Am I Ready to Help Others? | Eckhart Tolle

And so they become truly effective the moment they become a field of awareness or presence, rather than a person sitting with the other in case people don't need. When he says, I have been a frequency holder, some of you may not know, although I mention it somewhere in a book, the human being have different callings and different destinies in their whatever they do as a person. Frequency holder. I call somebody who is not called upon by a desire or a destiny to do something big, to create a big enterprise, to have a big impact on the world, to set up some big structure to manifest something big, but somebody who is happy doing small things with great care, love, and most importantly, doing small things in a state of presence. So a frequency holder could be somebody who mainly does gardening or does a handicraft job and gives this person, then embodies the presence his or her work or might come into contact with people in a limited capacity. And whoever this person comes into contact with comes into that field of presence. So this person holds the frequency of presence. And these people are very important too. There are a number of you who perhaps could consider themselves to be frequency holders. Frequency holders have a hard time in this world because our civilization is not geared towards giving them an officially recognized place. In medieval times, Middle Ages, of course, a frequency holder would become a monk or a nun or a hermit. And that was to be. There were millions of them. And so it was a very recognized calling. But nowadays it's not most. Many, many monasteries are closing down. So frequency holders have to kind of carve out niche for themselves where they can hold the frequency of presence. And a human being who is present affects not only those humans who come into contact with him or her, but a human being who holds that frequency of presence. Even if what he or she does is no longer important, the consciousness behind it is what matters. And this human being affects far more people than is obvious on the surface of things. Because whatever happens to one affects the totality because all humans are connected at a deeper level. There is such a thing as a collective human consciousness. Oh yes. What was the question? Oh, yes, he's becoming now a life coach, which is a step. He can still be a Frequency, but it's a little bit of a step beyond being a frequency holder. And is a little anxious and nervous, but at the same time also grateful and joyful. The question often that arises, am I ready for this? Am I ready to help these people come with problems to me? And if you think you're ready, you probably are not. And if you think you are not ready. You may be ready if you know how to step out of the way, out of your own way, become an opening, a pure awareness. When you sit with someone, I assume you sit. When you sit with someone, you become. You give total attention to that person. You become pure awareness. Now, you might have learned certain approaches in your training, becoming a counselor or a life coach. You've probably had training. And there are certain modalities. They vary. There are different modalities of psychotherapy and counseling. So whatever modality you were taught, of course you will attempt to apply this modality. But if you only have that, you're not going to be very effective. You may have some limited success. And the question, am I ready? If it refers to have I mastered the modality that they taught me, then that's a justifiable question. And you might say, well, I am ready because I know exactly how it works. But the real thing in a situation like that is not the modality that you have learned and you applied. Not necessarily saying that you should not use it at all, you can use it, but realizing at the same time, what is much more important is what underlies the modality that you use. And this applies even in highly structured and intellectual and mental modalities like psychoanalysis, which is very. Psychoanalysis, you analyze the part, you take this and this and this and this. And it goes on for years. And even there it happens that certain psychoanalysts who start off by practicing their modality, and then the years go past. And then gradually, the good ones, gradually, without knowing it, they develop the capacity of just sitting there and giving complete attention to the others. So becoming, they gradually step out of being totally identified with the modality. And sometimes they might not even use it anymore. And so they become truly effective the moment they become a field of awareness or presence, rather than a person sitting with the other. So that needs to shine through the modality that you use. And you may find that after a while, you use relatively little of what you have learned, and you realize that you don't have to do it. If you are fully present, the right words will come up. You will ask questions, just like Socrates always started with asking questions not because he already knew the answer. It was a beginning of an attempt, a joint attempt, to find the answer through accessing the dimension of presence or awareness. So if you can be there as a pure awareness while you sit with this. Some people call it client, some call it patience, some don't call it anything. So you sit and then you listen. Then you Ask a question and then you listen and then it can happen, if it works, that the other person can join you even without you actually explicitly stating this. There's no need for that. The other person, without knowing it, joins you in the state of presence and then you share this field of presence while you sit there. And out of that, healings and the answers, if answers are needed, realizations, healings arise out of that. And this is why I said, if you think you are ready, you probably are not. Because then you think it's now, I know enough and I can do it now. That sounds great that you have this self confidence. But no matter how much you know, no matter how much you know, this does not make you into a great counselor or therapist. Knowledge alone does not do that. It can be helpful. But the true transformation and the true healing happens through embodying presence. And yes, it can be helpful to know a few approaches. There are certain modalities that actually make presence, or they may not call it that, the main part of the modality, and those are very spiritual approaches to psychotherapy. It's been many years since I read these books, but I believe, for example, the modality created by Carl Rogers is one of them, where the main work with the patient is to give attention and unconditional acceptance and unconditional means. You don't judge, you don't put labels on the person or their condition. Just it's all based on attention. Now, I have met a few people who have gone through Rogerian, I think it might be called therapy. And some of them said it was very boring because the therapist never really said anything. So that seems to show that even though they can even you can't really teach it as there are, I believe there are some Rogerian therapists who do embody it and others learn it as give. You have to have conditional exceptions. They still are not able to enter the state of presence while they're with someone. And then of course, every modality, you just listen, okay? And you don't judge. Okay? Okay, time is over. When is our next session? This is also, of course, in any capacity, and quite a few of you are already spiritual teachers in your own field, maybe not formally or in your own field, you already spiritual teacher and many others probably will become spiritual teachers in one form or another. And so it's important that the no matter through what kind of form you do your spiritual teaching, whether the entry point is body work or the entry point is counseling or something else, or nutritional advice even there, that can quickly become a spiritual teaching always realizing what the foundation for it all where the power you need to access the power of consciousness while you are with someone. And you don't need to be fully awakened or enlightened in order to be effective. It helps, but you can be effective. I've met quite a few people who are effective in the situation, in the helping situation. They are totally present when they go back into their normal private life, less so. And sometimes the people who work with them, when they happen to observe these people or accidentally overhear something, they on the telephone talking to their bank manager or something and getting really upset. And then there's oh, this great person who I thought was so enlightened and is giving me all this advice, gets so upset when he talks to the bank manager. Just only a tiny example. It gets upset in many other situations even more. And yet in the teaching situation it can be very effective. So there are people, many who in that area, they can enter presence and then in their daily life, sometimes they can and sometimes they can't. The ego reasserts itself. There are spiritual teachers also who do spiritual teaching. Sometimes even on a large scale can be very effective. But if you saw them in their private life, you would say, oh my God.