzsche who said, "What what doesn't kill
me makes me stronger." (Eckhart laughing) There's some truth to that. So when challenges happen, important thing is how
do I meet this challenge? With what state of consciousness
do I meet this challenge? And that determines
the further development of that particular situation also. If you're able to meet
a challenge consciously instead of reactively, then quickly, it becomes
transformed also externally as a challenge. To meet it consciously means, in the first instance, to
accept this moment as it is, no matter what it presents you with, no matter what this moment,
what form this moment takes, you accept this moment as it
is because you might as well because it already is. It is madness to argue with is. It is. Of course, then what can you do about it if you need to take action or can take action. Intelligent action arises if the starting point is alignment with what is internally. This is what is, and
then if action is needed, right action will arise. But if you immediately
you go into reactivity, you make the situation worse than it is. You often amplify something bad and it becomes even worse
and worse through reactivity. You can verify this when dealing
with an unconscious human. If you react to their unconsciousness, then you yourself become more unconscious and you make them more unconscious
and you get huge drama. And again, collectively too, when faced with a difficulty,
how aware can you be when you are prior to taking action? Are you just reacting or are you able to be aware, which means is wisdom present? We haven't mentioned this word before, but it's inseparable from
what we're talking about. Wisdom is the higher intelligence that operates through you when you're in touch with
the vertical dimension. All you have when you're not in touch with the vertical dimension, you might have the clever human mind that can work things out
in a very limited way, but wisdom is not there. Wisdom sees the totality of the situation, and in taking action, it considers immediately
other consequences of the action in the totality. And not through breaking things down, but there is the same way in which you... You remember we talked
about the two modalities of knowing: conceptual and
direct knowing through awareness. And that applies here too when you look at a problem
that needs solve solving. You look at is there wisdom in what you do or just mental cleverness? And anything you do when
you react to a problem, then if you will make it worse, or you solve one problem and create four or five others in the
process of solving one. So the world drama gets amplified through the egoic
reactivity that always says, "This should not be happening." Not aligned with the present moment. So wisdom is what the world needs. And wisdom can only
come through awareness, and that is the deeper
modality of knowing. Intelligence is not enough. The world is full of
intelligent people, so-called. I mean, really, if you really look, is that intelligence? (audience laughing) And they're creating
that, what are they doing? They got their university degree. So I suppose in conventional terms, we have to call it intelligence, and then they're creating
havoc on the planet. No wisdom. An increase in intelligence will not save us or an increase
in knowledge what's most. Only wisdom can, and wisdom
is inseparable from awareness, the arising of awareness. It comes it from the dimension
of the vertical dimension of depth, not through thinking. So when you look at a situation and you are able to be alert and still, you look and then the
realization of what action is, the right action comes.
