Eckhart Tolle examines egoic consciousness and the insanity woven through human history. He argues that awakening to a transcendent dimension of consciousness happens through presence in the moment, not through thought.
Largely, most of humanity has been trapped in the egoic consciousness for thousands of years. And it has produced what we now know as human history. If you doubt that the human, that the normal state of consciousness of humans has a strong element of insanity. If you still, if you doubt that, you really need to read a book about, just go, don't even go into distant history. There's too much of it. Just read a book about the first half of the 20th century that wasn't that long ago. Read a book about the first half of the 20th century and what happened in Europe, in Russia, in China. Just read that and your mouth will drop open if you read it and see that actually is insane. That cannot be other than insane. So much suffering created not by natural disasters, but by humans creating so much suffering for other humans. And so many people, millions upon millions, killed not only in warfare between nations, but killed by their own governments. Germany, Russia, China, in smaller places, Cambodia. Just dreadful, unbelievable things. So there is a strong element of insanity in what is called the normal human consciousness. Because all these atrocities, these millions upon millions of people killed, they were not killed by psychopaths, but the people, the number of people killed by criminals and psychopaths is very, very small compared to the number of humans killed by normal humans. Normal. And this is why I've been saying for years, normal equals insane. It's a slight exaggeration, but there's a lot of truth in it. So it is vital that we, and this is why we are now again at a situation where you can see the same unconsciousness arising again in the collective, going in the same direction as before. But what is different here is there's a certain segment of the population where a new consciousness in whom a new consciousness is arising. So that is, that could save us. But I cannot guarantee that it will in the long term. It's all beautiful. I know that the evolution of consciousness will proceed. The only question is, are we going to experience a regressive period for a while? That could be. But no gain in consciousness is ever lost. So what is happening here will become part of the collective human consciousness. And even if humanity has to go through a regression as it did, for example, after the collapse of antiquity, after the collapse of Greek and Roman civilization, which was relatively advanced, humans had to go with the so called Dark Ages for several hundred years. Some people say it was a thousand years, but a thousand years is very little in the whole of history. So it's not important. What is important is that there is an awakening that is spreading still a Lot of it is underground. It is not visible on mainstream television newscast. Very unlikely that you will find an account tonight in the Situation room of CNN about our gathering here. This is a situation room. There was a meeting at the Beacon Theatre. And these people claim that it is possible to lead a peaceful and sane existence. What do you think? And now let's go into the good, the really good news, which is what is this transcendent dimension? Now, as a concept, it's just that, just a concept. But what is the reality of it? Is it possible to experience or to know or perhaps at least to have a glimpse of that transcendent dimension not at some point in the future, but here and now? Here and now? Where? Where? So what am I talking about? What is the transcendent dimension? Let's. So what we need to do now obviously is take our attention to the present moment, because that's the only place where you can find the transcendent dimension of consciousness because it is timeless. There's no past and future to is only by taking your attention deeply into this moment that you can encounter the transcendent dimension in yourself. And the transcendent dimension in yourself is also who you are beyond the personality, beyond the so called person. And then you realize that you exist both on the level of humanhood. You are a human, as I call it. You are a human, which is your existence on the level of form, physical form, mental, psychological form of who you are thought, that is your temporary existence of a person. And you also exist in the transcendent. And that is the being human. Being human is who you are on the level of form, body and mental form. Now, for most people, that's all they ever know about themselves. They are trapped in that level. And that is what produces human history. That is what produces what you can watch on TV in the newscasts tonight, politics. That is that dimension of consciousness, then the being dimension is who you are beyond the stream of thinking.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
