Living from Being, Not Doing | Eckhart Tolle on Discovering the Here and Now (Part 3)

The kingdom of heaven does not come with signs to be perceived. You cannot say, oh, it's here, or oh, it's over there. For truly, I tell you, the kingdom of heaven is within. You can also translate it in the midst of you. And suddenly became very alert, and suddenly said, oh yeah, because it was so distant, you had to be really alert to catch it, that sound. So for a few seconds, the disciple stopped thinking, but not falling below, thinking, rising above, thinking, alert presence. And then after the disciple said, yes, I can hear it now, the master said, you enter Zen from there. That's the entry point into that state of consciousness that we call Zen. You enter there. And so the disciple was, oh, wow. And so for a few seconds he remained still. So that was a, that was a lesson. And then of course, the disciples mind started again. And he said, oh, well, I've been thinking, if I hadn't, if I had said I can't hear, if I didn't, if I hadn't heard the mountain stream, what would he have said then? And the master said, enter Zen from there. So this is both Jesus parable and the Zen story, points to that state of consciousness that is presence. And that cannot be explained. Prove the true ways. How would you be if you were in a house at night, it's very still, and the master, you need to know when the master is coming, what would your state of consciousness be? You would have to be, because the master is very quiet, you would have to be very alert. So your state of consciousness if you're sitting in that house waiting for the master to return, would have to be one of alert stillness, which is like this. You can't be thinking, because if you're thinking, your consciousness is absorbed by thinking. You can't be listening, you're not listening anymore. So listening is only one aspect of that. It's the auditory, it's not listening as such. But this presence here flows into listening, alert listening without labeling, no conceptualization. And what remains then of you is that conscious presence. Same story as I had in the New Earth, the story of the Zen master with a disciple. They're walking in a long pilgrimage, and then they're sitting down for a little picnic. And the disciple of the Zen master has been with him for years, but he still doesn't get it, which is not uncommon. And so he asked the master again, please explain to me, how do I enter Zen? He knows that Zen is a state of consciousness, how do I enter Zen? And the master, instead of giving conceptual explanation, says, can you hear the sound of that mountain strain. And the disciple says, what mountain strain? No, I can't hear it. And the master says, listen more carefully. And so at that moment the disciples started to listen. And he went, which means of course at that moment he stopped thinking, disciples stopped thinking and suddenly became very alert and suddenly said, oh yeah, because it was so distant, you had to be really alert to calculate that sound. So for a few seconds, the disciple stopped thinking, but not falling below, thinking, rising above, thinking, alert presence. And then after the disciples said, yes, I can hear it now, the master said, you enter Zen from there. That's the entry point into that state of consciousness that we call Zen. You enter there. And so the disciple goes, oh, wow. And so for a few seconds he remained still. So that was, that was a lesson. And then of course, the disciples mind started again. And he said, oh, well, I've been thinking, if I hadn't, if I had said I can't, he, if I didn't, if I hadn't heard the mountain stream, what would he have said then? And the master said, enter Zen from there. So this is both Jesus parable and the Zen story points to that state of consciousness that is presence. And that cannot be explained and it cannot be understood because it's beyond concepts. And it's the most important thing in your life to have that, to realize that not only occasionally when you sit quietly, no, but bring it into your life through conscious perception. Label less than before, feel the inner body, the aliveness that pervades in body, that takes attention away from thinking. And this can become an entry point into alert stillness. Even be aware of your breathing can create a little space of no thought. Just one conscious breath is a mini meditation. One conscious breath means you're breathing in and you're breathing out, and you absolutely follow with your attention the breath or the air as it moves into the body and it moves out of the body. And if you follow with your attention, you're not thinking, you can't. Buddha recommended the breath awareness meditation already 2,500 years ago, because you cannot be aware of your breathing, really be aware of your breathing and thinking at the same time. So instead of Buddha saying stop thinking, he said, be aware of your breath. Oh, so you have to stop thinking and automatically you stop thinking. So gaps between thoughts, doing and being, the two dimensions. You are a human being, A human being. Human is the form identity. You are a person with a mind and a history and a body. That's a human, that's fine. We need to honor that dimension also. And you are. More fundamentally, you are a being. And the being is the transcendent dimension in you is who you are in your essence. And the deeper. And the two modalities of knowing, there's the doing, thinking, knowledge and the being knowing. The deeper knowing arises from being. If you only have one dimension in your life, that's. Most humans are lost in doing. And there are some humans who may be lost in being. I was for a little while almost lost in being. That's. And then I had to learn to do again. Lost in being would look like that. You just go, the present moment is so beautiful. There's nothing to do and nothing to think. It's just beautiful. What about where you're going to get your food? I don't know. I'm not getting up. I'm not doing anymore. Being is to be. There are very few humans whose destiny it is to go very, very deep into being. So they almost become incapable of doing. But if it's. If you are one of those, I recommend that you move to India for the. Then at least they won't put you away. They will honor you and they will feed you. That's right. And then perhaps eventually you can come out. After a few years, you may start to answer questions. This actually is the story of a famous Indian sage and quite a few sages like Ramana Maharshi. He kind of went completely into being. Only 16 years old, and he went completely into being the foot of a temple just for several years, and people would actually feed him. And then gradually he came out and was able to do. And I'm able to do too. But paradoxically, almost all of my doing is associated with showing the way to being, because that's what the world needs most, because the world is completely out of balance. So I emphasize the being.