Harnessing Nature to Quiet Mental Chatter | Eckhart Tolle

Whatever happens is happening in your life, in your relationships, in your work situation, in your finances, in your living situation. That's your life situation. And that is what occupies almost everybody's mind continuously. Me and my life. Now, there is another dimension in you that wants to emerge that is far deeper than me and my life. Your mind has come with you here. You couldn't leave it behind. And if your mind has certain patterns, then those habitual patterns will sooner or later also surface here. And that's okay as long as you know that this is most likely to happen. It's only your mind. There's nothing out here. It's the mind. So a great opportunity here is to be aware of your thought processes as you interact with other people, as you sit here, as you are in the dining hall, as you go for a walk in nature. And use all these situations to bring in awareness. I'll look at this in more detail. Now. First of all, you have nature here, Magnificent nature. So you will be walking, you will be looking, you will be breathing and smelling, and you will be listening to the sounds, perhaps even touching the sand. There's plenty of it. A tree. So you use your senses. All your senses are there. And as you go about in between sessions, you interact with nature. And that's a great opportunity for allowing nature to help you to become still and present, rather than giving in to the hypnotism of the mind with every thought wanting to draw your attention to it and saying, this is so important. I must think about this. And then you've disappeared. There's all that nature around you, but you are no longer there. The sacredness of nature suddenly is no longer there for you because your consciousness has been absorbed again by the mind stream. Very easy to happen, and most likely will happen many times in the next few days here, until the moment comes when you say, oops, this is what's going on. And then you have a choice of bringing your attention back to sense perceptions. Alertness returns. And you can, when you become familiar with the falling back into identification with the mind. And you might find that it says something, that it's not happy with something, or something isn't quite enough, or there's something missing. I have that feeling. And then very quickly the mind interprets it. Fingers. Ah, yes, that's what's wrong here. Now I know. If you are familiar with the human mind, you may be, then you know one of the underlying patterns is that it continuously seems to say something not right, something is missing. It is not complete. I am not complete. But something is needed here. Something needs to be added to this moment, to this situation, and then it formulates further thoughts on the basis of that original erroneous assumption. Once you recognize that pattern, then you can. It is easier not to get drawn into it, at least not for too long. So watch your mind as it becomes active. And then you have a choice of either allowing yourself to be drawn into proliferating mind streams. Might even want to get away from here. It's quite a common phenomenon on retreats, a certain percentage of people after the second day, or even the first day, get me out of here. Or you start looking up the flight information on the Internet, Or you call a friend, well, there's something not right here. I'll tell you about it. So the opportunity is here for you to allow nature to bring you into that still awareness, so that you can contemplate, experience all that wonderful nature around you without undue interference by thinking. What is there to think about when you go for a walk on the beach here? Nothing. You can only fully experience it when you become still. And then you perceive through the stillness rather than through conceptualized thought which interprets everything you see, oh, this is that, and that's that. And that's that. When I like, I don't like. So that's. You use nature and come to your senses, as the expression goes, you come to your senses, but that implies that there is an awareness there that makes clear, unobstructed sensory perception possible. And then you. You be amazed how at the sacredness of that space through which you move here. And sacredness is not something that I could explain to you or to your mind, because the human mind says, just a second, sacredness. What does that mean? You haven't explained that term. And that would be extremely hard, impossible to explain. It's a term that is no longer much in use these days. Sacredness, Holiness even, is the Germanic based word sacredness. The Latin based word is the same meaning. But you can sense it the moment your attention rises and you go and there you see the branch of the tree moving slightly, and there you see a bird flying across and the waves. And suddenly there's a totality of that experience. But you as that egoic entity that carries baggage full of your past with you and your unresolved problems in the future, perhaps they'll get resolved. And of course, others arise. You move through nature as a field of presence, not a personality or a person. But in other words, this is an opportunity for you to let go of your life situation. As I call it. You might remember reading it what I call your life situation, which is whatever happens is happening in your life, in your relationships, in your work situation, in your finances, in your living situation. That's your life situation. And that is what occupies almost every everybody's mind continuously. Me and my life. Now there is another dimension in you that wants to emerge that is far deeper than me and my life.