12 Minutes of Practical Wisdom | Guided Meditation by Eckhart Tolle

Being is the one thing. Of course it's not a thing. We're just using words. Is the one thing that you can be absolutely sure about. The only thing that is beyond doubt in your life, the only thing whose reality is beyond doubt. Everything else could be a dream or an illusion. Whatever you perceive could be a dream, an illusion. You don't know that it's not a dream or an illusion. Because when this meditation comes to an end, then it evaporates into the so called past and everything that happens quickly dissolves. Dissolves, Dissolves. The same way that a dream comes to an end when you wake up. Except that this dream seems to go on and on, replaced by another and another. If it is a dream but something, what is it then that cannot be doubted? That there is a consciousness in which, if it is a dream, whether it's a reality or dream doesn't matter. In which it arises, in which it is known, the light in which it appears. So your presence cannot be doubted. Whatever happens in that presence can be doubted. But for it to happen, there must be a presence. And of course I said your presence. It's not your presence. It's the one universal presence, consciousness. I particularly welcome those of you who are getting tired of their personality that cumbers something, that weight you carry around and creates the same old stuff again and again. It's a good point to reach. To become tired of yourself that is sometimes misperceived. And then you think you're tired of the world, you're tired of living, you're tired of. That's a misperception. What you are really tired of is the self and the world that it creates or seems to create out there with the same old conflict, the same old problems, or different problems, but basically the same. If you're deep down, the same old thoughts in your head again and again, the same complaints. Oh dear. So, the spiritual path. There are many practices you can use in order to access the dimension of presence, which is the spiritual dimension. But the most direct practice that immediately accesses that dimension, we could call that surrender. What is that? It is to offer no resistance or opposition to whatever arises in the present moment. Whatever happens, whatever arises, whatever people say or do, to become one with the isness of the present moment. The present moment always already is the way it is. There's no doubt about that. Whatever form this moment takes, it is as it is. And if internally, then you give up opposing, which is the normal state associated with dense personalities, instead of opposing internally, what is getting upset, getting angry, arguing with what is either just in your head or out aloud, telling people what they should have done or should be doing, but are not doing, what it should be like, what it isn't like, what I should be doing, what I'm not doing. I should be whatever form the opposition takes. And I mentioned a few minutes ago those of you who are getting tired of the old personality. And of course this is part of the old personality, the way in which it interacts with people and events and places. It's not usually pleasant. There's always some resistance, always something not good enough, always something missing here and now. Wherever you go, the structure stays with you, goes with you. So you recognize that that's an important part of the false self that lives through opposition to what is. It strengthens itself through that sense of separation, separating itself from what's going on, condemning it, judging it and people. And then you realize, what happens if I just accept whatever arises in the present moment, Say, oh, that's what is. You can still take action, but foundation is acceptance, surrender. And then immediately the false self can't really operate anymore. And something else comes in, which is essence, which is awareness, which is consciousness itself. So the most fundamental spiritual practice is surrender. So that internally you are one with what is. And immediately you are a spiritual master, because that's all. A master master does not necessarily have more knowledge than you. You may have much more knowledge than a spiritual master, but the master lives in alignment with the isness of the present moment. That's all. And that's where the power arises. Because when you're aligned with the isness, that inner spaciousness opens up. Essence is there, and that is the power that then moves through you and can become a thought. It can express itself in form through a thought, an action, a movement, something you do or make in many ways or just as an emanation. That is true power. But it's not your power, it's universal power, and you become one with it.