Awakening Presence in Times of Adversity, with Eckhart Tolle

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Hello friends, and welcome. On behalf of all of our good friends at Eckhart Teachings, I want to welcome you to this special live session on Awakening Presence in Times of Adversity with Eckhart Tolle. My name is Tammy Simon. I'm the founder of Sounds True and it's a true honor to be here with you for this live session. I also want to mention that this webinar is part of a larger exploration that you're invited to join. It's an upcoming eight week online series with Eckhart Tolle called Creating a New Earth Together. This new series features a full curriculum plus four live teaching sessions with Eckhart that begin on May 14th. We've had many people already register for this online series and many of these individuals have begun submitting their questions already on the theme of Creating a New Earth Together. And we've combed through those questions and and selected the questions that seem to have the most universal application specifically to this theme of Awakening Presence in times of adversity. And these are the questions that we'll see how many questions we get to that will be brought forward as part of this special webinar. As I mentioned, there are four live teams teaching series with Eckhart that are part of this new series on Creating a New Earth Together. They begin on May 14th and if you want to learn more about the series, if you're on the player page, you can simply click the Learn More button. You can go to eckhart tolle.com or if you're watching this streaming on YouTube, there's a link underneath the player in the YouTube description so you can learn more. And now it is a true, as I said, honor and delight to be able to bring forward on this topic that I know is so important to so many of us. Awakening Presence in Times of Adversity Eckhart.

Tolle Eckhart thank you Tommy. Welcome everybody. Make sure you are as present as possible here and now, which means not losing yourself in useless thinking, but being aware. Aware of sense perceptions right now. Visual, auditory, maybe other sense perceptions. Aware of the present moment. Aware of being aware. Which may sound a little strange to some of you. Necessary being aware that you are aware. But that's an amazing realization. Other I could use other words to point to this realization. For example, realizing that presence. That is the essence of who or what you are. That is a deeper meaning of the present moment. Present moment is the eternal presence. I'll give you one other pointer in the I am. You realize that you are the being of you. And that is pure presence. That is the most essential spiritual realization, the realization that you are the being awakening to that realization of being. All spiritual traditions, all spiritual practices, point to that. Now, many humans are not yet ready for it. They are too immersed, too much in the grip of a conditioned mind, which is a kind of state of hypnosis. And here we come to adversity. Adversity is a great awakener. Adversity actually drives the evolution of consciousness anywhere in the universe. The evolution of consciousness would not happen if life forms, not just humans, if life forms did not encounter adversity. Adversity awakens you. As Carl Jung said, there's no coming to consciousness without pain, without challenges, without adversity. You become even more unconscious. You go to sleep, so to speak. You need to be challenged. And then that generates, at first, it generates suffering in many cases, and then there's a potential that it can generate more consciousness. I could talk about that for a few more hours, but let's start with the first question. I'm sure we'll be coming back to this again and again, so let's start with our first question.

Very good. We have Julia, we with us from Oxford, England.

Hello, Eckhart. Hi. This is my question. So when I think for New Earth, part of what I imagine is humanity living in balance with the planet and nature. However, when I learn about the science of climate change and how far we're into ecological overshoot, as well as how fast changes need to be made, I fear that we're already past the point of no return. And many climate change experts believe this to be the case, or if we still have time. I worry that humanity is unable to evolve fast enough to prevent a sixth mass extinction. Thoughts about this often make me feel sad and take me out of presence. Can you provide any guidance? Thank you.

