How Can One Make Decisions with Presence? | Eckhart Tolle

A very important thing in decision making process is not to come up with a decision, but to ask the right question. Now, it's very easy to mistake an impulse that comes to you for some deeper answer that comes out of the stillness. And so in any decision making process you have basically two factors. Well, most people only have you have the information that's available to you. And so make sure that you have the information that of all the facts that you need, sometimes before making a decision, you may have a few, a number of facts. And sometimes these facts may not be sufficient. So then you go within and see what questions can you can ask in order to elicit more facts or information from whoever is capable of giving to you that information. This I'm talking very general terms, whether you're in business or wherever you are or some personal decision that you need to arrive at. On one level, facts need to be looked at. What is the situation? And sometimes the facts are not clear enough or you're not enough facts and you become still and see what questions you can ask. Somebody may be able to supply more detailed facts, but in order to ask the right question, you already need a moment of stillness. So you may not immediately get an answer through stillness. The first step as you become alert and still is another question. What a very important thing in decision making process is not to come up with a decision, but to ask the right question that can elicit what you need in order to arrive at a decision. And in order to ask the right question, there needs to be that alert stillness for a moment. And in that alert stillness, you kind of listen within. And then a question comes. This is I often when somebody, they call me and say, we've had this or that offer, somebody wants you to do this, somebody wants you to do that interview, Somebody wants to do that. And very often I don't immediately say yes or no. I usually come up with a few questions. What in addition to the information that they gave me? Well, what about that and that and that? And they say, oh, okay, I'll get back to you, I'll find out. Then they call again. Then I know a bit more. And sometimes on the basis of the factual information, you already know whether you want to do it or not. You more easily know that you don't want to do it just by looking at the facts. But it may well be that you have all the facts and you're still not clear what the right course of action is. So you have exhausted the avenue of asking more questions, probably unless something else comes to you. And then it's usually a question of becoming still. And that's the added dimension to the decision making process. It works together with looking at the knowledge that you have in the mind. Conceptual knowledge, factual knowledge works in conjunction with a deeper intuitive knowing. And you have, you bring the two together. It's not just the intuitive. And then you completely disregard the facts. So even with your bringing your ex girlfriend, it's a very relatively simple thing. Perhaps there was an impulse that or some believe that you should obey your impulses now and just do it, but you didn't. You also have some knowledge in your mind about what kind of a person she is, what your relationship was like, how it ended, how she might react. These are factors that you also consider. Is it a wise thing to do just on the level of thinking? You think about it and then you go within, become still. An impulse to do something is not necessarily, does not necessarily come from the deepest level. It could be an emotional impulse. It could be an impulse created by the ego to see itself as very spiritual, that you reconnect with her. And many different levels it could come from. Also it's good to deal sometimes it's good in this case where not immediate action is not required. If you delay it a little bit, wait a day and see if the next day you still feel the same or the day after. Because in this case, for example, you don't even immediate action is not required. So it's often helpful to know whether something is real, comes from the deepest level. Give it some time. If it's still there tomorrow or next week, it's more likely to be true and come from the deepest level than an impulse can dissolve very quickly. An impulse came to me many years ago. As I've told before, on various occasions when I lived in England, in the country, one morning, not an impulse but a strong knowing was there that for some reason I had to move to the west coast of North America. But I didn't know why. But I didn't immediately pick up the phone and make a reservation and sell everything I have. I waited. And days passed. And every day that was still there, several weeks passed and it was still there. And then I couldn't. I knew this I had to do. It was not a temporary impulse or an idea that came into my mind. It came from a deeper level. If I had not obeyed it, probably I would have fallen ill or something would have gone very wrong. Because I would not have gone with that deeper flow where the universe wanted to move me. So if there is time Give it time. And if something is still there after a few days or even a few weeks, then it probably comes from the deeper level. So in many cases it's a question of balancing factual knowledge and going beyond factual knowledge. And again to repeat, sometimes factual knowledge is all you need. And it's immediately very clear from just looking at the facts that this for example, is not feasible. At other times the mind could create prematurely the idea that this cannot be done because it nobody has done it before and might be wrong. So don't be too certain that when the mind says no, you really have to be very clear. And if you're not totally clear, go within. So what's your add on.

With regards to choosing spiritual practice? For about 25 years I've had different regular practices and I step back and go, gosh, have I really made any progress? And is this is my lack of progress from not sticking with just one, be it Goenka Vipassana or Tibetan whatever. And I know sometimes in a practice we go through darkness and that it's good to push on through to the other side. And sometimes there's no other side. You're just going into more and more darkness. It's the wrong direction. Could you recommend on how to decide what is the right practice?

The right practice underlying any practice is the arise is presence. No matter. The externals of the practice may be different, but what every practice points to and eventually if it succeeds and you end up with is presence. Remember our definition. I quoted Ramana Maharshi when he was asked how do we know? Because that's your question, whether we are making any progress on the spiritual path. And of course you may remember his answer. The degree of absence of thinking is your criterion for judging progress on the spiritual path. That's all. So to what extent is there space in you? A cessation of thinking when it's not needed? Rising moments of spaciousness. As you evolve spiritually, the spaciousness deepens and there's more of it. So that eventually half of you is spaciousness. Don't take it too literally. Half of you is spaciousness and half of you is form, mind, knowledge and so on. If half of you is spaciousness and half of you is form, you would lead a very balanced life. And it could be that as in the case of Ramana Maharshi, when he was a young boy and he just had the death experience, he became 90% spaciousness and he couldn't talk anymore and he still had a body, that's the 10%. And he sat Somewhere. But then he came back to very few humans are. Actually, it's hard to quantify anyway. I'm just. It's more or less speaking metaphorically. Very few humans are totally balanced between the moving in the world of form, using their mind and their knowledge and interacting and being busy and active in the world of form and at the same time not losing the deeper dimension of presence. So not having two separate compartments in your life. Some spiritual practitioners, meditators, develop two compartments. My spiritual practice, which they do when they meditate or go on boot camp retreats, and then my daily life, of course, the two need to come together so that your spiritual. The spiritual dimension shines through all the things that you do. In other words, everything you do. There's spaciousness. There is a sense of peace that comes even while you're engaged in activities. You don't get frantic and upset about every little thing. There's a spaciousness in your human interactions, a sense of presence that pervades even your business dealings. So that is what Ramana Maharshi means when he talks of to be free of thinking, that spaciousness are moments when you're just alert and present even while conducting a business. There's an alertness and a presence, and then you become. You're more creative. The person who created the iPhone. Well, the main Steve Jobs. I haven't read his entire biography. And he had certain personal idiosyncrasies which were very much egoic conditioning. But apart from his egoic conditioning, he had areas in. He was a practitioner of, I believe, of Zen and meditation. He had these areas of stillness. Out of those came the creativity. So he did not represent a complete, balanced coming together of. Very few people have that. A complete, balanced coming together of spaciousness and form. And you don't have to achieve that. I don't have it. I don't. I don't have 50% effectiveness in form and 50% spaciousness. I have. I'm just taking a figure, 80 to 85% spaciousness and 20 to 15% form. In other words, I'm not that great at dealing with stuff. When I do, I'm spacious with it. My preference is not to. So I'm not that balanced. Oprah is much more balanced than I am. She's very effective in doing and has seemingly inexhaustible energy. I can't keep up with her. And yet she does always return to stillness, so she doesn't lose herself in the doing. And there are some people, but not many, who fairly oppress a bit more in the doing than the being. But there's still enough being to keep her rooted and to make her work fruitful and contribute a lot to the consciousness on the planet. It.