Eckhart Tolle explains how gratitude works as a tool for manifestation. True gratitude means appreciating what's already here rather than comparing yourself to others. The practice requires discipline and shifts your relationship to the present moment.
Is there some type of discipline that is needed to be successful with conscious manifestation? If so, can you describe what the discipline is that is needed? Well, basically, I have already described the discipline that's needed for, in your daily life to be able to be aware of yourself and of your own state of consciousness. Also an important factor, perhaps that is implied in what we've been saying, but it's worth pointing it out explicitly, is the importance of what is conventionally called gratitude. But there could be other words. Gratitude is a very powerful transformational tool and also one of the most powerful tools for manifesting better things in your life now. What does that mean? The gratitude is to acknowledge the good in your life now. And it's surprising how many people don't do that who can only see the bad in their lives or only complain. But it's extremely powerful to acknowledge the good that's in your life now. Now, let's talk about this for a moment. The this does not mean that you have a conceptual idea of what your life is. And then you compare it to somebody else's life and you say, oh, really, I should be happy because I have it so much better than, look at these people, their life is worse than mine. So I should really should be grateful for my life. That's not it. That's not real gratitude. That you're moving within the conceptual realm and your feeling of well being is dependent on somebody else who has less than you or is suffering more than you. So gratitude is not if you compare yourself, because that's a misconception. Very common misconception of gratitude is you compare yourself to somebody else or even a whole group of people say, look at people in the third world. I really should be grateful. We are so much better off. Even though I may be poor, but I'm still better off than. So let's be grateful. No, that's not real gratitude. You're depending on others to be worse off than you. But you can feel gratitude. It's crazy. It feeds the ego. No, gratitude is to acknowledge the good that's in your life now. Now, this moment. Okay, so it's not the good in your life situation. I'm fine because I have achieved this or that or whatever. No, at this moment. And that's simple things. It really comes down to simple things. What can I be grateful for at this moment? Wow, there's so much I can be grateful for now. What is it? To be grateful is to, to acknowledge something, to give it attention and to appreciate it. I have this. You can't see it. But I have a nice round table here. And it's lovely. I touch it. It's made of wood and it's lovely. It's not spectacular, doesn't need to be spectacular, but it has a presence and a beingness. There's light coming through the window there and from behind me. I often sit here. I'm lucky to have these trees here. And I often sit here. There's a little screen to. Otherwise there's too much glare. But I often sit here, I look at the trees for 10, 15 minutes and there's a continuous feeling of goodness. Because in this cult we could call that gratitude. But I don't say in my mind I'm so grateful for these trees. I simply appreciate the wonder and aliveness, the beingness of these trees. So I acknowledge the good in this moment by appreciating the wonder, the miracle of these trees. It's just. You can look at the sky here today happens to be completely overcast, but very. And that's fine too, because this, this light filtering continues through. There's more light in a way today than is when the sky is blue because the light is dispersed by the cloud. It's. It's everywhere. It's, it's. And it comes from the sun. It filters through the clouds. You know, you appreciate that. Do you look at a potted plant, you become. You're grateful for that. You're grateful for all the little things you hear bird. You drink a glass of water, acknowledging all the. Your breathing. So that's gratitude is the gratitude is the appreciation life that surround you. So you can say the gratitude for being alive. To feel that you are alive in your entire body. The inner, the inner body, the. The invisible presence that inhabits the body. To feel that. So all my. All the little things. Gratitude is best applied to all the small things that continuously surround you in life. And then you see the goodness of it all. Or you can just. Let's say you have little or no money. So. And you're looking for abundance. So how do you bring abundance into your life? You have to discover, to acknowledge the abundance that is already everywhere around you. You walk past this, you go, you're walking in the street and there's a flower stove. There's flowers on display and potted plants outside. If you live in a city, an abundance of life, the flowers just amazing. There's abundance. And you can look everywhere and see abundant life. Jesus used that term. He said, I want you to have abundant life. In other translations, he says the same term translated in a different way. I want you to have the fullness of life. Jesus promises the fullness of life or abundant life. Now, true abundance, which many people are looking for, and they think abundance is to do with having many things. It could be that quite a few things come to come to you when you access the source of all abundance, which of course is within you. It's the feeling of the fullness of life. Now, once you get this feeling in the present moment, then this is the, perhaps the very core of gratitude, is to feel the aliveness of life within yourself.
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