How to Enter the Present Moment | 20 Minute Meditation with Eckhart Tolle

It's actually possible to be aware of the present, moment and now. And to beware of the now is the state of presence. Now. There are two levels to being aware of the now. On one level, you are aware of what's happening in the now. Outside or inside of you. Whatever is going on around you, or whatever arises in your field of perception and whatever arises inside you, a feeling or an emotion. Even be aware of the occasional thought that may arise. But to be aware of the now is really more than that. There's another, deeper level. And this is what I'm referring to when I'm saying being aware of the now. Yes, you are aware of what's going on in the now. But you can also be aware of the now itself. This is very hard to talk about because obviously the now itself. You can't see it or hear it, taste it or smell it or touch it. And obviously it's not a thought. Thinking now, now is not being aware of now. Now, now, now. So to be aware of the now as something that is deeper than what appears in the now, that's, of course, the state of presence. And this paradoxical thing is, when you're aware of the now, you're not really aware of anything. Because what we call the now is a field of presence, a space. So to be aware of the now is as elusive as being aware of the space outside of you. Usually you're not aware of the space in the room that you're sitting in. You're aware of what's in the room, but you're not usually aware of the space. In the same way, you may be aware of what goes on inside you, in your mind. Mental, emotional formations. One thought and another thought. But can you be aware of a deeper level within you. That is the equivalent of the space in the room that you are sitting in. And the equivalent of the furniture in your room is your thoughts, the content. And of course, the essence of this room is not the furniture. The essence of this room is the space in this room. And the essence of you is not the furniture in your mind. Which means the content of your mind. Although most people mistake the content of their mind for who they are. You have ideas in your head of who you are. And you derive your sense of self from the ideas in your head about who you are. But, of course, that's not essentially who you are. In the same way that the furniture in the room is not essentially the room. So there's a space in you, so to speak, that is essentially who you are. And the furniture comes and goes, it's interchangeable. When you don't know that space, which is another way of speaking of the now itself, is that inner space in which things appear. If you can be aware of that, in addition to being aware of what comes into the space, what is in the space as sense perceptions, thoughts and emotions which make up your so called life, you can be aware of the space in addition to the things that appear in the space. Then that is enlightened, living, conscious. Then you are conscious, you are present. So presence is being aware of that deeper dimension. So that you don't delude yourself and believe that the content of your mind, because even sense perceptions, ultimately you experience as the content of your mind. So you don't delude yourself into believing that the content of your mind is all there is to you and the things happening around you, that's all there is. That's your life. Whereas it's only your life situation. Whatever is going on in your life is your life situation. You remember I sometimes speak about that. Is that all there is? It's a very impoverished existence when all there is to you in your perception, that is your life situation, whatever is going on right now with whatever is going on in your living situation, your work situation, your relationship situation, your financial situation, and at any one time of your life, at least one of these areas is probably going to be problematic. If you don't have a problem with finances, you may have a problem with people relationship. If you don't have a problem with your relationships, you have some problem at work, you have a problem with health things. Rarely is your life without so called problems, another word for which is challenges. So to look for an end to the challenges, so that you can finally take a breath and say, ah, I have arrived. And thinking that by somehow sorting out your life situation, you are going to arrive at a point where you can take that breath and say, I finally arrived. It's not going to happen. You never finally arrive as far as your life situation is concerned, because it's in the nature of life to give you challenges. So is that pessimistic or negative when I say you're never going to arrive? Of course not on that level, not on the level of the content of your life situation, the content of your mind. But you can arrive and you can take that breath and say, oh, that's it, I have finally made it. You can do that by accessing, by realizing the deeper dimension in you of whatever you want to call it, whether you call it the now itself, whether you call it being aware of awareness itself. Being aware of your beingness, the presence behind everything. Being aware of yourself as the presence, not as what happens in the field of presence, but as the presence itself. A self awareness of presence that is having arrived. And that is when you can take that breath and breathe out. That's. I made it, so to speak. So you have arrived already because on the level of content of your life situation, you're never going to make it. There will continue to be challenges, although there are periods when you have little plateaus, when you say, oh, life is great at the moment I'm okay, financially, I'm okay. My work situation, relationships are fine, family is fine, I have a nice place to live and the weather is good. But is it going to last? Not for too long. And really, if we even want to use the word happiness, call it true happiness. It's a delusion to believe that true happiness is going to come to you when certain things are sorted out or attained in your life situation. Yes, it's. I'm not denying that it is comfortable and pleasant to achieve things, but any achievement is already an end point. So you achieve, you create this great thing and there it is. And everybody says, oh, you're great. And then what? Okay, and for a while that might give you satisfaction and then it doesn't anymore, or people don't think it's that great anymore. So happiness, true happiness, arises from that deeper. The realization of that deeper dimension in yourself that's the source of satisfaction, true satisfaction. And to arrive at it, you don't need more time. In fact, as far as the realization of that dimension is concerned, time is the hindrance. That sense of psychological time prevents you from. From realizing that prevents you from finding true happiness. Contentment, not sleepy. Contentment, alive. Contentment. It is peaceful. Another word for it is inner peace. But there's a dynamic quality to that inner peace. So really that's the only way to become a truly peaceful human being and to bring peace into this world is to access that dimension in yourself. But what that really means is to be truly yourself, be to be who you are beyond the content of your mind, the unconditioned consciousness. Then you become intelligent in the true sense. Or rather the one underlying intelligence that pervades the universe can then flow through you and express itself, even as the creation of some new thing, form whatever that may be.