How to Live Skillfully: 20 Minute Meditation with Eckhart Tolle

It's a beautiful summer day here, one o' clock in the afternoon, perfect temperature, blue sky, sunshine. But as the Zen master would say, of course, temperature is always perfect and the weather is always perfect, which means you are okay with what is. Which means there's nobody, no voice inside you complaining that it should be different. We were in Denver a few days ago, it was pretty hot there, probably still is. So I didn't go out too much because I tend to lose physical energy in the heat. So my preference is cause of not very hot conditions. But if they happen to be hot, then that's just what is. So there's no. In addition to the. Perhaps some physical discomfort, there's no additional layer of psychological suffering or negativity, just okay with what is it. And it's easier to be in that state of spaciousness when you're okay with what is. Because a lot of the unnecessary thinking that humans engage in unconsciously is connected with arguing with the isness of things internally or externally or externally can be either speaking it, saying, or can you get on your computer or social media and you can complain. There plenty of opportunity for complaining. And that's good for the ego. It's not an harmonious state of consciousness. It is a state of unconsciousness. It's a totally different thing, changing things, taking action or speaking out when there's an opportunity for change to happen, or useless complaining. So all that unnecessary thinking that goes into useless arguing with complaining, the isness of things, when that falls away, there's less compulsive thinking. Significant percentage of compulsive thinking concerns that state of dissatisfaction. It fuels the dissatisfaction with what else? So you can experience that spaciousness that's there in the absence of compulsive thinking. And that's why we're here. We're here to deepen, or to put it differently, to discover the depths within ourselves which begins underneath the thinking. Our life meditation is an invitation to step out of thinking, become still, or rather discover the stillness that's already there underneath the thinking. So we are in a meditative state now. Even the words that I speak come out of stillness. There's a lot of stillness in between the words spaciousness. It's important to be aware of that. So in the gaps between the words, as I speak, you can discover that when you pay attention, you become aware of those gaps. You suddenly realize you're not thinking, you're just aware. And so you develop the amazing ability to engage in thinking when it's needed, step out of thinking when it's not needed right now. There's a little bit of thinking because you hear what I'm saying and that becomes a thought in your head. But it's relatively little. There's more spaciousness here than thinking. So you can step in and out of thinking and then something else happens. And you may discover that even when you are thinking, or even be engaged in a conversation which involves thought, words, thoughts, even then there's still part of you rooted in not thinking, in awareness. So you can use your mind without losing the stillness underneath. And then the nature of your thinking changes. You don't need to actually do it. It happens by its thinking no longer has you in its grasp. Thinking is then no longer an energy field by which you are possessed, no longer like a parasite that sucks up all your consciousness and manufactures one thought after another out of it. So it is being. And thinking then is no longer the place you look to for knowing who you are, for your sense of self, your identity. Because you realize that who you are transcends thinking, is far deeper than thinking and ultimately as nothing to do with your personality. So the personality still operates in this world. It's fine, but in a more sane way, because it's no longer the ego personality, it's just the personality. The difference is when your personality, your historical person, is all you know, when you're unaware of the depths within you, the spaciousness, the stillness, the unconditioned consciousness, then that is the ego personality. Personality is then the ego. It's all you know of yourself. You are identified with it. And the ego disappears when you know yourself as the spaciousness, the formless consciousness. But the personality is still there. So that form identity, as I call it, you still are able to operate as this form identity, in fact function much better as a personality when you are rooted in transcendence, because that flows that emanates into the personality also. So although the you, the person or personality, are now connected with the essence identity, Personality, being, form identity, spaciousness, stillness, awareness, essence identity. Essence identity then shines through the form identity. And you become a more peaceful human being through the that you no longer create suffering for yourself and others. Which is not to say that others may suffer because of something that you do, but you don't create it, they create it for themselves. For example, it.