In this lecture Eckhart Tolle explains that most people live identified with the "surface I," a self constructed from the continuous stream of thoughts. This identification creates suffering, exemplified by irritation when situations do not match expectations. The emergence of a deeper "I"—awareness or presence—marks the beginning of spiritual awakening. Tolle describes how becoming aware of the quality of thoughts reveals how the ego‑mind manufactures unhappiness. He offers practical guidance: using breath awareness and inner‑body (hara) attention as a direct way to access presence, noting that the breath can serve as an anchor that quiets thinking and reveals the life‑energy field that animates the body. He asserts that this deeper identity, likened to Buddha nature or Christ consciousness, is present in every human being but is usually obscured by ego and negative thought patterns. By cultivating presence through simple practices, one can transcend the thinking mind, experience a vital, awake state, and recognize the universal potential within.
Chapters
When you find yourself irritation rising in whatever situation you're in, irritation, as I said, oh, things are not going the way they should be going, this is a small form of suffering. Many of you, the deep I is already emerging, although you may not call it that. It is already emerging. If you find these words interesting that I am speaking now, it is only because the deep I is already emerging. It's only from that deeper level that you can recognize the truth of these words. If you had no access whatsoever to the deeper dimension within yourself, the words that I'm speaking to you now would be completely meaningless. And maybe there's one or two here say, what the hell is this guy talking about? Deep I, what is all that? Or it could be that as I say deep I, you can sense something within you that is deeper than the personality, than the person. And let's see if we can go to that place Here and now, a bit more deeply. The surface I is based on mind activity. The surface I is based on that continual stream of thinking that feeds the surface I. You identify with thought. You identify— in other words, you believe in every thought that comes into your head. If the thought tells you your life is awful, then your life is awful. If your thought tells you that everybody around you is a dreadful human being, then that is how you experience life because you believe in every thought that comes into your head. The beginning of spiritual awakening for many people is the arising of awareness Awareness is deeper or higher than thought, and from awareness you can look at a thought and suddenly realize that for the past three hours, or for the past three days, or for the past three years, you've been engaging in a predominantly narrative story—a narrative story in your mind—and you call it my life. and all these dreadful people around me and my awful life and I can't stand it anymore. And you have a narrative, a very unpleasant narrative which becomes your identity. So we need to be able to step out of the narrative, out of this complete identification with every thought that arises. The beginning of awakening for many people, they suddenly become aware of the quality of their thoughts. Are my thoughts mostly negative about myself, about where I am, about the people around me? Are my thoughts mostly negative? And that's an interesting thing. And do I believe in every thought? And so awareness arises. Awareness is— another word for it is presence. That is the beginning of the awakening of the deeper. So the awareness arises and then the awareness suddenly enables you to become aware of the quality of your thoughts and you suddenly realize that actually you've been making yourself unhappy for many years with your thoughts. And Then I sometimes recommend to people, as they begin to practice that, when you find yourself irritation arising in whatever situation you're in, irritation, as I said, oh, things are not going the way they should be going. This is a small form of suffering. They're all forms of suffering. No, irritation is a minor form. It could easily— get amplified, become a you, become anger, become outbursts, and so on. But let's just stay for a moment with irritation, which is quite normal. Irritation arises because things are not going as they should, says the mind. But of course, the present moment is always as it is, and it's very painful to argue with the is-ness of what already is. Yes, you can change what is, but in this moment, It is. But the egoic mind doesn't know that. It thinks that by arguing against what is, it can do something. In some— of course, there are instances when you can say something in order to change a situation. You speak to someone, that's a different matter. But just in talking to yourself and commenting continuously in negative ways about your surroundings and your life and other people, That is a dysfunctional and that is a very painful way to live. So suddenly then you become aware of the type of thoughts that you've been thinking. That's the beginning of the awakening. But what is that thing that suddenly arises and enables you to become aware of the type of thoughts that you're having? That is the higher consciousness that transcends the ego. That is where the deep I— arises. That is, the Buddha nature is beginning to emerge, or if you prefer the Christian term, your Christ identity is beginning to be recognized. The amazing thing is everybody has that within, but they don't know it. There is that deeper identity, the Christ, the Buddha, whatever you want to call it, is dormant in every human being, but in many human beings it is so heavily obscured by ego stuff and negative emotions and negative thoughts and negative identity, it's deeply buried underneath, so they have no idea that there is a treasure that they carry within. They don't know it. Everybody has it as a potential, and that is a— this should be taught at school. The most important thing to be taught at school is this potential that every human being carries. Let's see then for a moment, let's see if we can access— as I'm speaking now, it's quite possible that You can sense that innermost presence within you that is deeper than the personality or the person within you, and from that