Discovering the Timeless You | Eckhart Tolle on The Space Beyond Thought (Part 2)

It's called infinity. Infinity. And another lovely word that's one with it really. Eternity. Infinity and eternity, they're really one. I think that Einstein would agree with that. Time and space. Space, time, continual. And infinity and eternity are your own essence, because what you discover within is the. The very foundation for the universe. That spaciousness is the space out of which everything came before the Big Bang. Just timeless, eternal eternity and infinity. No form scientists, they stop there, they, they sometimes they try to figure out the Big Bang, but nobody tries to go before the Big Bang because you can't. There was no before because there was no time. Can't understand that. You go mad if you try to understand it. But you can know this experientially within yourself as inner space, just presence. And as we saw the other day, we talked about the medieval form of spirituality, like St. Francis attempting, not seeking pleasant forms St. Francis never sought out. He appreciated when they came, flowers and so on, but not seeking them out. In fact, being very happy with unpleasant forms, almost seeking out unpleasant forms and seeking out. Like in the story that we heard, the man who went to the city square sat there in the middle and got mocked and things thrown at him every day, and he went back every day in an attempt, I would call it. He wouldn't have called it that because he used different terminology in an attempt at self annihilation, the annihilation of the ego. If you go back to the same square where you are mocked and people throw things at you and pull your hair and laugh at you and you go back every day, it is an attempt at inviting the death of the ego. The ego being identification with form, with content. And if you make it so unpleasant of content in your life, the idea behind it is that it forces you into transcendence. It forces you into going beyond content. And suddenly you find that deep peace inside and you don't know where it comes from. And externally there's the unpleasant conditions, but you have disidentified from them, thereby the ego has died. And then whatever terminology used to explain what happens to you then depends on your culture. As this man might have said, the monk, I don't know what he would have said. I became one with God or the sacredness or infinity, eternal peace. And traditionally, one spiritual path in Christianity is closely related to that, and that is identification with the suffering of Jesus on the cross. So any suffering that you undergo in your mind, you undergo it together with. You're repeating the archetype of the suffering of Jesus. And that is how the image of the man on the cross can lead. If you identify with it can. There's no guarantee it could mislead you too. There are lots of ways in which it can go wrong. It can lead to self annihilation of the ego and then to an awakening into the formless. And you're then, in whatever terminology you use, you're one with the one, you're one with God, you are self realized, enlightened, whatever you want to use, or you're simply at peace. So that can work too. Most Christians have no idea these days that can be a spiritual path. But for them, they practice a more superficial form of Christianity, mostly fairly superficial. A few Christians may go deep, but many practice it. They don't see the depths in their own tradition. And because so many people don't see it anymore, Christianity is now at a dangerous point where it might. Well, nothing is forever. Everything evolves. So Christianity will either deepen or change or disappear. And even the Pope knows that. He pointed to the fact that it was a critical time for Christian religion. If you are a practicing Christian, this can still be a viable path to reaching that egoless state of oneness with whatever you want to call it. If you are Buddhist, that can still be a viable path or whatever it is. Or you may not follow any tradition. And this is for the first time, as far as I know, in the history of humanity that spirituality arises without belonging to any particular, any one tradition, without rejecting any of the older traditions. So self annihilation, basically that lies at the basis of St. Francis, also practiced by many yogis and sadhus in India who practice extreme austerities and seek out unpleasantness. You don't have to do that. That's why you're here. But if you were not here, there are many other ways. You could go to India and sit in a cave for 20 years being stung by mosquitoes, but not minding anymore. And all kinds of bugs come and creep on you. And a few people will come and feed you. It won't be gourmet food, but that's okay. You don't want gourmet food anymore. You want the worst so that you can disidentify from form, so that life forces you deeper, so that you go beyond all form. That's the idea behind it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And if it doesn't work, then you just become more and more lifeless. Have another go next time. But the most rapid way to self annihilation and easier, more pleasant. But you need to be up to it. You meet. Your consciousness needs to have reached a certain level where this becomes a viable path for you. And that is simply the cessation of compulsive thinking.