Eckhart Tolle explains how full presence in everyday tasks transforms your inner life and circumstances. If a situation is intolerable and you can leave, go. If you can't, practice deep surrender. Presence dissolves reactive patterns and lets your outer purpose unfold naturally.
It is important to honor the present moment, no matter which means to be present with what you're doing, no matter what you're doing, so that the mind doesn't tell you that you'd rather be doing something else. Now, if absolutely you cannot surrender to whatever you're doing at any given moment, or let's say it's your work, your job, if I would suggest you try first to see if you can be give it honor what you are doing, even if your mind tells you it's not important enough and you are really doing something that's beneath you, but you happen to be doing it right now. So if you can really fully given your fullest attention, that means presence flows into it. Everything changes. If absolutely you cannot, if your surroundings are so dreadful that every time you're there, you go, then please leave. Don't do that to yourself. But in many situations, presence can be brought in and then you can still, yes, I don't want to be doing this for the rest of my life. Of course not. But at this, this moment you're doing it and why not honor it so that equality flows into what you do. And then much more likely things are going to change than for somebody who is internally at war with what is. Who is internally arguing with the present moment and doesn't want to be there, that really means to be stuck, as shown in the movie Groundhog Day. So we are. It's a monumental thing because as presence arises and we invite it in into everyday life and then we can apply it. When the old patterns come up, the pain body comes up, the strong reactive patterns in certain situations, those. This is a huge shift in consciousness as karma dissolves and something else takes its place. It goes any far. You think it's a personal thing. It goes far beyond that. It's a shift in the collective consciousness. It's an adventure. It's wonderful. So use what you have. Use whatever situation you are in right now. Sometimes the mind says, I don't know what I should be doing in my in life. I need to figure out what I'm meant to do, what I should be doing. Because the mind says, I know I shouldn't be doing this and I need to figure out where I'm meant to be because I know I'm not meant to be here. I should figure out who I'm meant to be because I know I'm not meant to be this person here. Okay, that's not. That's not quite. This is somewhat dysfunctional thinking. The first realization is if you're here, you might as well accept and admit that this moment is as it is and I'm where I am. Wherever you go, there you are. That's an. It's a. Not only the title of a book, but also a fact. Wherever you go, there you are. And wherever you are, it's here. And no matter what time you can even think of in your life or some future moment, it's going to be here now, always. So you to cooperate with life, to align yourself with life. First you accept that you should be where you happen to be. That's where you should be. Otherwise you wouldn't be there. Oh, that means I can't complain anymore. Okay, that's true. You can't complain anymore. It does not mean that you cannot see. Okay, this is fine. Here I am. You can still know where you want to go, but not out of unhappiness or negativity. But you see clearly there are other possibilities. But you're not denying the present moment and you're not resisting the present moment. Because if you internally resist the present moment, the intelligence of life cannot fully express itself through you because it needs for you to be open in the present moment, to flow through you. Life wants to move through you and flow through you, but humans are closed. That's already been expressed in the Bible that God wants in. If you want these theistic language, God wants to support you, but you're, you're. You're closed. See, so to be. So that the power can move through you, you have to be open to the present moment. Which means not denying where you are right now and even what you're doing right now. And if absolutely every fiber of your being says no to where you are, let's say you work in a slaughterhouse. And every fiber. But you have to make money to keep your family alive, but every fiber of your being says no, then you need to walk out. Those are extreme situations. But if you cannot walk out, if it's a prison, then you need to go surrender there to the present moment. And you have to go very deeply there. And people have done it, are doing it, and they can no longer argue with the isness of this moment. So if it's absolutely. If every fiber of your being says no, if you can, you need to remove yourself, but make sure it's not a pattern that is really in you rather than the external situation. Because then you could do something else. And again, that it may well be external, but there are places where you would rather not be. Or if you're Involved in total insanity, a war situation. Everybody's going totally insane, they're killing each other. If you can, of course, rather than saying, I need to stay here because I need to surrender to the present moment. No, if you can walk away, remove yourself. If absolutely you cannot, then even there it can be done, but you have to go very deep. These are some philosophers, existentialist philosophers call that limit situations. If you find yourself in a limit situation with dreadful things going around, going on around you, and you cannot remove yourself, then you have to go very deep into surrender to the present moment. And then sometimes there, even there, miracles happen, if only even on the outer level. But the miracle then always happens on the inner level, because you become internally free the situation. And even in hell, if you went deep enough, you could be at peace. And even in heaven, if you're not ready for it, you will think it's hell because you carry the hell inside your mind. And when you get to heaven, you'll start complaining, I'd rather be somewhere exciting. So that's all that's your life purpose is this presence practice. And then the rest unfolds. The outer purpose. If you either what you're doing now deepens and you do it more effectively and love and joy flows into what you do and affects other people around you, or you are so present that this becomes incompatible with where you are and life takes you and says no, you're not. And to be here and puts you somewhere else. This either because they. You get. You get fired because you're too present. They can't. Some. Some companies don't want to have presence. So you get fired and that'll be great. Or you walk out. One day, you look around. Goodbye, Sam.
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