Consciousness, God, and the Real You | Eckhart Tolle on The Secret of Human Existence (Part 2)

The kingdom of heaven does not come with signs to be perceived. You cannot say, look, it's over here, or look, it's over there. For truly the kingdom of heaven is within you. Now, what does that mean? It does not come with signs to be perceived. Means it cannot ever be an object of consciousness. And this is the misunderstanding of God. God is there. You can speak to God, that's fine if it gives you comfort. But the essence of who you are is consciousness. And consciousness is an emanation of that one that is we could call God, which does not exist in this dimension. He's not part of space and time, but the light of it shines into this world and manifests in you as consciousness. This is why Jesus said, you are the light of the world. This is so clear. What does that mean? It doesn't mean you are better than others. It points to the essence of who you are. The light of the world is the consciousness in which the world appears. You are the consciousness that makes this world possible. You are the light of consciousness. You are the light of the world. And this is not something. Yes, it's as an intermediate step. It's fine to have that belief and then it's time to go beyond the belief, the mere belief, and to a realization, an actual realization of the depth within you, the depths within you in which you are connected to that vastness that is consciousness. Now, as you probably know, you go back thousands of years, like ancient Egypt, they regarded the sun as God. And there are many similarities. One could say because the sun emanates light continuously, a vast outpouring of energy which we perceive as light, the life giving energy of the sun, it emanates continuously. It, it gives of itself continuously. And I suggest that in the same way the consciousness that is in all living things, and even in a lower vibrational frequency, in so called inanimate things which are not ultimately inanimate, every form that exists is an expression of this one consciousness that emanates into this dimension. And gradually it brings about an increase in consciousness. So God itself obviously is beyond space and time. There's no development, there cannot be but the emanation that shines into this dimension and creates this universe. There is an evolutionary process. Gradually more consciousness flows into this universe from that transcendent source of all life, from that transcendent source of all life. Consciousness flows into this universe and it animates forms. And gradually there is an increase in the light that shines into this universe, the universe, in the process of becoming more conscious. That's the amazing thing, the universe is in the process of becoming more conscious. The light of consciousness emanates from the one source. The one source, of course, is beyond time. Beyond space and time. I'm explaining something that we cannot really understand conceptually. But I'm talking about it because I would like to refer to the possibility of realizing this. Because beyond concepts where you realize this depth that is within you. And then you see that the person that you thought you were. Is a relatively fleeting phenomenon. In essence, you are consciousness itself. Which some in ancient times, some mystics in all traditions. Christian mystics, Sufis in Islam, in tradition Buddhism and so on, Hinduism, very much. A few people in there realized this within themselves. And some kept quiet about it. That was very wise. And others said, suddenly shouted. This was a misinterpretation of their mind. Attempting to understand what had happened to them. They suddenly shouted, I am God. This was not well received. Many of them got killed. I would advise against it. And it is not the complete truth. It is a. One could say a partial truth. The same way that a ray of sunlight. You feel it, or it comes down, you feel it on your skin. Now, the ray of sunlight, obviously is an emanation of the sun. And is still connected to the sun. But it would. So in one sense, the ray of sunlight could say, I am the sun. But in another sense, the sun is infinitely more vast. Than just the ray that it emanates. Although it's one with it. So I would not say that the ray of sunlight should say, I am the sun. But if the ray of sunlight says, I am an emanation of the sun. And I can sense the essence of the sun as my very being. That is the truth. And that realization comes to you in moments of stillness. And not necessarily when you are being undisturbed by things. This is not a prerequisite for realizing this inner dimension. The stillness can come in the midst of turmoil, too. This stillness, which is a transcendent consciousness. Can come when the egoic self loses important things that made up its identity. So when the egoic self, the mind made self. Loses things that gave it its identity. Which could be possessions, loss of possessions. Losing relationships, Losing somebody close to you through death. Losing all your belongings, losing social status. Suddenly being nobody in the eyes of the world. Whereas before you were somebody in the eyes of the world. Loss of any kind can become an opening. Because it deprives the ego of its nourishment and sustenance. Without identifying you. Suddenly the ego begins to collapse. It crumbles. You take things away. This is why often you hear of people when they lose all their possessions. They were perhaps important tycoons or business people. There was a story of in the 30s when there was the big economic downturn. I forgot what it's called. Many people, the economy went down. Quite many people in Manhattan they jumped off the skyscrapers. They couldn't take it anymore because they lost everything. They were so associated with their egoic self. When this did not have any sustenance anymore that was the end of the world for them. It was dreadful. And so this can happen. But potentially when you experience great loss the things that had given the identity, the ego, its identity are taken away and a crack appears in the egoic shell and there suddenly what is what you realize then suddenly is the peace that passes all understanding you. Suddenly when you surrender to this fact that there's loss now suddenly you feel an inner peace.