Do You Need to Be Still to Be Present? | Eckhart Tolle

The desired outcome. If the desired outcome occupies a place in your mind that's overwhelming until you desperately need to go to arrive at that place, then in the meantime, all the things that you do are then simply a means to an end. Perhaps we can start with a few. Before we go on to questions, a few additional remarks about the important subject of being and doing. That's what we started with in the last session and finding a balance. And before finding a balance, being able to enter to access the being dimension. That's already a good start. And then at first what tends to happen, but although not invariably, is you enter the being dimension or access it when you're in a place that is conducive to the stillness or the serenity, or here a protected space, or perhaps at home in your room, or here in your room out in nature. And at first the being dimension is associated with cessation of doing. That's how you first realize it. It's when you're not doing anything and you can just be, consciously be, which implies a no matter how brief cessation of the primary doing, which is the thinking doing. Without a no matter a brief cessation in the stream of thinking, it's hard to find the being dimension. But later on, as you become consciously rooted in the being dimension, thinking and being can come together. They are not irreconcilable. And in fact, that is one of your tasks is to, when you do think, not to be totally identified with the stream of thinking. In other words, there's some attention in the background, there's an awareness, a field of, or a space of awareness in the background, even while you are engaged in thinking as it is now, as I'm speaking, of course the mind is operating, but I can sense, and perhaps you can. In the background, behind the words, beyond the words, in between the words, there is that space of stillness, beingness, whatever you want to call it. And if you can sense it, you might believe. If you sense it's coming from here, if you can sense it, it's in you. Because only being can be aware of being, not the mind. If you believe being emanates from me, I suppose it does. But at that moment you. There's the recognition of being can only happen through accessing that dimension within yourself. Only being can recognize being, not the mind. The mind, however, may come in when you, let's say you recognize the being dimension that is emanates from this thing, that's the body, or whatever it is, it emanates and you sense it. The Moment you sense it, it's in you also consciously. Now, it's possible that the mind may come in and misinterpret what's going on. And the mind may confuse the form of the spiritual teacher, whoever it happens to be the form, the form identity with the being dimension. And then suddenly the teacher is regarded as a supernatural being or a kind of godlike figure or some great guru or whatever. Because you confuse that which transcends the form, for which the form is only an opening. You confuse that with a form, and then you make that person through whom being shines. You make that person very, very special. This can happen easily. It's a misinterpretation. But at least you recognized being. But what you overlooked is because not everybody will recognize it in the being dimension, in a human being, if it shines through strongly. Not everybody recognizes. Some people say, what's this all about? Why are these people listening to this guy for two hours? He's not special. He doesn't. Doesn't even jump up and down the stage. He's just boring, isn't he? He's boring. So that's a danger. That is also a danger as far as the spiritual teacher is concerned. Because there may be remnants of ego left in him or her. And if the teacher is bombarded with continuous projections of specialness, he or she may begin to believe. In other words, the ego comes back through the back door and regains ascendancy. And the ego comes back and the teacher begins to think, to feel a specialness in this, in the person, the form. And then the teacher has happened many times. The teacher makes statements such as, I'm certainly the greatest teacher alive on the planet at the present moment. Or it may go so far as to say, I'm the greatest that has ever lived. All the others were precursors. I have arrived. There is something incredibly special coming through, but it is not. It is nobody's possession. It's nobody's achievement. It does not belong to the form dimension. But the form dimension can be an opening, just like a window. In a way, one could say this body and this mind is the window frame. What you see is the window frame. But the most important thing about the window is the light that comes through the window. That's the opening. And this may also happen to you when you. As presence arises, you will, if it's not happened already, for many of you, probably has happened already. You come into contact with people who are helped by your presence. Even if you don't feel that you know what to do, because this doesn't work like that. They're helped and they're drawn to you. They're helped by your presence. There's a kind of transmission. It can awaken the presence in the other, that dimension, the being dimension in the other. And then you can find they may then become attached to you because they feel so good in your presence and they can't let go. And again, the danger already arises then that you feel, I, I have done this. One could call that healing in a deeper sense, not just physical healing, but the true healing is the reconnection with the being dimension. That's the true healing. And there's a phrase in this book called the Course in Miracles. The healer does not heal. He lets healing be. He does not heal. He lets healing be. So when you are with people who are seeking help, then you don't need to go into your mind, how can I help this person? The person is talking to you and you already think, perhaps I could say that. I can say that it doesn't work like that. You're just present. At some point, you may say something comes from the deeper place, or you may not even say anything, and there's just an answer. May suddenly appear in the other person with something. Oh, and you never said or did anything. You just sat. So at first, the being dimension, you find it as separate from external activity or thinking. And then that's a good beginning. And then gradually you learn that it is not irreconcilable with external activities. It's a presence through movement is a good practice because you don't. You do not need to sit still to find stillness, which is another word for it, which people believe initially. Stillness also has kind of two meanings in English. There's, on the one hand, stillness means the absence of noise, but another meaning of stillness is the absence of movement. Sit still. It's the absence of movement. He stood still, he sat. So it's stillness points in English to the absence of either noise or movement. So when we talk about stillness, you might think you have to. You can't move. In order to be. To consciously sense the being dimension, you mustn't move. And then you learn you can actually move. And in fact, it can be helpful. You begin with that, and then you can perform certain tasks and still be in that connectedness with being. Instead of completely losing yourself in the activity, you can have goals to pursue, which is in the realm of doing. It's good to have goals. Although there may be periods in your life when you don't need any goals. Certainly, if you reach a certain age, it becomes increasingly pointless to pursue goals, at least at the latest. By the age of 95, you don't need to pursue any more goals, unless for some reason you have to. But even before then, there may be time periods in your life when the pursuit of goals is not necessary. You can become more deeply immersed, just be engaged in ordinary, everyday activity without pursuing any particular big goal, big or small, working towards something. But on the whole, it said, it's good to have goals. But again, goals belong to the realm of doing, and that's fine. The problem arises if the goal absorbs so much of your attention, meaning the desired outcome, the place you want to arrive at, whatever that may be. Passing an exam, achieving a certain position, acquiring mastery in some activity, whatever it may be, the desired outcome. If the desired outcome occupies a place in your mind that's overwhelming, or you desperately need to arrive at that place, then in the meantime, all the things that you do, the steps you take, the activities you undertake in order to arrive at your goal, are then simply a means to an end. They are not enjoyable because you desperately want to have arrived already.