Thank you for the question. Adversity comes in two forms. Adversity come to you personally. It means a challenge that you face as an individual or in your family. Those are personal challenges. They're inevitable. They rise in everybody's life periodically. And then there are other types of challenges that are collective. That means difficult situations that arise and affect large groups of people, sometimes millions of people, or everybody on the planet at the same time. So they're. There's adversity of a personal kind, there's adversity of a collective kind affecting many human beings or other life forms at the same time. So when you talk about climate change, then the possibility of destruction happening in nature, that is certainly a collective challenge. For humanity. And question arises, what is there anything we can do about it? There's a possibility. What are the possibilities of taking action? But more importantly, what is the underlying state of consciousness that is necessary for whatever action you take to be intelligent? Action, wise action, not action that instead of solving anything, makes it even worse. So you're in any situation, any kind of challenge. The primary factor is your state of consciousness with which you approach it. So that that is the foundation for anything that you may do. And of course the foundation is presence, to be aware so you don't lose yourself in egoic reactivity. And then take actions motivated by egoic reactivity, which often are actions that are well intentioned. But good intentions are not necessarily wise. As the old proverb goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Good intentions without wisdom are counterproductive. So there are people with very good intentions. They go to a museum and throw tomato soup over a painting and believe that we're helping the fight against global warning of race consciousness. And I believe that would be an example of what the Buddhists would call unskillful action that actually does not help the situation, but it makes you or your ego feel better that you feel a bit virtuous, or some people lie in the middle of the road to stop the traffic. Of course that again, that makes your ego feel virtuous and you're actually doing something. But does it actually help raise consciousness on the planet? I don't believe it does. There are other actions that perhaps have some utility. There are passive resistance towards the cutting down old growth forests that is there something to be said for certain types of passive resistance? The deforestation is linked to this challenge that we're talking about. But it's not just that. There's a whole range of things that humans are doing to the planet that are all destructive. Overfishing in the oceans, upsetting the whole ecological balance in the oceans. Just mentioned, deforestation in the Amazon and other parts of the world, the use of pesticides that causing many life forms to become extinct. I've been reading it. Even the population of bees is like in some many parts of the world is shrinking. So there are fewer bees pollinating the plants and all the chain reactions, all kinds of things. But there are other challenges also that they might even be more immediate. We don't know all those challenges. Nuclear war could still happen. There's the definite possibility that there's so much unconsciousness still in. In all those people who are in politics taking decisions that are egoically motivated. Sometimes, well Intentioned but misguided. So there are also challenges to do with the human consciousness that being affected by the digital addiction to digital devices, especially in young people, that's affecting their state of consciousness. That's very, very serious challenges being under, perhaps still underestimated that right now there are many young people that have grown up with these devices, have become addicted to these devices who are almost incapable of forming personal relationships. Because the entire reality of 90% of the reality is digital reality. They spend hours every day on this. It's affecting their ability to focus on anything for any length of time. When human beings lose the ability to focus, they can no longer solve problems. Because any problem solving requires a prolonged focusing of consciousness. It tries to be present with something and focus. Focus your attention on something. Many youngsters are losing that personal relationships cannot enter into being. Relationships anymore have no completely cut off from nature because the entire reality becomes digital. And that affects their state of consciousness. And within two generations it could mean the complete breakdown of civilization. When it can no longer be upheld. Human consciousness is no longer able to cope with problems that arise and loses its creative power. So all these things are coming together. So there's a huge. We don't know which route is the most serious challenge now, but they're all coming together. And that's very important realization that we are facing this kind of. To use a term from existentialist philosophy, it's a limit situation or singularity where many, many challenges are coming together. And humanity has reached this point now where when they look at the challenge, it seems it's impossible to solve them all. What can we do about it? There's only one solution and that is a shift in human consciousness. Nor the questioner. Julia's asking is this going to happen fast enough? We don't know. The most important thing is your first responsibility is your own state of consciousness. So that you don't lose yourself in egoic unconsciousness. Again. Stay as present as you can and then see what action you can take if action is possible. But only then, when you are present are you able to take action that is likely to be effective. Rather than making the situation even worse. Which is the case when you're not present and you become reactive and you take action arising out of fear or anger. And any action you take that arises out of fear or anger is likely to be unhelpful and in many cases counterproductive as far as planet is concerned. And the possibility of mass extinction. There is of course that possibility that we are facing a six mass extinction that apparently geologists tell us there have already been five. It is possible that we are facing into six. I, but my intuitive feeling is we have not arrived at that point yet. I don't exclude the possibility, but my intuitive feeling is we have not yet arrived at that point. Things are still possible, they can turn around. But let's take the worst case scenario. Let's say that actually the sixth mass extinction of life on the planet has already started and it cannot be reversed. Now let's look at the previous five mass extinctions. There have been five. The last one many people know about, that happened approximately 65 million years ago, which is when the dinosaurs and many other life forms very, very suddenly and quickly became extinct. Many, many other life forms. And we're almost certain that it was caused by a meteorite hitting the planet and changing the climate totally. And so a significant proportion of life forms became extinct. And that was the last mass extinctions. But that's number five. There were already five other mass extinctions before that. I believe it's the first or the second one. Very interesting thing. There were already rudimentary life forms on the planet. And then