How to Balance Being Present Without Ignoring Real Life | Eckhart Tolle

Could you please elaborate on the phenomenon of time? When I'm fully present, I'm out of time, so to speak. Everything is perfectly okay as it is. It almost feels careless. As in the reality of this world, not everything. As in the reality of this world, not everything is okay. There's my old mother, my teenage daughters, and climate change that call for my doing and thinking, planning. But then when I sink deep into the presence of the now, this all seems not to matter anymore. And I might as well do nothing about these worldly matters. This greatly confuses me. Please help me to get this straight. Thank you. So that's a very interesting question. So at times when he goes deeply into being, there's that sense that the world is fine, everything is perfect, there's nothing that needs doing. And then when you come out of that and you see there's a lot that's wrong with this world and both are true. There are certain levels of truth. They seem to be quite often contradictory. If you in the state of intense presence, one truth applies and that is you are already in the essence of your being. You are already complete. And there's nothing to achieve. There's nothing to add to who or what you are. There's nothing you could possibly add. There's already a sense of oneness and completion. And then when you think of the world, the world appears like a dreamlike substance and the world is fine too. From that perspective, the world is going through an awakening process that was one way in which you could interpret it. And it is going exactly where it needs to go. And the end is already assured because the end is the complete awakening. As the Buddhist said, eventually every blade of grass will also become awakened. It's a transubstantiation of the entire world into spirit. One could say, let's not go too far. The omega point said whatever on okay, we don't want to go too far. Let's keep it in the practical realm. And when you're only when you lose connectedness with being, then the world is just dreadful. There's so much that's wrong and it's going to get worse. It seems on this level both are true on their own level. The thing is, without the realization that this person does have, if you just say, oh, it's all a dream, it doesn't matter. That's not quite right. It's not true as far as you are concerned because you're only repeating something that you've read somewhere. And that excuse that you don't need to participate in this world you think, no, it's all, I'm not going to do anything anymore because it's all a dream anyway. I refuse to participate in this dream world. Now, what happens if you do that? The dream world will knock you on the head. But it's only a dream. It's a dream I'm dreaming. Oh no, it hurts. So to speak. It's metaphorically speaking, the dream. If you dismiss it as just a dream world and you don't need to do anything, it's all pointless. The dream world will show you that you're wrong and it will be painful. And so the secret then lies in being in both worlds. So that, yes, If you want to even call it the dreamlike world, here, you cannot just deny it. Well, if you have the deepest realization. There have been people, humans, who have completely gone within, into the deepest into being and lost all interest in this world. And some have remained there. If they lived in the west, you can find some of them in mental homes. If they lived in the east, such as in India, they will be sitting somewhere, somewhere by a temple or somewhere, and people will come and bring them food because they traditionally recognize that state of complete disappearance from this world and complete alignment with source. So they will bring you food. So hopefully, if that ever happens to you, hopefully you won't find yourself in the West. Hopefully it happens in India, if you're lucky. But very few humans, that is not generally the destiny of human beings and of humanity. Perhaps those few individuals, they also have their purpose of being, of representing and affecting the totality through their deep connectedness. But some have become like Ramana Maharshi to him. It happened, he was only 16 and he went to the temple and sat there and didn't even speak anymore. He relinquished all doing. And people had to put food in his mouth. He was just enough doing left for chewing his food. And then for several years he sat there and he was being fed. He was so lucky to have lived in India. And then gradually he re emerged back into this dimension again. And then gradually he started speaking again. They asked him questions about the scriptures and he could interpret the scriptures without necessarily having read them beforehand. So he gave deep answers. They came out of the state of being. And so he found a kind of we came out again. And then he found a balance between being immersed in the being and being able to active in this world and to transform this, the consciousness of this world to contribute to the awakening. And so for most of us, the balance needs to be achieved between being rooted in the being, dimension and without losing the ability to participate in this world, to take action when it's needed in whatever way, so that you can have one foot in one dimension, the other foot in this dimension. So you're the bridge. And so. And then you see that this world, there's quite a lot of things that you could do to make this world. To use almost a cliche to make this world a better place, which means more conscious place. Whatever activity you choose in this dimension, the most important thing is that whatever activity or action you perform that there is that it is done consciously, not in the service of the egoic entity. It is done consciously no matter what it is. Even if you, let's say you're a server in a restaurant, are you performing your job consciously, which means give attention to every movement. How do you put the plate on the table? Is it just. Or is it. And the fork and the knife. And then how do you relate to the so called customer? What can I help you? What would you like? Is there a presence that flows into your interaction with the customer? Yes, what can I do for you? Good, then you go and get it. And many, many activities can be transformed consciously. And there are then certain other activities, perhaps in this world that are by their central nature so unconscious that you may have to remove yourself from that kind of activity. Only you can know whether the activity you are involved in can be carried out with presence or whether the activity itself denies presence. Some companies in this world, the general environment in some companies is so stressful and negative and dreadful that you might need to remove yourself. Or if you stay present in a company that's deeply non present, it is also very likely that they will let you go. If you are lucky, they'll let you go. Or you have to say, one day you find yourself saying goodbye and you walk out into uncertainty. But uncertainty is a wonderful thing if you accept it. If you accept uncertainty not as something dreadful, but you don't know what's going to happen. Okay, it's fine. So whatever activity you perform, make sure that I called it presence. But there's another word we can use. It's wisdom. Without wisdom, good intentions are not enough. Sam.