How to Enter a Different State of Consciousness | Eckhart Tolle

But basically, for the really important things, it's preferable to be in the state of not knowing, which is a non conceptual awareness. Sometimes presence is compared to listening. And that is an analogy one can use, and Jesus used to describe it to people so they can experience it, who have no idea what you're talking about. So when you are trying to teach it to your mother or your children or your dad or your grandparents or whatever, or your uncle or aunt to say, what's all that nonsense? You can, when you, if you're listening, if trying to catch a very slight noise, what state would you be in inside? If you were very intent listening, trying to catch the slightest noise that's arising, what inner state would you be in? And then let's try it. You can practice with your children. It's a game, it's a wonderful game. Can we listen to the slightest, what noises can you hear? Let's say you're out in nature and there's very subtle noises. What noises can you hear? And then they go, okay, but you have to get still, otherwise you won't know. So, so you get still and then you go, okay, listen very carefully, okay. And then they go, of course they are not thinking. Then you can't think and listen very carefully. Ah, then they might, they might hear a noise. Oh, I can hear that. Okay. Anything else? They listen again, oh, now I can hear that. Okay. And so you are putting this person, whether it's a child you're doing it with, without them knowing it, you are actually putting them into a different state of consciousness simply by asking them to listen very carefully, because you cannot carefully listen and think at the same time. Presence needs to be taken, consciousness needs to be reclaimed from the thinking function. And it's all because all that consciousness is required to go into the auditory perception. So consciousness is reclaimed from thinking and then flows into auditory perception. And so you experience, you experience that you are, you have a choice of where you want your attention to be. You don't have to always have your attention absorbed continuously by the stream of thinking. Most people don't know that they are identified with a stream of thinking. They don't know that they can reclaim their consciousness from where it is usually lodged in thinking. And that's a wonderful freedom. But this is the beginning of it is to show somebody, listen. As I mentioned the other day, Jesus used the example of the master is coming home at night and you have to be awake to know when he's coming, because he may be very quiet. That's a parable. Used by Jesus. Why does he say that? Some people misinterpret. You think he's talking about the end of the world, but why would he talk about. Why do you have to be quiet when the end of the world, it comes whether you're quiet or not. So you're listening. It's a different state of consciousness. You could do the same with a visual perception. Look very clearly. What is it that you can see? Let's say. So you're out in nature. What is it that you can see over there in the distance? What could that be? Then you're asking that person to enter a different state of consciousness, to stop thinking and putting all attention into visual perception. And they would go. And until they find an interpretation and know what it is they are looking at, they are not thinking. So to look at something unusual, very helpful because when you can't interpret it, there's no thought yet. So if you see a ufo, then for a while you would go. So it might stop your mind for a while until you say, oh, now I know what it is. It's a ufo, which is of course a contradiction in terms because UFO means it's unidentified. So you don't know what it is. But very often the mind, by finding a word for something, seems that now you know. This is how a lot of mental knowledge operates. You find a word for it. Oh, okay. That the child asks the parent, how do the birds find their way when they travel thousands of miles from a. The northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere? And then they find their way back in the next year to the same nesting grounds thousands of miles away? And they. How do they do that? Dad, can you tell me how that happens? Says the child. And the dad says, oh, yes, it's instinct. Oh, okay, write it down. Instinct. Now I know what it is. So a lot of our knowledge is just covering up our ignorance with words. Entire PhDs are like that. And there's a refusal to recognize that at the heart of life or the universe, there is a deep mystery that we cannot conceptually understand. But because people have these huge egos, they cannot admit, especially if you are a scientist, you can't admit to yourself that there is a deep mystery and there is a huge amount of things that you do not understand. They can't get themselves to say that. So they have to pretend that they know it's just words or little scribbles on a piece of paper. So to continue to be open to the mystery of life is vital so that you stay connected to the mystery if you pretend to know, you cut yourself off from the mystery, because the mystery is also the source of all life. So to deny the mystery is a dreadful thing to do to yourself. But to remain open to the mystery and to remain comfortable with not knowing most things, you just know, of