one life form, certain bacteria, through photosynthesis, started to generate a poisonous gas like substance on the planet, which over a million years started filling the planet. And this poison, this gas was poisonous to many creatures, rudimentary life forms on the planet. And that was the first or second. I remember mass extinction, I believe about 450 million years ago. And this gas that filled the planet and killed off many life forms is still around. We call it oxygen. So then life forms grew up that actually used that gas for their to generate life and energy. Now we come to another interesting fact. After each mass extinction, life on the planet became greatly impoverished because 60, 70, 80% of life forms disappeared. And after each life extinction, life regenerated on the planet. It took a little while, a few million years, but life regenerated on the planet. And each time it regenerated, the life that came was, had greater complexity, the life forms in the previous life forms. Each time life regenerated on the planet, the complexity of life forms, the new life forms that arose was greater. There was, in other words, there was a greater influx of consciousness. And so the planet therefore faced extreme adversity already five times and succumbed to this catastrophic event. And each time something happened. Because the life on the planet is not what you see on the surface with sensory perceptions. The essence of the life on the planet is not visible to the senses. The essence of the life of the Planet is a conscious energy field. And in a vast intelligence, planetary intelligence, that is an aspect of universal intelligence, the one consciousness out of which everything arises. And that one consciousness out of which everything arises has many strands and many rays of consciousness, so to speak. So there's planetary consciousness, which we are part of. And this, the consciousness, the vast intelligence that incarnates into life forms can never be threatened, that is not subject to death. That vast intelligence, you cannot destroy it. That is beyond anything that could be destroyed, and that is, that remains. So even if we had to face a mass extinction, life would regenerate on the planet. Whether humans would still be there, we don't know it. It is quite possible that the consciousness of planet would incarnate into other consciousness, would manifest through other life forms. But it would be the same consciousness, the same consciousness manifesting in three different life forms. So, as I said, my intuitive feeling is we have not yet reached that point. But worst case scenario, if we have reached that point, even then, nothing. There's nothing to be feared because the essence of life is indestructible. The essence of all life is the one consciousness. The one, the one consciousness. We could call it the soul of the world, as the ancient, in ancient Roman times, that expression, anima mundi, the soul of the world, the soul of the planet. The planet also has a soul. There's planetary intelligence. And that remains. And that will continuously regenerate. And it will, can you see, it will incorporate and gradually it evolves. And it evolves continuously. Where it's going, nobody knows. But it evolves. You can see it in itself. Even you as an individual, you have already evolved to reach this point where what I'm saying to you is meaningful and you realize the truth of it. You recognize it from within. That means you have already evolved, just as I have in a single lifetime. And I know that I have only evolved through this. Consciousness has evolved through adversity, through suffering. And then there was an awakening that happened through suffering. And the same happened on the grand scale on the planet. No suffering, adversity doesn't mean that all life to evolve, we need a mass extinction. All life forms encounter challenges the moment they are born. They encounter challenges. And that's how consciousness develops. Look how a bird, how I often look out of the window here and sometimes, sometimes I see eagles circling overhead. Sometimes little birds sit in the trees and they look at me. I look at them. There's an enormous alertness. When the birds look at you. They go extreme, extremely alert. Why are they so alert? They have survived through their alertness. And why do they need to be alert? Because if they were not alert, they would have been eaten up by all kinds of predators. And of course, some bugs are get eaten up by cats, so they're not quite alert enough, especially if they're very young. And then that is how the cats survived for a long time through that. When the cat looks at a mouse hole, I mention that in the power of now, the cat is totally alert. Totally, it survives. Now if, if you. If the bird did not encountered this challenge, the alertness would decrease. And so there would be no evolution of consciousness evolving through the life form of a bird. I could talk about that for another two or three hours, but that's not necessary. Just realizing the importance of. To actually welcome challenges, not lose ourselves in fear or anger or other egoically motivated reactive emotions, not lose ourselves so that we find a peace, a place of peace where we realize the truth of the. This book called Cause in Miracles, which is a spiritual course which is good for some people, but not for everybody. But anyway, the cause in Miracles, which is a. At the beginning is this discourse can be summarized in the following words. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God, and that's the ultimate truth. Nothing real can be threatened because whatever you see here is only relatively real. It's not absolutely real. There's only one absolute reality, which is a life that underlies all forms of life that is in you, that is everywhere. In every, in every life form there is a life that is the consciousness that underlies all manifestations of life. So, and that when you realize that within yourself, then you're no longer fearful, and you're no longer fearful of the possibility of perhaps even a mass extinction or climate change. And you may be able to take some intelligent action, whatever is appropriate for you. You may be able to take some action. It could be through giggling out information, through the. Or the devices that we have, or some practical action, but it probably will not be throwing tomato soup or painting in a museum, or even lying in the middle of the road. It would be more intelligent action. The most important thing is to have that deep sense of interconnectedness when you realize that the truth of these words, that life itself is indestructible because life itself is consciousness that is universal consciousness. And you are a. An expression of that. So do not fear and continue to enjoy nature, love nature, respect nature, see the sacredness of nature. That's very important that more and more human beings do it. It's not just a rational thing that we need. We must not destroy nature. There's something deeper. When you become aware, you develop your ability to recognize the sacredness of nature. And that is what we need to regain. Ancient cultures had that to some extent. We need to regain the recognition of the sacredness of nature. That can only come through awareness. So let's leave it in that. I hope it's a. A little bit helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Eckhart, we have Miangela from the Netherlands.

