A Guide to The Essence of You | Eckhart Tolle on Awakening Through Life's Challenges (Part 2)

This is my invitation to you. Now you don't right now voluntarily not being forced into that awakened state, but voluntarily going there. Don't need to wait for a big drama, tragedy to happen in your life. Well, you could, but this saves time. So the being of you, the human and the being, another term I use, I have basically say I have three terms. I use them all because some people find one term more helpful than another. You can look at as the. Here's you as a human and what is to be discovered is you as a being. That's one way of putting it. The other way of putting it is you are here as a form identity, something to be discovered to fulfill the purpose. The true purpose of your life is to discover your essence identity. And another way of putting the same thing there is you as the surface I, which is the ripple on the surface of the ocean, the surface I and you as the deep eye. The deep eye is the being. The deep I is your essence identity. So your ultimate life purpose is not the achievement of the deep I, because the deep I is already your essential identity. So it is not something you can achieve because achievement means you need time to get there. The deep I is already there in you, but simply covered up by these layers of thought and emotion. So what we are really talking about is consciousness. Consciousness. When it, when you think, consciousness takes the form of a thought in the same way that the ocean can take the form of a wave or ripple that appears on the surface of the ocean. So when you think, then consciousness has, let's use this spiritual term, consciousness has incarnated. That meaning has taken form, has incarnated into a thought. And then consciousness incarnates into an emotion. And then consciousness incarnates into all the, whatever the world that you perceive, it's all happening in your mind. All, all the sense perceptions, they're happening in your space of consciousness. So there's also the, the people in this room, the man sitting on the chair. The totality of this room is something that. Is something that is experienced in your consciousness. Who knows what's actually out there? Perhaps there is no out there. Perhaps there is only in here. Philosophers have been talk about whether what we perceive out here is actually true. And more recently, especially since the arrival of that movie the Matrix, people have come up with ideas that we live in a matrix. One could say, yeah, it's a little bit like a matrix, but. But really, yes, all these, what we perceive are also the forms that consciousness takes. Consciousness takes on the form of you as the human. It's an interesting form because there's no other human just like you, has never existed on the planet. A human just like you with those particular experiences and even the external appearance, you would recognize your friend or brother or father out of millions of people you would recognize even just features. So yes, you are a very unique thing that consciousness has appeared as, has taken form as the human. There's you as a human body, her body, okay? And then consciousness experiences the so called reality through you, the human form, but not only experiences it, it's completely identified with it, every thought, everything. It's like it's consciousness is completely identified with the forms, every thought is so complete identification. So, so when I say you identify with thought, you identify it with emotion, you identify with experiences, you identify with possessions, you identify with relationships, you identify with. You know what, when I say that who is the you that does all that's identifying? That's the great question. Who is the you that is identifying with those things? So in other words, you can ask yourself the question, if I am ultimately not my thoughts or my emotions or my experiences or whatever I identify with, if ultimate, if ultimately that is not who or what I am, am, who or what am I, if I'm not this person, if that is just a temporary appearance, fine. But if what is the thing that does the identifying? Oh, okay, that's maybe something to explore experientially, maybe at this moment here. Because at this moment you are perceiving things, perhaps you are thinking a little. Hopefully not, because there's nothing to think about while you listen to this. There's nothing to work out because it's quite simple really. There's nothing to work out conceptually. But let's say what is your experience of this moment? What is your reality at this moment? Let's see if we can. Obviously you start with sense perceptions, the room, the totality of the room. Then perhaps you can feel your body sit on a chair and you perceive the auditory perception, noise, the voice that you listen to. All these things are happening in your consciousness right now. And you feel perhaps you have certain thoughts and say, how much longer is he going to talk? I don't get it. I don't get it at all. I don't. I can't. But because. Why don't you get it? Because you're thinking. So let's see, for a moment. Yes. So that's the totality of this moment, the present moment. People say the present moment is whatever is happening at this moment. It is not. The present moment is not what's happening? The present moment is deeper. The present moment is a space for what's happening. But people think this moment is what's happening in this moment. But this moment is not what's happening in this moment. Because that's why people, by the way, they say many, many moments every day. No, there's only ever this moment, only the things that happen in this moment, that those things change. So the totality of this. Some thoughts you may have, some emotions you may have. Okay, is that all there is? Have you missed anything of this moment? Well, perhaps the most essential thing you may have missed, and that is who or what is doing the perceiving and the thinking right now? Who are you right now? Who are you? What is the reality of you? I suggest for a moment you pretend that you have just arrived here and you don't have a past or future. You don't have a past or future, only this moment. And because you only don't have a past or future, you just. You look around, you listen, and you're not interpreting what you see or listen to. In other words, is it possible for you to stop thinking and remaining conscious? Just a clarity, just as a clear space of just awareness is another word for it. Just awareness. In this moment. Forget about your past. You don't have one. Forget about your future. There is no future. There's only this moment. At this moment, you don't have a name. It's just a name. Is anyway just a sound. It's nothing. So here. Here you are. Who am I right now, when I am not thinking about who I am? Who am I when I'm not? When I only sense that behind all the things that happen in my life, behind all the thoughts that I have, the emotions that I have, the experience that I have, behind that there is a presence. There's a presence there. And that's what's left of you when you let go of past and future.