How to Feel Gratitude for the Present Moment | Eckhart Tolle

When I say give attention, there's an element of appreciation, of everything, of the little things. And you begin to realize that your entire life consists mainly of little things. You're always going from here to there, looking around, handling things. That is sometimes called gratitude. As you might have noticed, it always takes a while before it starts to speak. I often say it's good to start with a moment of stillness. And it is. But the main reason is that I don't know what to say. And that could be a very uncomfortable place or situation to be in. Some people have nightmares like that. You're on stage, curtain opens, and suddenly you're facing an audience and you've forgotten your lines. But I don't have any lines. So here's the secret. It's becoming comfortable with the state of not knowing, otherwise it would be awful. Oh my God, what can I say now? Would be terrible. And of course that is kind of trust, which I suggested the other day as a better word for faith, trust. And that's incredibly important to become comfortable with not knowing. But what you do when you become comfortable with not knowing, you enter the state of non conceptual knowing. But you have to be comfortable with not knowing anything on a conceptual level. Thinking in other words. So another way of putting it is to say that when I come on here and then I sit, I don't think because that's the state of not knowing. And in the gaps between sentences or words, I also don't think rather than there's no next sentence or word being prepared, it just comes. And that's for you. I'm saying that because that also is a state of consciousness that you can enter. And you're doing it to some extent when you don't label things, when you step back from thought, become comfortable with just being present. And all these questions of things like self esteem, which apparently is a problem for many people, either they have low self esteem or they have exaggerated self esteem, or it fluctuates. And there are books written about how you can improve your self esteem and probably workshops. I don't know what they teach you. Maybe it's good, maybe not. But the simple thing is that in that state of no thought but alert presence, all these questions about self esteem resolve themselves into nothingness because you're no longer looking for some perceived value in a conceptual sense of self, the personality. And you can sense the power that is within you that has nothing to do with a person. And that's where your self esteem comes from. And it's not comparative in the normal State of consciousness. Self esteem is always comparative. How do I rate myself relative to this person and that person and that. And on what level? External appearance, strength, knowledge, beauty, possessions, status. And of course there's always. You're always inferior to some in one or two or three areas. And you may be superior to some in another one or two areas. But that. The power of stillness, that's another way of putting it. The power of inner stillness. That is the true seed of self esteem. And you can't really call it self esteem anymore, but you realize the infinite value that you not possess but are, because that is the essence that underlies the entire universe. It is the light of the world. And you don't compare yourself to others anymore. You feel neither inferior nor superior. The ego is always either inferior or superior. So you might be surprised if I tell you even I'm a small guy, even if I'm standing next to a big muscular guy towering above me with a big ego. I'm not thinking of anybody in particular at the moment. But it has happened in the past. I don't feel inferior, just nor do I feel superior. I'm spirit. You might have a big body and muscles, but I'm the spiritual guy. That, of course, is the ego talking. And this is a very interesting strategy of the ego. The spiritual ego can come in and without you knowing it, you still have a conceptual sense of self, but it's turned spiritual. That's a trap that some spiritual teachers fall into too. And you know it when they make certain pronouncements. We touched on this before, and that is they explain that they are superior to any other teacher. For example, either any other teacher alive now, or I've seen one or two spiritual teachers or read about them who actually claimed they are superior to any spiritual teacher that ever lived or ever will live. Well, that should cover it here or any other galaxy. So the most important practice on your journey, spiritual journey into the present moment, the journey without distance, is to become comfortable with not knowing. Which means to become comfortable with not thinking. You don't need to demand that there should be long periods when you're not thinking, just moments when you're simply looking, listening, perceiving or being. And you don't know anything in that moment, not conceptually, but you access the source of all knowledge, knowledge of all knowing. And that is way for the ego to gradually become weaker, just gradually subside. No longer runs your life, which is what is the ego, the unobserved mind. It may still come in here and there. It probably will that's fine. So part of this is of course to be give more attention to the present moment. Because the more you think, the more future you generate and the more attention you give to the present moment, the less thinking. Because to be really present, you don't think about it, you just are with it, give it attention. I recommend the little things of life to be more attentive to all the little things that make up every hour of every day, every minute, every hour and give them more attention. Walking steps, one step at a time. Objects that you're handling all the time you're handling objects in your life, you're always touching something, putting something here and there. Is everything that you handle just a means to an end? Or are you able to just appreciate the simple presence even of a so called inanimate object? Contemplation also of all the lovely things that make up your environment, part of your environment. For example, if I were sitting here alone, let's say I'm waiting for everybody to arrive, I, I