Eckhart Tolle explores why we resist what is happening inside us and how that resistance creates suffering. He explains that accepting your current inner state, even the discomfort, is what actually opens space for change and peace.
You become more interested in that little space around it than in the condition. So you give more attention to that spaciousness around that comes with the acceptance of what is. And you can sense that space a bit more.
It feels sometimes that the yearning for getting back to the source is very undeniable and very strong. But in equal strength is the resistance, which seems to me to be almost. It almost manifests as a physical energy which I feel a sense of sorrow and loss, which is nothing to do with this lifetime and nothing that I can understand or put my finger on. But it seems to get stronger, not any less strong. And it sort of seems to be almost a sense that if one drops into that space, there's something almost unbearable has to be born.
Can you just talk a little bit more about how you experience the resistance? How does it manifest?
Sometimes it's almost a physical. I can feel it as a physical resistance in the body. I can almost feel like there's a physical energy that I can't get underneath. And I guess even in meditation, when it feels like maybe the mind is stilling a bit, it just doesn't go there. It's just avoiding something.
Are you able to step out of thinking when you choose to, like taking your attention, as we said earlier, to take a conscious breath or place your attention in the body, you're able to do that?
I can. I can do that in moments of qigong or meditation, but I.
In everyday life.
Yeah, moments, but not. Not as much as I would like. Yeah. But I think that has almost got worse. You know, I think the. The games that the. The mind is playing have almost got worse, as this energy's got stronger of late.
Yes. And the yearning, how do you experience that? For stillness or peace?
Both of those. But also a sense of sorrow, strangely, if that makes sense.
Yes. Well, I'm trying to feel myself into your reality as it is at the moment. A very powerful transformation can happen when you. And this is one way of approaching it, which may be helpful to you, is not to desire any thing within you to be different from the way it is now. So that would mean complete acceptance of whatever it is that you experience at any given moment. At the moment, there are these energies in you, but you don't really want them. So there is a conflict between what you want and what you have now. If you approach it in a different way, instead of having what you want, perhaps you want stillness. You want peace. You want that deeper sense of aliveness. Perhaps that's the yearning. You want to breathe fully yourself and what you have is you. Perhaps you feel contraction in the body, you feel excessive mind activity, you feel almost semi physical energy field blocking you. So you have the two. You have what you want and you have what you have. Now as a practice, I would suggest, and next time we meet, you can tell me how it went. I suggest that you do away with a conflict between what you have and what you want. And you want what you have instead, which means whatever your inner reality or outer reality. But we are talking mainly about inner now, whatever your inner reality is right now, as it's always now, of course not. It's not a big thing, it's only the reality. Now accept it totally. This is what is. And so bring that acceptance is a strange thing. When you really can say, well, that's what is, you might as well accept it because it is the reality of this moment. So if you bring that acceptance, no matter even if it feels not pleasant, if it might be a contraction in the body or my mind is just so active, okay, let my mind be active, bring the allowing to it and that the strange thing happens, you may find when you do will already have a little bit of space around the condition that you dislike. But now you accept and so you accept the condition that you previously disliked. But now you say, well, that's what is. So I allow it to be. And what you then can sense if you are inside of you, a little bit of space around the condition. Not much at first, just a little bit. So let's say you have a contraction here and say that's what is. And this acceptance brings space. So here's the contraction. Then here you have a little bit of that's what it is. And then it may grow a little bit the space around it. And then you find you become more interested in that little space around it than in the condition. So you give more attention to that. The spaciousness around that comes with the acceptance of what is. And you can sense that space a bit more. And then what I'm saying is not literally true, but I'm just saying it grows. It seems to grow and then there's a bit more. The condition is still the same, but it has receded somewhat. It's no longer the center of your attention, you're more aware of the space, you become the space for it. Don't argue with me, because you need to try it first. Thank you, but you can argue next time we meet. If it didn't work, we'll talk again. Because any arguing would be the mind saying no, no, it's not going to work. Thank you.
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