Discovering the Real You: Beyond Stories and Thoughts | A Guided Meditation with Eckhart Tolle

And I trust you're not waiting for me to start the meditation. Because then you would have missed that it started already. And you would think about meditation in terms of doing something. But you don't actually do a meditation. As long as you are doing a meditation. You're not really meditating or the meditation is not fulfilling its purpose. Meditation, true meditation, is not a technique or a mantra. It's about becoming aware of the being dimension. That's already the essence of who you are. And you don't have to do anything to become aware of the being dimension. In fact, all you have to do is to stop doing, and that's not a doing. Now, to stop doing does not necessarily mean stop external activities. But it means not to be focused exclusively on doing. So that your entire attention is continuously absorbed by the doing dimension. Which of course, all goes back to thinking. Thinking is doing. And then it becomes some external activity, which is fine, because that is one level of who you are. You have to do things in this world and you have to think, and it's good. Doing and thinking is good. But if that's all there is in your life, then you're missing the deeper dimension. And then doing and thinking is continuous. Absorption in that dimension of form becomes frustrating, leads to anxiety or depression, burnout, a sense of meaninglessness after a while. And all those who are not in touch with the deeper dimension. The dimension of being, which is the essence of who you are. Which I sometimes call the essence dimension. Or your essence identity. Being able to sense, and this is why we are here now. Being able to sense your essence identity. In addition to having a form identity. Which is always connected with some kind of doing or thinking that is liberating. So what you're liberated from is an exclusive identification with who you are on the level of form, the body, the mind. And whatever the mind identifies with in the realm of form. Mental images that arise that the mind identifies with and says, that's me, that's my body, me, my possessions, my status in society, my work, my function, my social function, my social and economic position, my class, social class of background, my knowledge that I have accumulated. Or any other image which mental image, which may not necessarily be positive, it could be negative. Me, the victim, me, the one who was never given a chance. All these are mental images that you derive your sense of self from. And usually it's a certain bundle of images which. And every image is also a little story. And this bundle of images becomes the self, the me, or what you refer to when you say I and yes, that is, one could say who you are on the level of form. But even on that level it's certain stories that you believe in that tell you something about who you are in relation to others and your past and your history, your successes, failures, achievements. These are perspectives on what happened to you or what you did or failed to do, what other people did to you. One could have other perspectives. You could have the I'm a successful wealthy professional and your ex wife might have a different story about you, call you an obnoxious jerk. Or you can have a negative story about yourself. On this dimension of form, one could easily have a story. I could tell you a story why I am a very unfortunate human being. You may not believe it, but I could and it would be very convincing and I could tell you a story why I'm one of the greatest. There would be stories and every one of you, you could have a story about your that proves that you are justified in being miserable. Or you could have another story. That's all. You're actually very good. But they're all just stories. So there will be some stories in your mind, but is that who you are? And the stories of course refer to other people that your reflection in the lives of others. And so they're not just. They don't exist in isolation, they are reinforced by others and so on. Who am I? So the question is, are you what your mind tells you about yourself on the level of form? That's one way of looking at who you are. But there's a deeper dimension. We've just been talking about farm identity and what most humans don't know yet because it's not taught at school, whereas it should be one of the most important things, not one of the most, the most important thing taught at school. There is in you a deeper dimension and there's an essence identity that you can sense even while you play whatever your role is or your function is in the world of form. And even while you do things and deal with things and speak to people and even think it is possible to sense in the background of your life your essence identity. And what is that? It's this being aware that there's a presence in you which is not the right way of describing it. Let's put it differently. Being aware that you are a presence. Being aware of the presence that you are, I am. Another way of pointing to it, being aware, quite simply right now, that you are aware that you are. I am. And that has no content. There's just a knowing, a sensing of a presence. And that is who or what you are. The one thing that you cannot doubt is that there is a conscious presence here. I am that before there's any content to it. That is the light of consciousness. And then things appear in the light of consciousness. Or illuminated by the light of consciousness. Or the light of consciousness becomes those things. Thoughts, sense perceptions. But there would be no sense perceptions without the light of consciousness. There would be no thoughts without the light of consciousness. In other words, there would be no world without you. Because you are the light of consciousness in which the world appears and lets form, the world of form.