This is a YouTube video titled "Eckhart Tolle Guided Meditation: The Arising of Your Natural State" created in July 2020. The content features a guided meditation or spiritual talk by Eckhart Tolle focusing on the concept of stillness, presence, and transcending external life conditions to find inner peace and spiritual awakening. The speaker discusses how acceptance of the present moment, regardless of external circumstances, leads to a deeper connection with one's true self.
So there's something that is much more important than anything in your life situation, and that's the ability to be still. That's one way of putting it. And in that you realize that there is a depth to who you are, a presence that shows to you without any doubt that whatever happens in your life situation out there is of secondary importance. And when things are not satisfying in your life situation, whether it's to do with money, work, relationships, living situation, health, it is often precisely at those moments when things don't work in one or several of these areas that there's an opportunity for you to go deeper within yourself and find that realm of stillness or spaciousness or presence, whatever you want to call it. So you become, to some extent free from external conditions. The conditions of your life, including the physical body, even that still external no longer have the ability to make you really unhappy, really upset and frustrated and fearful and anxious. On the other side. This may sound like bad news, but it's not. All these external things also lose their ability to make you really happy. Wow. Yeah. You can still feel enthusiastic and enjoy life tremendously, whatever life gives you in the world of form. But there's always something. There's something transcendent in you from where you observe and enjoy the beautiful things that come into your life. There is an enjoyment there, but you don't give them an importance that they don't have. You don't attach yourself to them. You allow them to be maybe a possession that comes to you and it's lovely, you look after it, whatever it is, a house, an object, you appreciate it, it's lovely, you look after it without that strong sense of attachment of. And when things come into your life that are not pleasant, perhaps physically not pleasant, you get stranded out in the cold or whatever it is. Again, we can't say that you particularly like that, that you enjoy that. But you're in touch with the transcendent dimension. So your aversion to whatever arises does not consume you. It just is there on the surface. You know, perhaps some action. You need to take some action to get out of the situation, and then you do it. So if you just take a very simple example, the weather, of course, you enjoy a beautiful sunny day, and then the next day is gray and rainy, as it is here today. And yet there is a transcendent dimension in you where that makes absolutely no difference. When it's raining, you say, oh, it's rainy. And perhaps the mindset would have been nicer if it had been sunny today. We could have Gone out for a long walk onto the beach, walk in the forest, had a picnic, whatever. And yet at a deeper level, does it really matter whether you have a picnic or not today, or go to the beach or stay in? The source of real enjoyment is never really in out there. What happens out there, it arises out of the stillness within you. Conditions do not need to be any particular in a way for you to be connected with the stillness, to be the stillness. Did you hear that? It was a news flash on an iPad. What's happening? Have to look. So we are speaking of and hopefully realize experientially what we could call the transcendent dimension to who you are, where there may still be on the surface of your life some happiness and unhappiness, if you even want to call it that. And yet those things no longer touch the deeper dimension of who you are. There's a transcendent dimension. It's not. You can't really call it. I know some spiritual teachers talk of happiness, but like Ramana Maharshi, but what he really means is a transcendent state. So I don't use those words because the way I use happiness and unhappiness, they refer to surface reality and surface experiences, the experience of being unhappy or happy. There is a transcendent state of presence on inner peace that is beyond happiness or unhappiness, but it's very alive. You don't become dead inside in the absence of this ability to become still, to be connected with the stillness, to be the stillness. If you don't have that, then it's better to experience happiness and unhappiness rather than deaden yourself completely. And so I don't want to feel anything anymore. But who wants to be trapped in that continuous ups and downs of your life, all those. And the downs for many people are more frequent than the ups and react to everything. That every little thing that doesn't go as it's supposed to go. This reactive me dreadful way to live it. So stillness, your best friend always there for you. Don't get attached to those words. Of course it's much deeper than your friend, because stillness essentially is one with who you are. But as we approach it, I might occasionally use words just as temporary pointers. And as you begin to have glimpses of stillness for a little while, it may be helpful to regard it as your best friend. And then you let go of that. And please don't believe that stillness needs to be outside of you so that you can become still inside in the midst of noise. You can be still external noise. And as you probably know, the quickest way to become still in the midst of things, noisy things surrounding you is to accept the present moment completely as it is. Just this moment, it already is. People are screaming around you. Whatever they do, this is what is traffic building up, whatever, whatever the situation, this moment already is as it is. So by completely accepting that this is what is right now, which doesn't prevent you from taking action, action needs to be taken. But what is, is. And by completely accepting what is, even if it's noisy or whatever, opens you up to this stillness. So when you, if you, if you do meditate and you sit down and you close your eyes, and maybe you have a technique or you don't have a technique anymore, and you just sit and be still. And if then a disturbing noise happens somewhere around you, sometimes you say, oh, I can't meditate with noise like that. Of course that's a thought that arises. You don't need to believe that thought. Don't believe every thought that comes into your head. I can't meditate. No, it's changed. It's precisely at that moment. If you can completely accept whatever arises at this moment, it sometimes can be a great opportunity to go deep enough where the stillness is. When something outside does not seem to be conducive to stillness. And yet you completely accept this present moment and oh, there it is. Despite the noise, there it is. So spiritual awakening more often comes in spite of something seemingly that did not look conducive to spiritual awakening. It more often comes that way than because of something. Because of would be a beautiful experience. And you would think, oh, in these, I have nothing to worry about. I have security, lovely surroundings. Now I have time for spiritual awakening. Do you maybe? Could be, but more likely not. So here you are, let's say one day you are in a beautiful spa, in a warm climate, it's sunny, you're getting massage with lovely oils, exquisite food, gentle music or sound of water in the background. Everything is absolutely perfect. A few weeks later, you get home, somebody falsely accuses you of something, you get put in prison, and there you are, extremely unpleasant, noisy surroundings, bad food, bad company. Which situation is more likely to bring about spiritual awakening? Which means takes you to a deeper level within yourself, to stillness. I'm not going to answer that. I'll leave you with those two situations. Be still, be at peace, be at one with the present moment.
