Mantras and A Course in Miracles | Eckhart Tolle Explains

This table doesn't mean anything. This flower doesn't mean anything. This room doesn't mean anything. What does all that mean? Well, let's see. Cause in miracles. And the purpose of the causing miracles is to bring you to a place where the words are not needed anymore. It meets you or not you personally, but the human being. It meets the human being where the human being is in the realm of thought. The course in miracles would say that otherwise there is no meeting at all. It has to first of all meet the human being where it can be reached, and that is in the realm of thought. In the same way that a psychiatrist, in order to reach a deluded patient, there's no point in the psychiatrist telling the patient, I am telling you, you are not Napoleon. That will only strengthen the delusion of the patient that he is Napoleon. He will never reach the patient. But if the psychiatrist for a little while enters the mind of the patient and says, okay, so you are Napoleon, suddenly there's a meeting once they have met. Because the psychiatrists have gone, have entered the delusional system of the patient, once they have met, there's a possibility for him to take him out of the delusion. If they never meet, nothing can be done. In the same way. The course in miracles is attempting to reach people where they are in the realm of thought and gradually take you out of thought. But throughout the course, thought is still used, but it will more and more in the later lessons. It points to the stillness, and towards the end, the final lessons, it says, the use for words is almost over now, towards the end of the course in miracles. So it takes you. It's designed to take you into presence or stillness. So if you can enter presence or stillness right now, or wherever you are, if you already have presence and stillness, spacious awareness in the background of your life, when you deal with people and situations, you don't need the cause in miracles. If you can enter stillness when you're not being disturbed, but as soon as you interact with people, you lose presence, awareness or stillness, then the cause in miracles may still be useful. Because there has certain lessons that can be used as pointers. For example, one lesson I remember, it says, in a situation where you feel upset or angry or irritated, it says, you can say, I could see peace instead of this. I could see peace instead of this. It's a pointer. The words don't miraculously produce peace, but the words are pointing to the possibility of approaching that situation in a different state of consciousness. So really, the words are pointing to a different state of Consciousness, it's not in the words, it's that to which the words point. So and as the Buddhists tell us correctly, the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon. Only the dog might think that the finger pointing to the moon is the moon. Because if you tell the dog go there, most dogs will look at your finger. So it's not the. The words are pointers and particularly useful course in miracles for human interaction. It really uses relationships as spiritual practice and that's a good thing. So many lessons can be applied to relationships and you need it or if the course is right for you. It's definitely not for everybody, but it might be useful for some people who still find that they have a lot of conflict with other people and a lot of upset with other people. So you can bring the lesson into relationships. If you don't have that anymore, of course you don't need the cause in miracles. And even if you, if you, if you understood deeply or could practice deeply, just lesson one of the course, it has 365 lessons. Just do lesson one. Nothing that I see here means anything. That's what the lesson tells you. This table doesn't mean anything. This flower doesn't mean anything. This room doesn't mean anything. What does all that mean? It means you are giving up all your interpretations and judgments. You're approaching, you're cleaning the blackboard of your mind, erasing all the scribbles on it. Or let's say, or let's call it deleting all the noise on the tape. No, they don't have tapes anymore. They delete all the digital signals, whatever they in your mind. Nothing that I see means anything, takes you to a place of not knowing anymore and what's left. When nothing means anything, you're not thinking anymore. If you deeply could do deeply. Lesson 1. Don't need anything else. So because it would stop your mind from its useless interpreting and judging and so on. So in your own life, if you feel, have you already practiced cause in miracles lesson if you still find difficulties in relationships with other people, you can still use it. Then it can take you, it can eliminate, help you to become more conscious there. In the end, it takes you to the essence of this teaching which is awareness, pure awareness or stillness. And that's the end of. And also by the way, the course says this course is the beginning, not the end. So it takes you to that place where you open yourself up to awareness which can then flower through you. If it's for you, it's definitely not for everybody.

I use these sentences when I feel I'm getting angry now. So I say some sentence and push it down.

Yes, but don't push it down. Don't push it down. Just. You can say the sentence and then allow it to dissolve, if that's what it wants. Because if you get upset or angry and try to hold it down, it'll build up. Don't hold it down. Just allow it to dissolve. Different approach. Never attack an inner state. Never attack any emotion that arises because it creates resistance. Again, allow it to be. And then if it's not resisted, it dissolves. Lovely practice. Now, you asked something else about prayer. The Indian man behind you.

And in general, prayers. Is this talking to me or how do you explain prayers?

That's a huge topic, of course, prayer in the way he uses prayer as a kind of repetition, a kind of mantra, perhaps. The good thing about it, of course, is that it stops your mind from doing other things like indulging in fear producing thoughts, or negative producing thoughts, negativity producing thoughts. So it stops your mind from that. But ultimately that kind of thing for us, for anybody, has to be left behind. When Jesus said pray unceasingly or pray without ceasing, that does not mean, because it would be absurd, that he is telling you to continuously pray without. He's using prayer in a very different sense. But it's possible that people who wrote down what he said misunderstood because they didn't realize the truth in themselves. Jesus teaches presence. It points continuously to the present moment, the importance of the present moment, and the importance of staying awake. There are parables about going to sleep, not going to sleep, but staying awake. Jesus says, the truth will make you free, which implies that right where you are, you are not free because you are run by the conditioning of your mind. So all the basic teaching is there. You just have to see it. Repetitive prayer, if you need it, that's what you will practice. And a time will come when it's no longer right for you. Any meditation method can be helpful. Let's talk about meditation. You have a method. Some people count while they meditate from one to nine, from nine to one, from one to six, from six to one. They count their breath, or they do this or that, have a mantra that they repeat in their minds which keeps out other kinds of thinking. Now, the purpose of a mantra is not to be stuck with the mantra, but to eventually let go of the mantra. The mantra reduces all thinking to just one thought movement. So you can focus on that. And then it's meant to be dropped. When you drop the one thought that was left first, your mind was full of all kinds of thoughts. Then the guru comes and says, I will give you a mantra you repeat every day 500 times. And if you do that, it brings your mind to a one pointedness. Some people then get attached to the mantra. My mantra? No. Then you are meant to. At some point the guru will point out, it's time for you to let go. Because what is left when all your thoughts have flown into one thought form, and then that one thought form is dropped, just awareness is left. So it can be take you there if you don't get stuck on the way. If you get stuck on the way, then you're stuck until you suffer a bit more again. So let's leave it at that. It's knowing when to let go of something that is helpful for a while. Like a ladder. You climb up a ladder and then you don't need it anymore. Or the Buddha has a famous example of a raft you use to cross a river. The raft in the Buddha, when the Buddha uses the parable of the raft, he's talking about the teaching, Buddhist teaching and Buddhist practice. So you use the raft to cross the river. When you have crossed the river, you don't carry the raft around with you. It's heavy. There's a point where you let go of the raft. There's complete freedom then. And whether you still call that Buddhism or whether you still call yourself a Buddhist is up to you. But suddenly there's freedom. That something is helpful for a while, until it's a hindrance, any kind of practice. And in the end there is just awareness, presence, consciousness. And some gurus teach that directly. They don't give you. They hardly give you any technique. And that's for certain people who are ready for that, that's fine. So it's what you feel drawn to, is what is right for you, and then know when it's time to let.

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