course, things that you need to operate in your daily life, that's fine. You dial a phone number, you know that works, you know how to use your iPhone or your BlackBerry and all the other devices and many other things you can do. But basically, for the really important things, it's preferable to be in the state of not knowing, which is a non conceptual awareness, especially in relation to other human beings. I don't even want to understand you. I allow you to be who you are. And I know that in your essence you are one with my essence. We are more than connected. And that is enough for me to. When I meet somebody, that's enough. I don't need to know their story to know them. There is a different. There are two kinds of knowing. The one that most people are familiar with is conceptual knowing. You know, through mental concepts. What many people are not familiar with is direct knowing that operates without any concepts. So when I walk in the forest, which I love to do, I can apply conceptual knowledge to what I see by interpreting the trees, what they are called, by looking at various phenomena in the forest. For example, in the Northwest Pacific, you have things like trunks, old trees that have fallen and are beginning to decay. And out of the trunk of the old tree, a new tree, a seed of a tree has gone into that decaying trunk and it's called a nurse log. So you have a huge log, and out of that log a new tree, totally new tree grows. The old log is nursing the new tree. So they call it a nurse log. I haven't seen those things in Europe, I don't know if they exist. But so I can look at that and say, ah, that's a nurse log. And I can look at other things and the birds and so on. I can also. It's one level of knowing the forest, but it's not very deep. It's conceptual. There is another way. When I do not interpret what I see at all, and I simply contemplate the trees, everything, without naming mentally. From the point of view of conceptual knowledge, it now looks as if I had abandoned all knowledge. Because if I don't have any, if I'm not naming it in my mind, what do I know? Not nothing from a conceptual viewpoint. And yet I am relating to the aliveness of the forest and of every being in it, much more deeply than I could through the conceptual level of knowing. And if I'm confined when I go for a walk in the forest, if I'm confined to only conceptual knowledge, or if I'm totally elsewhere thinking about something totally different, what's going to happen next week, or my problematic life situation, I'm totally absent. But even if I'm in the forest and looking, but only knowing it through concepts, as many people do, bird watchers, they love to interpret. And then they write, this is such and such a bird. There is fine, there is, there is a place for that kind of knowledge. But if you are trapped on that, you are missing something much more important. You are missing the deeper knowing that is non conceptual. That can only be there when you stop naming. And that means you are open to the mystery of the forest. You are no longer pretending. Because even if you call it a nurse log, what do you really know? And even if you look more deeply, you still don't know what the life is. No scientist knows what life is. They only know how life manifests. But nobody has found that life is the mystery. Nobody knows what consciousness is. Scientists don't even mention the word consciousness, I'm told. I'm not sure. In the latest book by Stephen Hawkins. He's quite a good thinker. The word conscious. It's about the universe, the history of the universe, or whatever it is. I can't remember the title. The word consciousness is not used once. The greatest mystery of life, the fact that there is consciousness which is able to perceive the universe. He doesn't mention it because the scientist doesn't know what to do with it. So let's stay connected to the mystery and then realize that there is a very deep knowing. Let's go back to the forest. When I go through the forest, that is my preference. Without naming continuously, but simply perceiving the totality and the various things. Sometimes I perceive just one thing. A blade of grass, a branch, one particular tree or the nurse logs. All the different kinds of fern moss. In the Northwest Pacific, apparently there are several hundred different types of moss. And that's to do with conceptual knowledge. But just looking at it, just seeing. And then the totality of the forest, you take that in too and you can then notice it is an energy field. It is alive, it is pervaded by something. It is alive and you can sense that. And this is a way of knowing the forest that is non conceptual. And you then know it. And that knowing is no longer separate. From knowing yourself, because as you know the forest, you are very deeply connected with that, the awareness within yourself. And somehow they are not separate. And as you walk through the forest, the forest, as I like to put it, because that's how I experience it, the forest becomes conscious of itself because it's not separate from you. You are connected to everything. You are not separate from the totality. So suddenly as you. The person with a name and a birth date has transcended its personal self and becomes a field of awareness through which the forest becomes aware of its own sacredness and beauty and aliveness. And you go it.