Finding Depth in Awareness | A Guided Meditation With Eckhart Tolle

And you are aware, just as I'm aware of what's around me. You're aware of what's around you, you're aware of my voice, you're aware of what you see. And you may be aware of feelings or thoughts that are still coming and going. And the all important question is, in addition to being aware of these things, are you aware that you are aware? That is the, what we could call the transcendent dimension, that is inner space opening up and that is going beyond form in your life. Because everything is form, sense perceptions, thoughts, thought forms, emotions, emotional formations. And the challenge is not to get trapped exclusively in the world of form, which includes your form, identity, which consists of whatever is going on in your life. And primarily the thoughts and thought patterns and emotional patterns that you, the memories and so on. These are all thoughts that you identify with as yourself. That's a very small, limiting sense of self that easily gets frustrated, upset, anxious, reactive. And why do you always get, not you personally? Why, if one is trapped in that narrow sense of self, why does one get so easily upset, anxious, reactive, lost in all kinds of mental formations, identified with viewpoints and opinions, so that other viewpoints and other opinions held by other people make those people into enemies. All those things that bring enormous limitation into your life. But that's normal. Almost everybody lives like that, except those who are awakening. And awakening just as you are awakening means a dimension is coming into your life that is beyond form. And that's why we are here. So when I asked at the beginning whether you are in addition to being aware of whatever is going on, and even of my voice, the image on the screen, in addition to all that, are you aware that you are aware? That's the dimension of depth. Because suddenly you realize there's a depth to who you are that's formless and one could say, unknowable. So what you know about yourself is very little. And what you can know if you undergo whatever psychoanalysis, examine your psyche, repressed memories, hidden desires, what you can know is very small. But beyond that there is a vast depth. If you are not aware of that, then it's almost as if there is. It wasn't there, it's not there for you, you're not in touch with it. But that depth is where the person is transcended and connects with something that is infinitely vaster than the person. And that is the source of true intelligence, of aliveness, of all life. And being in touch with that knowing, sensing it within yourself, frees you from. From being only the Little person. And from that depth emanates loving kindness that can only emanate when you are not trapped in form, which needs to protect itself, enhance itself. So when you're trapped in form, you're always looking out for where the next threat is coming from. Or try to solidify your form, identity, enhance it, strengthen it, and then, so then no, there can be no, no real outflow of goodwill, loving kindness, love, if you want to call it that, goodness arising, a goodness that is deeper than good and bad. And for those of you for whom perhaps this is a new thing, a new realization, you may still be asking, being aware that I'm aware, what do you mean by that? That. And what does it mean? Well, what does it mean is it means that you're aware of yourself as consciousness and not just aware of yourself as this person. Now, the person is not separate from consciousness. It's a form that consciousness has taken, like a wave on the surface of the sea, a temporary form. But the wave is not separate from the depths of the sea and the ocean. It is part of it. So that's what that means. And if you still don't know how to be aware of yourself as consciousness or to be aware of awareness, one way to give you a taste of it is. Is. And that's an ancient. That's why it's an ancient meditation method is to be aware that you are breathing. You're always breathing, but usually not aware that you're breathing. To be aware that you're breathing is to be continuously aware of the breath flowing in and out, like now. And so it's not just one moment, oh, yeah, I'm breathing. No, it's a continuous awareness of the breath flowing in and out, sensing it and for a moment, let's say, feel that the air that surrounds you and that you are breathing in is consciousness, that it's conscious consciousness, the. The essence of all life. So you're breathing in consciousness, and now it's also inside you. So it's within and without consciousness, cannot be analyzed, dissected, cut into smaller pieces. So you can't know really anything about it, but you can sense it, be it, know that you are it, essentially. So breath awareness opens up that inner space of awareness. So at first you are aware of breath, of breathing. So it still seems that you are aware of something. But breath is something that is not clearly defined in form. It's almost formless. Just as your breath is formless, has not a clearly defined form. That's why, as I said before, in various places Breath is often equated with spirit, that is the formless consciousness. And at the beginning of the Old Testament of the Bible, the beautiful myth before form comes into being, the world is described as formless and the breath of God, or the spirit of God, God is hovering, it says. So by being aware of your breathing, you also become aware of awareness. So after a little while, you can forget about breathing and the awareness of breath has become the awareness of awareness. And so that awareness, you're rooted then in something timeless, eternal, very deep, and you don't get anxious and upset anymore about all the changing conditions of your life and what other people do or fail to do or have done or shouldn't have done, done. All that absurd littleness that makes up most people's lives and that makes life so miserable and frustrating. That's what the Buddha called dukkha, which means misery, which means suffering, which means unhappiness, which means happy one day unhappy. The it this has often been described in spirituality as dying a kind of death that you die, which happens to some people spontaneously when their sense of self, form based sense of self, perhaps due to intense suffering, crumbles. And then that which is deeper and formless suddenly is there. And that's the death and the rebirth. But the fact that you are here means that probably you've had enough suffering to have reached this point where you no longer need to be pushed off, forced into the kingdom of heaven, which is one expression that an ancient teacher used to describe the formless dimension. The fact that you are here now means you probably don't need to be forced into the kingdom of heaven through intense suffering anymore, because it's already emerging in you, through you. So you've suffered enough. However, if you should need just a little bit more, then that's fine, you'll get it. The world gives you what you need. Ultimately, the world is not here to make you comfortable, not here to make you happy, you might have noticed, but to bring about, paradoxically to bring about the transcendence of the world. And you spend a long time becoming a person, lifetimes, in order to eventually transcend the person. So first the egg forms, it has to become a nice egg, and then it starts cracking, the shell cracks open and something, something miraculous emerges. It. And with this comes the ability also to be comfortable with just being when doing is not required. You don't need to run around all your life continuously doing. There can be a balance between doing and being. And it's wonderful if you discover in yourself the ability to just be like now, not trying to get anywhere or do anything, but just sense your own depths. And from that depth, you look around and you will find a lot of aliveness and beauty with that before you overlooked SA.