Connecting with Nature through Breath | Eckhart Tolle

So there's nature and there's the present moment here, now, here. Oh, and I thought there was nothing to be grateful for. I'm breathing now. There may be one or two people being with us here, there, who perhaps are stuck somewhere in a room and can't get out because of physical disability, or they may be in prison and they say, what can I do? What can we do? We can't get out into nature. Well, you need to remember that your body also is nature. So you can start there. Every time you take a breath, that's nature. Nature is breathing. The air that you are breathing is nature. The very fact of breathing is a natural process. It's not choice, it's done for you. It's not so much that you breathe. Although we say I breathe, but you're not. The body breathes, so it's a natural thing that happens. You wouldn't say, I'm beating my heart. You don't do that. But that's the same thing. The body does it. It's a natural process. For some reason we say I'm breathing because breathing is semi voluntary. You can stop it for a while, but not for that long. Because if you stop it for too long, nature takes over and you go. So nature takes as nature. You live with nature, with your body. So even if you can't get out, you can start by being aware of that level of yourself, the physical level, the natural part of who you are, the body. And not just by saying, okay, I'm looking at my hands or my feet. Not just the physical, not the external image of the body, but you can go into the body with your attention, and that's your in nature. Even if you're in a prison cell, you can do that. And even if there's no opportunity, you might be in an office block in Manhattan and you look out of the window and all you have is maybe a little bit of sky. Okay, there's a little bit of nature there. You can look at that. But you have more nature than that in yourself. So as you sat in your office, wherever it is, go within. First, be conscious that breathing is happening. The body is breathing. Be conscious also of the preciousness of the air. It's such a precious substance. So to acknowledge that is actually part of what sometimes is called to live in a state of gratitude. Now, some people say, what can I be grateful for? There's nothing in my life that I can be grateful for. Well, are you breathing? Yes. Well, you start there. If you start being grateful for the tiniest things Then gradually that expands and that shift in consciousness, honoring life, no matter how small it is, the manifestation of life as yourself, by honoring that, gratitude arises. And a totally different state of consciousness then brings about good things. But you have to start with the good that is already there if you want. There's not enough good in my life. People say I need more good. Life hasn't given me what I needed. Start with what you have. And the most obvious thing to start with is I'm breathing. And that's something. It's something very beautiful to feel that you are absorbing this energy that is air that then merges with your being. It's an amazing thing to honor the process of breath, to honor the fact that you are breathing. And that is that you can start with that. That is being, becoming, honoring the present moment. If you're looking for the present moment, which is of course all there ever is, some people read it in the Power of Now and were surprised. And they're still surprised when I say the present moment is all there ever is in your life. There's nothing. There is no past and future in your experience, except when you think about it, but not in your actual experience. Oh, well, yes, it's actually true. The greatest philosopher could come, and he could not argue with the fact that you only ever experience the present moment. There is nothing else. The mind asks, well, where is the present moment? Well, start with your breath. That will always take you into the present moment, because you're breathing now and you're only ever taking one breath, this one. All other breaths you either remember or anticipate mentally. And it's actually said that the Buddha recommended this as a meditation, maybe even before the Buddha, but the Buddha certainly recommended that people should be aware of their breath as a meditation. He didn't say, as far as I know, that that will take you into the present moment. And he didn't say that will actually stop your mind too. He just said, be aware of your breath. And so breath awareness meditation has become a Buddhist meditation that's practiced. But the dangerous thing is with practitioners of meditation is they make it into something to be achieved through it. They want to become good at it. You can't become good at one breath. This is just one breath. So there's nature and there's the present moment here, now. Yeah. Oh, and I thought there was nothing to be grateful for. I'm breathing or breathing is happening. And then as you become aware of that, you're beginning to feel that your body is also alive on the inside. To feel that there's an energy that is pervading the entire body. That's nature. And it's very close. That's the closest. And you can't get to a tree that close as you can to your body or anything else. So that's really the closest you can ever get to nature is there in yourself as the physical body. But when you become aware now this is something for us, for each one of us to do right now. Not to do, but to notice. There's no doing as such because we don't have to do anything you can do. Sometimes it helps to move about to get a little bit of sense that your body is alive. That can help. But you can see the body is alive. Can I feel that? Yes, the breath is happening and there's aliveness in my feet, my hands, my legs. Very subtle at first, but it's there and there's nature. And that's already a deeper level than what you see out in nature. When you look at a tree, you can't to get deeper than the image of the tree, you have to have gone deeper within yourself so that you can sense the aliveness of the tree. You cannot sense the aliveness of the tree unless you can sense the aliveness in yourself. If you don't sense the aliveness in yourself, you're only approaching the tree with your mind. And your mind might say, oh, that's a nice tree. But you're missing the depth of it. You're missing the fact that there's more here than what the mind tells you there is here. When the mind says there's a tree or a flower or whatever it is, what you're looking at and call a tree, and then believe that the word that you have attached to it actually describes its reality. No, it's a label, it's an abstraction that you put onto this thing that you cannot really understand. It's a vitally alive, mysterious being with great depth. As much depth as you. Because all forms, all life forms are connected and come out of the one source of life. So you're beginning to go to feel that when you feel the aliveness of the inner body, it's not quite the deepest source yet, but you're going towards the non physical, the life energy that comes from the source. So connecting with yourself through breath and feeling the inner body is part of connecting with nature.