Thank you. Hi, Eckhart. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. My question was, it seems that the cause of a lot of suffering for the humans is the existence of the egoic mind. So my question was, why did the ego or the egoic mind come to be during evolution of the humankind? What was its purpose intended to be? And do you see it as an evolutionary stepping stone in some way? And if so, how does it surf our collective evolution?

Thank you. Thank you. Very profound question. I know that some people see it as a mistake, that evolution went the wrong way, but you can perhaps look at. I don't see that as a mistake. I believe it was, as you said, a kind of stepping stone. How did it all start? Well, I'd suggest it started with the arising of the ability to formulate conceptual thinking in human beings many, many, many thousands of years ago. There's more to human history than we actually know of. Who knows? But in the distant past, at some point, humans developed this incredible ability to think. Not just an animal has consciousness. It can respond to situations through consciousness. But the animal does not have what you. What we call thinking. It's a different kind of consciousness, but it's not conceptual thought. Conceptual thought is very much related to the. The rising of language in humans. So the human began to use language to communicate, to point things out, and so on. And gradually thinking became more pronounced, became stronger. And then they could remember things. They could figure things out by thinking about them. And then gradually, humans became the most powerful life form on the planet. And they became that not through physical strength, because there are many animals that are physically stronger, but through the power of thought. So they can figure things out. They can build a trap for even a bigger animal. They can figure things out beforehand. So thinking grew in humans, the ability to think. And thinking is a form that consciousness takes. And the ability to think grew and grew and grew and became stronger and stronger. And gradually human identity, which before was, rooted it unconsciously, instinctively, in their being, as it still is with animals. You can see when an animal, when an animal rests, for example, let's see if you have a cat and the. The cat rests completely. It. It rests in its own being. It is not plagued by thinking when it rests. Whereas many humans, when they rest in bed, they live in a state of crisis. Not because there's anything happening around them, but because their mind is creating a crisis situation which is not happening at all. So perhaps before thinking arose in humans, humans also had the ability, ability to rest in being. It's unconsciously not, not, not as the realization of being. When, when you transcend the ego, that will come to that in a minute. So the human sense of identity became increasingly related to thought activity narratives in your mind. And then what happened is humans developed a mental, a mentally constructed self that they had a relationship with. And that is the. The ego by bundle of thought to do with your past, with your memories, things that happened to you, fact, all your, your viewpoints, your opinions, all the bundle of thought that becomes you conditioned thought and that becomes the ego. And then humans have lost their connectedness with the being. They lost themselves in doing, because thinking is a kind of doing. However, thinking had incredible benefits because thinking enabled humans to create civilization. To all the ancient civilizations were created because humans were able to think, but they had not lost completely connectedness with being. If you lose completely your connectedness with being, even though you might have developed a high capacity for thinking, you can no longer create anything that could be called civilization because you lose your creative power. And humans have arrived or is at this arriving at this point of for millions of humans, they have lost their connectedness with being. They're completely trapped in thinking and derive their identity from the narrative in their mind. Because that's me, that's my life. So the ego was a wonderful thing in many ways that enabled humans to create in conjunction with the connectedness with B. But now it is reached its final stages. And as you.