This is a YouTube video titled "Being the Space of Awareness | Eckhart Tolle on Experiencing Awakening for Yourself (Part 1)" containing a spiritual talk by Eckhart Tolle recorded in June 2025. In this talk, Eckhart Tolle explores themes of consciousness, the nature of the mind, spiritual awakening, and practical advice on cultivating inner stillness and awareness in daily life. The content is a monologue focused on personal spiritual growth and mindfulness.
You are the awareness behind your mind. You are the space. Because the awareness is space. It's not a thought, it's consciousness. So there's a depth of consciousness to you of which the thought activities only like little ripples. You could say there's a vast ocean or lake, very deep, with lots of waves and ripples on the surface. And the waves and ripples on the surface are the thoughts in your head. And so most people are trapped on that level. They don't realize that there is a depth underneath that, that is vast. And that if they ever wanted to become creative human beings or bring anything new into this world, they would have. It would have to come from the depths. It can't come from this. Just the surface activity of your mind. It's repetitive, continuously. Same, same kind of thing. Nothing creative can ever happen on that level alone. One day I'm going to compose a great piece of music. One day I'm going to write a great book. Just have to wait. Well, not if you don't get out of that. Of course the mind is needed to write a book. Yes, but you cannot have a deep or inspired thought if you don't make room a moment for the depth inside you so that you touch something deeper. You need to become still for a moment. When you sit in front of your computer or piece of notepad and want to write something new and creative, bring something new into this world. Well, where does that come from? From the repetitive noise in your head? No, it comes if for a moment the repetitive noise in your head subsides. That's the moment of stepping into the cathedral. And then you wait. So there's a. Open yourself to the stillness inside. It's there. You don't have to make yourself still underneath. Even in the most mad, the maddest person. Underneath that there is the realm of stillness. They just can't touch it. It's there. So it's very easy to actually embrace. Okay, you don't need to think all the time. You need to have spaces of no thought. And it's not that difficult unless you're totally mad. But not that many people are totally mad. Most people are partially mad. And the madness comes up occasionally in a more acute form. It's there. So can you walk into the cathedral and be there as a. An aware presence rather than a mind burdened with knowledge? Can you walk along the street and look at another human being without commenting? Just look and sense. When you. When there's no commenting, you can sense there's an aliveness in the Other human being. There's an. There's an essence there that is deeper than, even deeper than your mind and deeper than their mind. And if you then communicate with that human being while you, for example, while you listen to them, can you be still inside while you listen? You might be talking about the weather, it doesn't matter. But be still and just be there as the space for that human being. As you are there, you are there at the space as the space for the tree and realize what an incredible phenomenon this tree is beyond anything that you could know about it through the mind. What you know may be useful for certain things, but there's a depth to that thing that we call tree that you cannot capture through that, but you can sense something. And the more you sense it outside, the deeper you go within. And there is an even greater depth in another human being. And the more you sense the depths of aliveness in another human being, the more you sense it in yourself. It always goes together. So relationships become problematic. If both parties are totally trapped in their noise making mind, then very quickly conflict arises in relationships. And that's why relationships are full of conflict. Because people can't get out of that. They have. They are trapped in here. So every discussion when they disagree becomes conflict. You have an opinion. This is how it is. I'm right. You identify with your mental position. Your partner has a different mental position. No, you're not. I'm right. You identify with your opinion. Identify means your sense of self is in the thought that you have in. In your mental position of. This is how it is today. It's. It's cold. Your partner says no, it's not cold. It's. It's, it's just mild. No, it's cold. I'm just giving us oversimplified example. This even that could lead to an argument because. Are you accusing me of being a liar? All smolding in concepts. Well, you did lie last week. I wasn't lying. I was just. And goes on and on. So you are. And it's all happened. It's all. The entire relationship is mind, mind against mind. So when you identify with mind, that becomes the ego, the me that needs to be right. Always. If the ego is wrong, it's death. Thinks I'm dead, I'll die, can't be wrong. Need to defend my position. Dreadful fate. But it's normal. So we are now slowly getting to what spiritual awakening is because we have looked at what spiritual sleep is. We've seen what it means to be asleep or unconscious. Normal in Other words, normal existence. The entire world. Not the entire world. There's some awakening here and there. More and more people, in fact, are awakening, going through the awakening process. We now know what that is because it means you're no longer identified with the mind. Who are you if you're not your mind? You are the consciousness out of which every thought comes. And then it pops back. It's like a wave or ripple. You are the consciousness that is far greater than any single thought, or even greater than the totality of thought. And that consciousness is experienced when you first you touch it as inner stillness. Stillness doesn't mean you go to sleep. It means the mind is where the mind was before. There's a space. And out of that space comes all creativity, every great realization or insight that any human being has ever had. The creative impulse comes out of the vast intelligence that is there. And then the mind, it flows into the mind. And the mind becomes an instrument for that. And that's how the mind can be a beautiful thing when it's not just self serving, but it is serving something greater than itself. The mind as a master is mad. The mind as a servant is a great thing. So that's the shift in consciousness that is happening and needs to happen on this planet. The mind finds its place as the servant of consciousness or awareness. So it's up to you then to invite the consciousness that you are beyond the mind into your daily life. And how do you do that? You do that by inviting space, inner space or inner stillness into your life. For example, while you make a cup of tea or coffee, why not try to practice being still with every movement? Just be aware. Bring awareness into that every movement. Pour the water, no commentary. Look at a flower, look at a tree, look at the sky. And just a few seconds, just look. Listen to the wind, listen to the rain. Listen to whatever sound you can hear and just listen. Bring the attention to sense perceptions. Attention to sense perceptions. That means the mind is quiet while you listen, the mind is quiet while you look. And that's a little practice that you can do many times during the day. And it will deepen your life. Sa.
