Are You the Ripple or the Ocean? Adquire Deeper Knowledge with Eckhart Tolle

And you sense it very strongly. In other words, you sense yourself also as this vast presence, not just the person you are, the wave on the surface of the ocean, or let's better, the ripple on the surface of the ocean. And the ripple, if it only knows itself as the ripple, it leads a very limited life. If it knows itself as the ocean, then it leads a more fulfilled life. Even though on the surface, of course, things come and go and have their imperfections, but you are then in touch with something that transcends the imperfections of your service life and to some extent also changes your surface life, makes it a more pleasant experience. Without saying that it will be, of course there will be imperfections, there will be gain and loss. This is all part of your surface life. In this physical dimension. You can't live without gain and loss. You lose something, you gain something hot and cold, up and down, a good thing, a good experience and a bad experience. But you're no longer totally trapped in the outer form of the experience. And even if it's a so called bad experience, and particularly when a so called bad experience comes, you can sense your connectedness with something that transcends that particular experience, something that is deeper. And this is how people have awakened spiritually. You've been in prison, or in dreadful situations, or close to death, or are told that they only have a few more months to live and or have experienced great loss. People around them suddenly died in an accident, or they lost everything they had, and suddenly an emptiness appears in their life. And that emptiness is at first perceived as a dreadful thing. And sometimes the point comes when that hole in your life suddenly, which was so painful, suddenly you don't resist it anymore and you just go, well, that's what is. You become completely present. And suddenly that spaciousness that was always there in the background of your life, in between your thoughts, behind your thoughts. The ocean, you want to call it, or the space, is there, and you sense it very strongly. In other words, you sense yourself also as this vast presence. Not just the person, the person has come out of that vast presence in the same way that a little ripple seems to come out of the ocean and looks around and it looks in the mirror, that's me, takes a selfie me, and tries everything to strengthen its identity as the me. And there's nothing wrong with, let's say, whatever way. There are many ways in which the little ripples try to strengthen their ripple identity. And whatever the ripple, whatever is closest. The most salient factor in your ripple identity is what probably the Ripple will focus on most. If it's a physically strong ripple, it will identify with physical strength. If the ripple looks particularly beautiful, it will identify with its appearance and try to enhance that even more. And for a while that works, but only for a while. Or if the ripple is particularly clever, it can work things out with its ripple mind, which is only a pale reflection of the one mind of the ocean, but it can work all things with its ripple mind. And then it gets a very clever ripple. So much more clever than all the other ripples. Or the ripple has had a hard time. And since it was born as a ripple and feels it's been very disadvantaged ripple, and it starts to complain a lot about what other ripples did to it. And in that way, it can also build up a very strong ripple identity as the victim of other ripples and can think and talk about it for a lifetime. And it gives them a very satisfying ripple identity. And so it'll say things like, you have suffered. Let me tell you about my suffering. So it can build up that. So even ripples that fail can have very strong ripple identities. It's not just the big ripples who have the big egos. I'm actually talking about ego here. It's not just the egos. Sometimes people think big egos are those who drive big cars and they go around displaying either their wealth or their strengths or their knowledge or whatever it is they identify with. Or they talk in a very loud voice and are always mainly concerned about themselves. Yes, that could be part of it. There are people like that, quite a few, and, and who think they are better than most. And then there are others who have the reverse of that. They think they've been treated unfairly by life, they have not had a chance. Or they love also making some people wrong. It could be your parents. It's all their fault. I'm not saying there are no unconscious parents. Some parents are dreadfully unconscious, and some of you might have had a taste of that. But it could be their parents. It could be a group of people that they identify as those that cause my suffering. And then they go on the Internet and start putting things in about that group of people who are doing it to us or to me. So whatever, you can create an enemy there and then that strengthens your identity. And if you have more enemies, your sense, your ripple identity gets even stronger. Because now I really know who I am, because I'm not that could talk for a long time about that. But it's ordinary existence for all ripples that haven't recognized who they are in their essence. So it's vital to know that other dimension in you. And that always starts. It's always there. It doesn't start, it's always there in the present moment, which is now. The question is whether at this moment you can know or sense within yourself that underlying presence that is deeper than the person. And it's very hard, it's very intangible, it's very elusive. You can't say it's here or it's there. It's all pervasive. It's your own presence. And if you're thinking very much, you can't sense it, not while you are engaged in thinking about it. Okay, where is the presence? I'm trying to find it, but I can't. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Well, the only thing you're doing wrong is you're trying to find it through thinking. So if thinking subsides for a moment, what remains seems like nothing at first. A space is just a space. But in that space, which at first seems like nothing and certainly doesn't seem interesting, that space, if you don't immediately run away from it, and then gradually you begin to sense that there is a depth there and a peace. And there is more to it than one could ever put into words to that emptiness. And that connects you with something that transcends the thinking mind, but without which there would be no thinking. That is the ripple becoming aware of its own depth, where it is more than the ripple. Aha. And then the rebel continues to be a rebel for a little while. But the way in which it experiences the world, the surface world actually is different because it senses a deep connectedness with something that it cannot be named, really something deep and vast. And it can sense that as the foundation for its life, at the very essence of its life. And then it can actually enjoy the short lived play of ripples. And it actually can also enjoy the way it looks as a ripple. Its identity no longer comes from its external form. And then it can enjoy, oh, this rebel looks in the mirror and says, oh, this looks. I look good. Why not? You honor the form. And then says, I'm going to wear something nice to. Then I look even better and I'll enjoy that. Why not, if that's not where you get your sense of self from? In which case it becomes obsessive and you lose yourself in that. You can honor the world of form or you can realize that you have a great, a very good mind and you can, which may be better than other people's minds. And you can work things out that why not enjoy and cultivate it, if it doesn't take you completely out of the deeper connectedness. And then if there is a deeper connectedness and you have a good mind, then it becomes really a creative mind. There are ripples who have a good mind without the connectedness. And they can do limited things in the realm of analysis and compiling bits of knowledge and so on, that's fine. They are not creative. But if the ripple has a mind, a good mind, and has its connectedness with the depth, which means in between using your mind and even sometimes while you use their mind or while the ripple uses it, because you are the ripple, of course, you can sense an underlying stillness, an underlying presence. So then you, the ripple learns to think. You thinking, applying thought to something. And then there's a train of thought. Then you come to an end, doesn't go any further. And then the ripple withdraws into alert stillness. When you don't try anything, you don't go into a large stillness as it means to an entity, just go into. It's enjoyable. You go into alert stillness. Spaciousness opens up. There is no thought now. And that feels good. How long that takes or lasts, we don't know. Could be 10 seconds, it could be five minutes, it could be 20 minutes, depends. So you go out into thought and you go back into stillness. And then thought becomes inspired. It.