This is a YouTube video titled "How to Enter the State of Zen | Eckhart Tolle Teachings" containing a spiritual teaching session by Eckhart Tolle recorded in August 2023. The content features Eckhart Tolle explaining Zen concepts through a story about a Zen master and disciple, emphasizing mindfulness, presence, and the cessation of thinking as pathways to Zen. The talk explores themes of self-awareness, the nature of the mind, and the progression beyond self-identity.
And the master raised his finger and said, enter Zen from there, from here. Every point is these things cannot be explained. You spoil them if you explain them. I just explained it, unfortunately. Do you remember the story I recounted in a. I believe in a New Earth, the story of a Zen master who is on a pilgrimage. That's the ancient word for hike, is on a pilgrimage somewhere with a disciple. And so they're walking in silence, of course, except, of course, the disciple hasn't quite arrived yet at the realization that Zen aims at. So the disciple is walking, but obviously thinking while he's walking. Finally, they sit down somewhere for a little picnic, a break. And then disciple says to the master, master, I've been thinking. I don't quite still don't get it. I've been here for five years, and I still don't get what is the essence of what you teach? What is that essence? I just can't get it. I was trying to figure it out, but I can't. And the Master said, can you hear the sound of that mountain stream? And the disciple said, what mountain stream? I don't hear anything. They must listen carefully. And so the disciple goes. And then in the very far distance, the disciple hears the sound of water, of a little mountain stream, very distant. And then the disciple, yeah, I can hear it now, Master. And the Master, that is the. That is something like that is the portal into Zen, or that is there. There is the beginning of Zen. That's it. That's it. And for a moment, I don't know how long, the disciple actually gets it. Wow. And he gets it because his mind stops and awareness remains. And why did that happen? Because all his consciousness, conscious attention, was required for the sensory, in this case, auditory perception. There wasn't enough left, so to speak, to be consumed by thinking. So there was a cessation of thinking and the arising of presence. The master very cleverly arranged it in that way, rather than saying, stop thinking, which wouldn't work. So there wasn't the master, the disciple, Godhead. In some versions, there's a continuation of the story. So they finish their picnic, they walk on, and an hour later, by then, the disciple has fallen back into a stream of useless thinking, of course. And I have another question, Master. What would you have said if I hadn't been able to hear that mountain stream? What would you have said then? Okay, slight correction in how I told the story before I finish it. When the disciple originally says, yes, I can hear the mountain stream. Yes, I can hear it, the master enter Zen from there or from here. Enter Zen from there. Enter Zen from here. In other words, that's the entry point into Zen, this moment. And then hours later, when the disciples have been thinking again, they're walking again. What would you have said if I had said to you, I can't hear the mountain stream? What would you have said then? The mind is so weird, it never stops ruminations. And the master raised his finger and said, enter Zen from there, from here. Every point is. These things cannot be explained. You spoil them if you explain them. I just explained it. Unfortunately, the mind that doesn't stop. You have the mind such a wonderful tool, such a wonderful instrument for creation. The ability to think that's inseparable from the arising of language. Introduced language and thinking is a kind of inner talk. And it grew and grew and gradually it took over. And so humans lost their connectedness with being, which before the realising of thinking was unconscious. But they felt that deep. They did not live in a state of. In a problem making state of anxiety. Or if there was fear, it was short lived because there was immediate danger. But there was no anxiety or fear generated by the thinking process. Because there was no thinking process, there was no identity. That was before the time that Narcissus saw his image in the pool of water and became obsessed with it. That I talked about yesterday, the first selfie, the world's first selfie. Me. That's me. And then people began to have a relationship with themselves. I hate myself. I love myself. Sometimes I hate myself and sometimes I love myself. Loving yourself is certainly preferable to hating yourself. I would recommend it. But it's not the last step. It's an intermediate step. Beyond loving yourself is no longer having a relationship with yourself. I'm ending the relationship with myself. Goodbye. This is it. So this after loving yourself, the next step is simply being yourself. Oh, then you neither. You don't hate yourself. You can't really say I love myself. Because the moment you say I love myself, you have created a duality, I and myself. So who is that self that you either love or hate? And who are you? It.