place you kind of recognize, hmm, you recognize there is a truth there, but it cannot really be understood conceptually or intellectually because it's beyond that. The most powerful thing, and this is a kind of meditation, It's important to become aware of— not only become aware of your thoughts, but also become aware of the possibility of, for brief moments, of not needing to think, of just being present. Do you always need to think? No. But are you able to just be aware without thinking? That's an interesting question. Many people's minds are so noisy, they can never get— seems they can never get out of that noise. There's always something to think about. And it's only in certain cases when they're engaged in certain activities, some people are able to access That deeper presence. A dangerous activity can do it. Climbing up a mountain, you have to be absolutely— you can't be thinking, you have to be absolutely present in it when engaged in a dangerous climbing up a wall, or engaged in surfing on ocean waves. You have to be utterly— you can't be thinking. No. I wonder if I'm going to catch that wave, let me think about it. No, you have to be absolutely present. So some people have that presence engaging in sports activities sometimes, as long as the ego isn't involved, or they have it when they face a difficult situation. Sometimes it can put you into a sense of absolute presence. A good way to access the deep self is, as a first step, or is to— although it happens in your daily life when you, through suffering, as the ego breaks down, it begins to reveal itself, but more conscious, to be focused more consciously on this realization, I always recommend to be very much used, as it's a wonderful help, your breathing is a tool for going deeper. That means becoming aware of your breath, your breathing, becoming aware, and let's just, as I'm talking about it, Maybe we can become aware of the fact that we are breathing also. And as you become aware that you're breathing, your breathing becomes a little deeper almost automatically. And then I recommend that you— you're not just aware of your breathing as the air enters Your nostrils, but you become aware of your breathing as it moves into you. Follow it down into the body with your attention. So in other words, you can feel your breath moving into the body until it reaches almost the belly, the abdomen. So there's an— you follow it with your attention. The in-breath, until you reach the energy going into here, in the belly, abdomen area. And then you notice, as you continue, your attention is then centered a bit around here, and you can begin to sense An energy there, there's a life energy there. The Japanese tradition, it's called hara, it's the belly. You can feel life energy there. And another significant thing happens as you follow the breath with your attention and feel the life energy that seems to emanate From the abdomen into the rest of your body, an interesting thing happens at the same time, and that is you're not doing much thinking anymore because you cannot do both. You cannot be both aware of your breath and do thinking. You can either think or you can be aware of your breathing. And it's much more pleasant in many, many cases to be aware of your breathing than to be thinking. And it's more than just being aware of your breathing, because as you become aware of your breathing— breath is such a powerful tool for transformation. People don't realize they have that all the time. As I put in one of my books, Somebody asked me, they went to a New Age resort, a meditation resort or something, they offered many weekend courses and workshops, they said, which workshop should I take? I said, you don't need to take any workshop, instead of that, be aware of your breathing for the next 2 weeks instead of going to the workshops, it's more powerful than any workshop. Be aware of your breathing. But there's more to it than that. As you are more aware of your breathing moving, your breath moving into the body, you become aware of the energy within your body. I call it the inner body. You become aware of the inner body as an energy field. It emanates from the belly region into your legs and your arms and your hands. And at first it's a very subtle feeling. And you feel that actually, you can sense a feeling of aliveness within you. Every cell is alive, but it was always alive, but not consciously alive, but now it's consciously alive. I did a lot of that when I was— I do it naturally all the time, but I did it much more intensively when I got the cancer diagnosis. I spent hours just going into intense body awareness, inner body awareness, which is presence. And so you kind of, you become that presence that animates your body. This is the life that animates your body. It is invisible. If that departs, because it is that holds all the atoms and molecules together of your body, It organizes all the unbelievably complex functions of every organ of your body. It's a vast intelligence that inhabits your body, and that vast intelligence is ultimately you. So this vast intelligence that inhabits your body, the intelligence that organizes not just the chemistry on a deeper level, deeper than chemistry, the atoms and molecules of the body, it organizes all that, and you can suddenly be— you are conscious of it, and you kind of merge with it, you become it. You can— this animating presence, when that leaves you, the atoms and molecules of your body very quickly become dispersed. In other words, the body decays. A few days after, a week, 2 weeks after, your body becomes unrecognizable. All the atoms and molecules are no longer held together by the intelligence that inhabited your body. It's gone. Where's it gone? Well, it goes its way. Eventually seeking another body. But the important thing is become conscious of that presence within you, and when you're conscious of that, you're no longer trapped in your thinking mind. You've discovered something more vital than your thinking mind. You haven't gone to sleep, you're actually very awake. You're very awake, and this is the amazing thing, that you can be absolutely awake without needing to think very much, especially if you hold the energy field of your inner body, you can say, that's an anchor, I call it, it's an anchor for presence. Thank you.
