This is a YouTube video titled "How to Stay Faithful in the Current Global Situation | Eckhart Tolle" containing a spiritual talk or discourse recorded in May 2022. The speaker, presumably Eckhart Tolle, discusses the importance of a shift in human consciousness to overcome collective suffering, the dangers of egoic identity tied to opinions, and the necessity of embodying awareness and presence before taking action in the world. The content focuses on themes of awakening, peace, and the interconnectedness of humanity in the face of global challenges.
The greater part of human suffering is caused by you. Humans do it to each other. It's a dis. And this is why it's so important, this shift in consciousness, because we would undoubtedly destroy ourselves. If there is no shift in consciousness.
How does one keep faith and stay on a path of awakening and having a peaceful, meaningful, light existence amongst all the sadness, war and suffering? I feel best when not taking political sides and not engaging much in current political, financial, economical affairs. However, I've been called a pacifist and been told that the problem with this world is people such as myself, who don't take a stance. How does one take a stance without being too attached to an ideology or group and without being brought down by the mass consciousness? Thank you.
Thank you. Well, the. What you said, just the mass consciousness, that's a good term. That's certainly the case. And the unconsciousness of the collective is amplified by our technology. Of course, it does not mean that you cannot. The expression you used, I think you said take a stance which means to participate in some way in the discourse that happens in the world of the Internet and all that. There's a disc, people are continuously talking to each other. And there's also the secondary thing is action. Is there any desirability of taking action? What kind of action? Taking a stance. Most important thing is there's nothing wrong with expressing your viewpoint or opinion, because I'm sure you have viewpoints and opinions. The important thing is not to confuse opinion and identity. That's when you lose yourself. When an opinion, which is your mental position, your viewpoint, your opinion, if you unconsciously you equate that with your identity, then you begin to fight against other humans who have different opinions or identities that clash with yours. So, and again, the key to becoming free of this delusion of equating opinion and identity is to. To have an identity that transcends, to find your true identity that transcends thought, that is beyond thought and beyond the personality. Again, that's what we started with today. And which continuously, in the background of what we are talking about here, in the background, is that to be. To be rooted in the awareness even while you express an opinion, it might be a political opinion on the left, on the right, whatever it may be, and you express your opinion and somebody else may attack your opinion. First you'd ask yourself, what is the point? Am I making a useful contribution to the world by expressing this opinion? That's an interesting question. Is this helping anybody or are you just talking to. Are you trying to convince people that you are right and they are wrong. You're not probably not going to succeed in that. The other person will become more deeply entrenched in their opinions if you try to prove them wrong. Is it. Are you engaged in an egoic endeavor which is simply make others wrong and make yourself right. The world of the Internet is full of people who are engaged in that practice of making themselves right and others wrong. And by doing that, the ego feels an enhanced sense of identity. In other words, you become more deluded, ever more deluded of who you and who you are. Is there any point in participating in some discussions? There may be some point. Perhaps you can present, put forward information that people did not have. Perhaps you have it and you can show, instead of engaging in some kind of fight, which is always egoic, put forward some information and see that's how it is, that those are the facts. And even then people may dislike your facts and not want to see them. But whatever it is, you can participate in the discourse with wisdom, with awareness, so that you don't create enemies. Nobody is your enemy. Another question is action. What action can I take? Your first responsibility is always in the same way that on airplanes when they announce what to do when the airbag comes down from this, from the ceiling, when the air pressure, in case. They always say, in case there's a loss of air pressure, these oxygen bags will come down from the ceiling and you're supposed to put them on your mouth. And they always say, if you're with a child, put it on yours first and then on the child. So the. Because if you put it on the child first, you may lose consciousness a second after that and you can't help the child anymore to be put. Your state of consciousness is the foundation for your experience of this world. Your state of consciousness is a foundation for whatever you do or say. So you give primary importance to your state of consciousness and then. Which means be aware, be present. Don't be just trapped in the conditioned mind. Be present, be aware. And once you know that, your primary responsibility is your state of consciousness, because that's the foundation for everything that affects the world in many ways. It even in not only in ways that people you come into contact with could be affected in a good way by your state of consciousness. Even people you are not in contact with can be affected by your state of consciousness. Because everything is connected underneath the surface of the phenomenal world, everything is connected and every human is connected to every other human. Ultimately, there's a collective of humanity that is one consciousness of there's the consciousness of humanity, which is an aspect of the greater consciousness of the universe. So one could say there's ultimately only one human being on this earth. And this one human being, one human. This one human consciousness, which is only an aspect of the universal consciousness, this one human consciousness expresses itself in billions of short lived forms. They come and go. Every human form is from a cosmic scale. Every human form appears on this planet like a. Like a. Just a flash of light appearing. That was you. That was me. Lights continuously, lights flashing. And one consciousness. There's only one light, but many. It appears in many forms. So once you stake responsibility for your state of consciousness and continue to realize that that is primary, then you can take some action and you will know what is right, because you can use wisdom. Then through wisdom, you will know whether there's anything you can do. Because there are multiple, huge, many problems in this world. Which ones do you want to. Where do you want to take some action? Which is the most important one to you? So there's huge choice if you want to take action, but never lose yourself in the action. Because all the things that are dysfunctional in this world, the suffering in this world to a greater extent is created by human dysfunction. The dysfunction that is inherent in the collective human mind, which is the personal ego and the collective ego. So there is a deep dysfunction in the human mind. It's a kind of mental illness. And that mental illness in the collective human mind manifests itself in many different forms. Warfare is one of them. And there are many, many other forms. The greater part of human suffering. If you want to, it might be easier to have a little bit of perspective. But look at the history of the 20th century and you can see the countless millions that were killed. Humans killing each other by the millions. The incredible suffering that took place there. Most of it was not caused by natural catastrophes. Some was, but not most of it was caused by other humans, Humans doing it to other humans that were the greater part of human suffering is caused by you. Humans do it to each other. And this is why it's so important, this shift in consciousness, because we would undoubtedly destroy ourselves if there is no shift in consciousness. The dysfunction was already there even before we created the technology that we now have. The dysfunction was already there, but it was never life threatening because humans did not have the power to destroy themselves. But now the dysfunction is still there. But now humans have the power to destroy themselves and the planet if nothing changes. This is right now, for the first time in human history, Change in consciousness is no longer an option or a luxury, one could almost say, but a necessity for humanity to survive. A change in consciousness is necessary, and you need to embody that before you drag any action or while you take action. You need to embody the changed consciousness so that you don't get drawn into the unconsciousness of the world. It.