might be sitting here looking of course at the flower. Sense of stillness. And then there's a glass table here and then there's a glass of water here and there's a clock and a bell and tissues. And they all reflect the light in different ways. There's a little bit of a rainbow effect in the glass of water here. And then the lights are reflected on the bells almost like a mirror and there's the clock ticking away. It's a beautiful scene. Sometimes you go to an art gallery. Well, not so much with modern art, but it. A very favorite thing would be still life artists. And it took a while in art before they discovered the artists in the history of art, before they discovered the seemingly insignificant things and started to give attention to those. Before that happened they were very much interested in the huge things, the saints or the kings or the huge battle scenes or the big. They painted those things or the important people or some dramatic thing, volcanic eruption or whatever, fire. And then at some point they started to discover the beauty and the incredible sense of the quality that is in the little things. They started painting, for example. Simple people. The Dutch artists, perhaps, perhaps they were not that knowledgeable about artists. But the famous Dutch paintings show, it's not so much big important people. They show simple people. A woman in the kitchen baking bread people, simple people sitting around the table eating a very simple meal. And there's a light, incredible light effects that comes, light comes through the window. There's an incredible sense of presence and aliveness in the painting and this is a scene that in normal life you would never have, unless you're really very conscious. Nobody would have stopped and said, oh, isn't that amazing? These people are sitting around a table, eating a simple meal, and there's light coming through the window. Nobody would have done that. Perhaps after more of these artists depicted relatively seemingly insignificant things, perhaps it motivated some people to give more attention to that. But even now it's still, people very much overlook that. And you overlook then a large part of your life, you don't give it attention. When I say give attention. There's an element of appreciation of everything, of the little things. And you begin to realize that your entire life consists mainly of little things. Even if you are vip, it still consists mainly, you're always sitting somewhere, standing somewhere, looking around, handling things, going from here to there, either on a bus or your private jet. And this giving attention that is sometimes called gratitude. That's kind of part of it, this appreciation. But I don't necessarily use the word gratitude too often because it implies that you say to somebody, oh, thank you. But there is a simple appreciation of the isness of things, of their presence. So you no longer regard almost continuously your entire environment as a means to an end. And what's the end? You need to get to some future moment where suddenly everything is going to be better than now. And so you're always on your way. It's a stepping stone to the next moment. And every object that you handle has only utilitarian value, but has no value in itself, is never appreciated for its beingness. And then you do the same to human beings. They only got, what can they do for me now? How do they fit into my schemes, into my plans? Because there's a future orientation continuously, which is the mind, because there is no future. It's created by the mind. It becomes extremely enjoyable to be just to be contemplating the little things that surround you. Then there is something, yes, there is an element of gratitude that comes with it. This appreciation is an element, or you appreciate the sense perceived world. This is an aspect of reality. It's not the deepest aspect of reality, but it is the surface of the ocean and it's beautiful. And that also means it's not just when you are quietly contemplating, it's also when you're going from A to B to perform some action. You're going to buy something, going to the, whatever it is, post office, appreciate the journey and every step of the journey and look around so that the 10 minutes of going to the shop or driving to the shop or taking your bicycle to the shop isn't completely wasted and reduced to means to an end. And you can actually that every moment is significant. And ultimately it's only ever the one moment. And then this waiting game comes to an end. Waiting for the. For the big break. That's an expression. I don't know what break, what breaks, but waiting for whatever it is. Of course you have a goal. You may have a goal in life and you're moving towards it, but in the meantime, this is now. And yes, you know, you're moving towards becomes very enjoyable to be wherever you are. When you have this ability to contemplate the little things, both when you are passively contemplating or even when you are moving, being engaged with things. I started off with the talking about coming on stage and not knowing what to say. I'll tell you about dreams that I sometimes have two types of dreams. Because dreams can come from different levels. There are deep dreams and they are surface dreams. In deep dreams, I sit in front of an audience like this, and it's basically very much like this. And I speak and wonderful things coming out of my mouth and I don't know where they come from. And the teaching arises and I can sense, and sometimes I know towards the end that it's a dream. And then in the dream I think, oh, it would be nice to remember what I just said. But usually I don't. It is almost like in the deepest dreams in some astral dimension, the teaching is actually happening. And then occasionally I have a surface dream in which I enter a building to give a talk. And then things happen. For example, I can't find the entrance to the stage. And when I finally find it, then the audience is very restless and they're moving about and they're not even paying attention to me. And then other things go wrong. And so these dreams come from disconnected. When the mind is disconnected, they arise. And when the mind is connected with source, then this is what happens. Sam.